6/25, Tuesday.Flying from Oslo to Svalbard (part of the Norway), requires passport control (exiting Schengen), because Svalbard lets anyone in. We arrived at Longyearbyen airport ~2:40pm. Oceanwide had a representative at the terminal gathering passengers and their luggage. One of them is a videographer hired to gather marketing material. We boarded a blue+white bus, which dropped us at downtown. We were instructed to go to the main cruise terminal between 4-5pm to be picked up to Oceanwide's ship that's docked ~1 mile farther. Walking is not allowed there (without fire arm), because it's located beyond the "bear" signs.
Longyearbyen is named after an American businessman who opened a mining operation here.
Being the only town in Svalbard, it has a fair amount of housing, a church, a school, a couple of museums, and a lot of shops. Quite a few mining wreckage.
Snowmobiles parked on wooden crates.
I'm dismayed at how many tourists there are.
With 2 hours free time, we walked around the town, went above the church.
Took photos of some new (to me) flowers. This would become a hobby in my next 2 weeks.
Here are: Arctic Mouseear, Tufted Saxifrage, Purple Saxifrage.
Walking along the waterfront to the main dock, where another (larger) cruise ship was parked.
A few passengers and a guide were waiting in an empty lot chatting.
Seems one couple lost a luggage by the airline.
The same white-blue bus came a bit before 5pm, picked us up and drove to our ship Ortelius.
7/10, Wednesday.
Disembarked at ~9am at the main dock, leaving the main luggage to the cruise handler.
Walked ~1 mile to downtown.
Our flight is at 2:20pm, and the cruise will send a bus to pick us up at 1:15.
With 4 hours in my hand, I decided to walk all the way to the end of the road, where the sign of bear forbids me going further, hoping to see an arctic fox.
No, didn't see one.
Saw a pair of Snow Bunting.
This time, close enough to take a photo with my old phone.
Heard them more often.
Saw a reindeer right by the road near some houses.
Many geese with babies.
Saw many mining remains. Sat at this picnic table at the school for a lunch break.
Fresh from last night's flower talk, I continued hunting for flower species.
Saw more poppies in flower, Arctic Campion,
Marsh Saxifrage,
Alpine Bistort,
Drooping Saxifrage.
By the time I came back to the downtown area, I didn't have time to visit the 2 museums.
Checked out the Ice House for 2 minutes.
You can see from outside. It's made to observe polar bears and their dens.
Open 9:00-12:00, 13:00-17:00.
The girl came 2 minutes late to open the dome.
I ran back to the parking lot where the pick-up bus is supposed to be, 1:10pm.
No bus in sight. It turned out that it was full, so left early.
About 7-8 of us gathered around wondering what to do.
15 minutes later, the bus came by.
Time to leave Svalbard. This photo was taken on the stairs walking up to the plane.
Yes, due to the large amount of luggage, we boarded the plane late (the photo was taken at 2:35pm).
This is the earliest flight of the day. However, it stops at Tromsø. This is a bad idea, as we have to go through Norwagian customs. Passport control took some time. Only 1 officer for non EU passengers. Picking-up luggage, and rechecking luggage, going to security again. Of course the connecting flight to Oslo was postpone by us by at least an hour late, causing other passengers to miss their connecting flight in Oslo. I sat next to a lady from Seattle, who was on a cruise for 10 days (costs ~$12000) in a smaller ship, associated with NOAA where she worked before. She was very angry with SAS about this layover, and the slow prossess at Tromso airport. She was a climber when she was young. She talks a lot, which made the time goes faster.
We arrived at Oslo ~8pm. Retrieved our luggage. Called a taxi to go to a hotel next door. Going home tomorrow.
