I could tell you all about how we set our alarms for 5:00am to catch the 6:54am train, but got early and caught the 6:28am instead, and zoomed through the countryside for half an hour at 180kmh plus.
But I think what you REALLY want to see are photos of Svalbard.
Fair enough, but first we had to take off over the lovely Norwegian countryside.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGfGSXD2VFc[/embedyt]
Cloud came over but we did get some awesome sights along the way.
After some open water, the sea ice and land appeared – boom!
And the forecast was right, light snow on arrival.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKLY6730JtI[/embedyt]
Barry found a taxi driver who would take all of us to the meeting point for 120NOK, when it was going to cost 75NOK each on the bus. Curry ?sp, did a fine job to squeeze all of us into the Prius with luggage and along the way, we asked him to turn into the Svalbard Seed Bank. I was really quite pleased to be here, and it was fun to get out of the car and into the snow – for a couple of minutes.
After a little wait, made easier by the nice turnip soup and bread for lunch at the Radisson, we were met by our AirBnb host. Things are pretty busy here at the moment being peak season and tomorrow a large cruise ship of 5000 plus is coming. The normal population of Longyearbyen is about 2000 and there are three or so flights a day bringing about 700 people in. But an extra 5000! wow.
We got dressed up to go exploring and it was still snowing lightly.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PnW_MavAs0[/embedyt]
The beach.
We found the supermarket and felt safe inside.
Town centre.
Then went off to a restaurant for a fine dinner of fish and local beers.
a jolly good time was had at Kroa.
The light has remained pretty much the same since we arrived about 10 hours ago. Not sure if it will get any dimmer. It’s overcast but when the mist lifts there are awesome views of an arid harsh rugged landscape.