Fwd: Trip Log #11: Spitsbergen, Norway July 27, 2009

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From: <JYETKE@aol.com>
Date: Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 8:56 AM
Subject: Trip Log #11: Spitsbergen, Norway July 27, 2009
To: JYETKE@aol.com

 

Dear Friends,

 

We had a beautiful sail in to Spitsbergen and docked about 11am.  It is a very small little town with only one dock for a ship. Remember the cruise ship we saw up in the Magdelenafjord?  Well, she was at the dock here in the morning and we had to wait for her to leave the dock so we could go in.  Amazing how we can be up in this desolate place and have a "cruise ship traffic jam".  She went out and anchored and her passengers had to tender the rest of the day while we enjoyed the use of the dock for the afternoon. 

 

Longyearbyen is located on Svalbard's largest island, Spitsbergen. It is one of the  world's northernmost towns. The settlement was founded in 1906 by the American mining entrepreneur John M. Longyear, the principle owner of the Arctic Coal Company of Boston.  "Byen" is Norwegian for "the city".  The town is a coal-mining hub, the chief port and administrative center for the isolated island group.  Longyearbyen, the largest settlement in Spitsbergen and its capital, is locaated at 78degrees13'N 15degrees33'E.  It has approvimately 1800 residents, most of them Norwegian, some Russian and is also the home of the Governor of Svalbard. Destroyed during WWII, the town was completely rebuilt after 1945.  Due to its location so far north of the Arctic Circle, it remains polar night from the end of October through mid February and polar day from mid April until August.  Longyearbyen has an arctic tundra climate.  Until the early 1990s the coal mining industry was the major employer in Longyearbyen and daily life circled only around this business.  Today, the community offers a wide range of activities and facilities.  here is a swimming hall, a climbing wall, a Squash court, a big sports hall, a grocery store, three pubs, three hotels, one church, several tourist shops, a cinema (open on Sundays only) and one night club.  Thrilling place, huh!!!!  We also were told it is a place for young people to live - no seniors live there. 

 

You will notice that many buildings are supported on pilings to keep permafrost from melting beneath the foundation.  For the same reason, insulated pipes are laid above ground.  Neatly aligned, local homes are brightly painted to counter the effects of the dark winter.  After all, the sun sets each year at the end of October and doesn't rise again until mid-February (and then for only about an hour). 

 

The Svalbard Archipelago is comprised of many islands with one main island.  There are deep fjords and many towering mountains with the interior consisting of large glaciers.  The geological conditions are of great interest and all formations are from the Pre-cambrian period and forward.  The large coal layers date mainly from the Tertiary Era.  The fauna and flora are unexpectedly rich - reindeer, polar fox, walrus, seals and, of course, polar bears.  One of the rules is that when you are out of the town, you MUST carry a loaded rifle with you.  Also, around the schools, they have a high fence to keep out the polar bears.  At this time of year we were not likely to encounter any polar bears but in the winter they do.  We did see, however, many people carrying their rifles around with them. 

 

We took a tour that first took us out of town about 5 miles or so to the area called Adventdalen Valley.  We visited the Svalbard Villmarkssenter (Svalbard Wilderness Center) which is a Huskie dog farm.  We walked around and were given a demonstration on how they hook up the dogs to a sled and lots of info about the dogs.  They were beautiful!!  There are 4 types of huskies and they use them all.  They start training a dog at about 9 months to be a team dog.  There were many little puppies running around. They also treated us to coffee and a small pancake. 

On the way back to town, we spotted four reindeer along a little lake. 

In town we were shown the homes and told about life there.  Then we got out and spent about 1/2 hour inside the museum. It was really interesting.  The photos of the animals that I have included were actually real at one time.  Huge polar bear!!!

 

This was our last stop in Norway.  Now we head out to Iceland.

 

Enjoy!

 

Jan and Dick

 

 

 

 

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