It was late afternoon when we landed at Longyearbyen. We were, for all intents, a complete ship’s complement of guests. About 80 of us. Once all the luggage had been retrieved, we got herded into a couple of coaches and driven into town. Our hotel was the Funken Lodge. I was slightly disappointed to find nothing funky about it although it is a pleasant hotel. In the evening, we reacquainted ourselves with the town taking care to stay inside the limits. It is actually an offence to leave Longyearbyen without a flare gun and rifle in case of polar bears. We found some geese trotting around with small, fluffy goslings. They seemed harmless.
Next day we had a tour of Longyearbyen. This intrigued me because Longyearbyen is not very big. You can walk right round it in 20 minutes. What actually happened was that we were taken by coach out to a clutch of buildings not far from where we met our sledge dogs last year. Here, in a cosy little hut with a blazing fire we were given a short talk along with coffee and pancakes. I slipped out early to visit the dogs tied up outside and to photograph a rather indignant Arctic Tern. Later we were taken to the museum and eventually to our ship, the MS Spitsbergen.
The ship is a converted car ferry. Just under 100m long. She was refitted by Hurtigruten and went into service in 2016. Although the vessel can carry over 300 passengers, most trips involve fewer. In our case there were about 80 people. MS Spitsbergen is a comfortable ship. Our cabin was compact and well equipped. Meals are served at a buffet restaurant. The large bar at the front of the ship is also used for lectures and presentations. One of the old car decks now holds half a dozen RHIBS for shore landings and cruising.
We spent the evening exploring the ship and the bar. Next morning we woke to find the ship tied up at Ny-Ålesund. The settlement was established to mine coal. This never worked very well. Neither did an attempt to quarry marble. Not recognised officially as a town by the Norwegian Government, it is the northernmost functional civilian settlement in the world. Ny-Ålesund has an all-year permanent population of 30 to 35, with the summer population reaching 114. Most people there are involved in research. Eighteen research institutions from eleven countries have a more or less permanent presence.
It is also the place from where Amundsen and Umberto attempted to reach the North Pole. They used an airship and flew over the pole to Alaska. The discovery of the North Pole is a complex story but this is regarded by some as the first successful expedition to the North Pole. The airship was moored using a 30m steel tower. It is still there.
We wandered around for a while. I got the odd glimpse of some interesting looking science. Naturally, being tourists, we were not allowed anywhere near any of them. In the far distance we could see two large vertically orientated parabolic radio dishes. These are a very-long-baseline interferometer. Part of a global network of devices used to precisely fix the position of the earth in space, monitor its orbit and monitor satellites. We looked at the Zepplin tower, an abandoned mine train and found another bust of Amundsen. The weather started to close in so headed back to the ship.
