Longyearbyen

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We have links to the outside world again! Well at least internet. Satellite TV is still down. So I’ve posted the past few days and will now add yesterday’s port and then hopefully some photos.
Monday we were in the port of Longyearbyen which is on the island of Spitsbergen. We weren’t supposed to dock until 11 as we were sharing the dock with another ship (will have to zoom in on the photo and get the name when I get home). They docked first and then went to anchorage so we could dock and their passengers returned to their ship by tender. Since we had to wait the captain sailed around the area for scenic viewing for most of the morning.
Longyearbyen is named for an American (from Boston as my mother reminds me since that’s where she was born and raised) who founded it in 1906 as part of his Coal Company. There are about 1800 residents.
We were all on the Highlights, Museum, and Wilderness tour at 12:30 along with almost 200 passengers. We had another great guide who has lived here with his family for about 9 years. There are a lot of families in the town and he indicated most only stay for a few years. Our bus headed out to the Sled Dog camp to start with. The couple that run there have been here over 30 years. The puppies were running around us as they explained about the use of dogs and sleds in the area and then showed us some of the adult dogs harnessed up to the sleds. They have kennels closer to town too and use sleds with wheels during the summer and switch the dogs between the two areas. The puppies are kept out where we were so they have more room to run around. They served coffee and some type of pancakes with sugar while we were there.
We then headed back towards town though they did stop when we saw some reindeer on the side of the road so we could get out and get photos. The next stop was the museum which had stuffed animals (polar bear, seal, reindeer, etc) and information on mining. There are 3000 polar bears in the area but we didn’t see any this time of year. It is required to carry a gun outside of town in case you do run into some though you can only shoot if attacked. He said they do occasionally come into town.
After the museum we drove thru the old mining area. The buildings where the mineworkers used to live are now used mostly by students. Then we drove over to the Seed Vault. You may have seen this on the news in the last year or two. No one is allowed in but we did see the entrance.
We then headed back to the ship. Forgot to mention that the weather was beautiful and one of the best days they’d had here. The area is actually very stark with little vegetation but the overall island is actually 70% glaciers and they could be seen across the bay.
We got back in time for Bingo (we didn’t win though I did win the drawing for a Picture Frame), then dinner, and the show was Luke Burrage. He’s a juggler and was very funny. Especially in a theater that has very low ceilings.
Then the evening got interesting. When Erin and Dennis got back to their room from the tour they found it had been painted (the door frames in the room, on the balcony, and in the bathroom) and the smell was very intense and that was definitely going to be a problem for Erin. They brought up a fan but even after the show it was too much for her. They were told there were no other rooms available and that she could sleep in the lounge chairs in the library. Well obviously we weren’t going to allow that so insisted she come down to our cabin. So we pulled out the sofabed after moving the coffee table to what little wall there is between the desk and bathroom door, put the chair in the closet (knew the walk in closets would come in handy),put the sofa pillows in various places, and pulled the bedding out of the closet to make the bed. I took the sofa which I’ll admit was not the most comfortable place I’ve ever slept but I’ve probably had worse too. Now that didn’t leave much room to get around and there was certainly no place to put Dennis so he stayed in their cabin with the fan going and the door to the balcony open until he decided it was too cold about 1 am (might have been ok in the Caribbean but we’re still north of the arctic circle.) We had some laughs as we all woke up at midnight, 2 am, and 4 am. Luckily we set the clocks back last night so we had an extra hour of fun!

Now we have 2 sea days before we get to our first port in Iceland. It’s supposed to be Akureyri but the captain was misinformed and said we were on our way to Reykjavik in his post sailing announcements yesterday.

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Comments

[Janet]

Longyearbyen
Sharon, Thanks for the update, you are going to have to get back work to rest. (smile) Sounds everyone is having a great time. You are having the same kind of luck I have playing Bingo. I enjoyed reading about the things that you are doing, keep the u[dates coming. Take care, Janet