Longyearbyen, Spitzbergen

It was a bracing 3*C as we started sailing up the Fjord to Longyearbyen

20130618-134925.jpg

It is easy to see the remains of the former coal mining operation

20130618-135152.jpg

As a large number of the mountains on the way in were just plan flattened on top with some veins of coal still visible from the side

It wasn’t that far from the harbour to town. Town being about 2000 souls with the main industry of polar region research followed closely by tourism involving about 30,000 visitors a year.

20130618-144532.jpg

The town itself was almost completely rebuilt in the 1970s when the coal industry failed and the Norwegian government elected to change it from an almost completely “mans” company town to a normal family complete location to include schools and a health care facility.

We wandered around, saw the small but excellent Svabald Museum, found coffee but were unable to get wifi.

Made it back to the ship with plenty of time to spare.

And yes, the water is cold here as well.

20130618-145028.jpg

After all, what would you expect at 79* North anyway?

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
This entry was posted in Travel, Uncategorized and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to Longyearbyen, Spitzbergen

  1. AlisonH says:

    Wow. Beautiful. Brrrr.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.