Cruise to Longyearbyen
June 9–11, 2025
Our cruise ended with a day at sea, heading far north of the mainland. So far we had been sailing close to land, and really hadn't developed our sea legs. Out in more open water walking was a little more of a challenge.
We saw a lot of beautiful scenery. I didn't try to photograph it all, and am posting just a sample of it.
Before we ended the cruise, we sailed into a fjord even farther north than Longyearbyen and saw a glacier there.
There was an American named Longyear who established a mine on an island in the far north. “By” is the Norwegian word for city, and the ‘-en’ suffix is the definite article. So that is how the town got a name that is part English and part Norwegian. The mine was scheduled to close on June 30. It is against the law to go outside the town limits without an armed guard because of the possibility of encountering a polar bear.
At the end of the cruise, we got our luggage and took a cab to the hotel. I did not take any pictures there. I had thought I took a shot of the store there, but I don't see it among my photos. We had 6:00 pm dinner reservations, and made the short walk from the hotel, following the directions on my phone. The temperature must have been around 30º F, and we were dressed warmly. But the wind felt like it was almost gale force, and we were walking into it. We shared a nice pizza and had a leisurely meal. The waiter told us how to take a shortcut through parking lots, and had a much shorter walk back to the hotel. We were in no mood to get out and explore the little town once we got to the warmth of the hotel. We would be flying to Oslo the next day. What we saw of the town was almost all on our cab rides.
Mary Jane took some pictures at the airport. One shows Sámi huts. The other two show the aircraft we boarded. Finally, there's a picture she took from the plane.
The view from the plane
