wanderingbishops.com

A unique occurrence happened this morning. We did not awaken until we heard the voice of our expedition leader, Peter, over the loudspeaker telling us it was 7AM and that breakfast was being served. This is the first time on this trip we have not awaken earlier on our own. It is again foggy this morning and the temperature is 36 degrees. The sun is trying to peek out and hopefully we will soon begin to see the shoreline.

Our ship has been proceeding southwest all night long as we start working our way back towards Longyearbyen. As has been the case the last few days the daily trip agenda is fairly blank. It lists the time for breakfast, lunch, tea time and dinner. The rest of the day is unannounced. That is the nature of expedition trips. We wander and search for opportunities to either go ashore, take zodiac rides or simply watch the world go by. Animal sightings or other interesting things will draw the ship’s attention. The slack time is usually filled by on board lectures by one of the naturalists on board so we are never bored. In fact my experience so far is that there has been very little downtime for me to simply read or even take a nap. I did not want to miss anything!

At 9:30 there was a meeting where we were given detailed information about our upcoming disembarkation in two days and return to Oslo. It was somber moment as people realized our trip was soon coming to an end.

The fog gradually dissipated and the brilliant sun appeared and by 10 AM we were in the middle of Bellsund (the entrance to two large fjords) under blue skies and snow-capped mountains. It was a quiet morning which presented a good time to upload some pictures, catch up on writing this blog and update  the ship’s journey on the map I bought.

It was now too late to launch a land trip before lunch so the staff pulled another rabbit out of the hat by offering a lecture by Kasper Jaeger, the naturalist we have become so fond of. He is Danish but lives in Northern Norway where he owns and operates a business that offers skiing and dog sledding excursions, when he is not on board a Lindblad ship as a local naturalist expert. He jokes that he thinks he got the job because he is the only one who can properly pronounce all those Norwegian words. His talk this morning was on the history of trapping in Svalbard. Again it was a fascinating talk which gave us insight into the history and manner of winter trapping here in Svalbard. It took very hearty men (and a few women) to trap in the harsh conditions that they had to endure. The industry still exists in a small way, mostly as a way of preserving the culture rather than making people rich.

The fog returned and we had to move the ship to escape it as the staff wanted us to be able to get off the ship for a hike this afternoon. We ended up mid-way up a fjord called Van Mijentjord, near the location of an abandoned coal mine where the sun again was shining brightly.

It was too late to do a walk before lunch and too early for lunch so Tony Wheeler, the creator of the Lonely Planet empire, showed us more slides of his travels around the world, focusing on really out-of-the-way places like Afghanistan, New Guinea, North Korea, Chernobyl, Iran and Iraq, certainly not places on your everyday travel network.

Lunch today was extremely popular as it had a Mexican theme and we all were excited! Shortly afterwards the shore excursion hikes commenced once the scouting teams went out to verify that there were no polar bears in the area. They staff obsesses about safety when it comes to polar bears. We again chose the “medium” hike which is supposed to be about 1.5-2 miles. Steve and family again went on the long hike (3 miles); my excuse is that I am 78 now and have to begin taking it easy! We lucked out again as Kasper was our tour guide. And again we learned a lot about the area and animal living here as we walked along the shore. Kasper had his rifle and there was a second armed staff member of the hill above, watching over us. The only animal we saw today was a reindeer down in the gully walking along a seasonal riverbed. The trip was spot on, going 2.1 miles! We were back on the ship by about 5 PM in time for a shower before cocktails and the daily wrap up talk by the staff.

I must comment on the efficiency of the process of unloading the Zodiacs from the ship, sending out scouting parties to verify safety, loading 8-10 people quickly into the Zodiacs, transferring us to the shore where staff help us out of the boat, storage bins on shore where we leave life vests as we take our hike, returning us to the ship and uploading the Zodiacs as they are no longer needed so we can depart our anchorage and move on. It is a work of art.

Tonight was the final daily recap by the naturalists as tomorrow night is the Captain’s cocktail party. Each of the staff spent about 5 minutes sharing some information about today’s activities, local information and in one case a poem written by the staff person. The executive chef once again discussed this evening’s menu which includes a special Swedish cheese tart starter and reindeer stew which I intend to have.

After dinner there was a preview of the video being put together by the videographer of the cruise. Orders were being taken for those who wanted one. There were shots of us in what little we saw so I will be purchasing the memory. This was then followed by a band made up of ship staff: 6 guitar players, a singer and drummer. They were darn good and pretty soon most of the young people in the room (of which there were many because of the Climateforce 2041 conference) were on their feet dancing the night away. The band  played non-stop for over an hour and had trouble quitting because the crowd wanted more. We did join the conga line for one of the numbers and the staff said it was the longest conga line they have ever seen on the ship. By 11PM the band finally quit as people were now trying to go to bed, as we are. I imagine the younger crowd continued to party the night away.

 

Today is my birthday- 78 and still counting, thank goodness. I realized I am actually cheating a bit as it is still June 21 in Seattle but maybe I can celebrate again tomorrow.

It is currently 37 degrees  and foggy. Off-ship operations are halted because of the visibility. We are near the uninhabited island of Edgeøya which is the third largest island in this archipelago (5,073 km2; 1,960 mi2 in area). The island is named after Thomas Edge (died 1624), an English merchant and whaler. It is seldom visited today and its eastern side is covered completely by an ice field. Edgeøya is the setting for the novel “The Solitude” of Thomas Cave (2007), by Georgina Harding.

We had breakfast with several members of the staff. The staff members are very good about mingling with the guests.  They are moving the ship westward to attempt to get out of the fog that currently surrounds us.

Because of the nature of changing weather conditions flexibility is the name of the game. Since we could not leave the ship this morning the expedition leader simply announced more lectures to keep us entertained. The first of the morning was to complete the whale lecture by Ella (the English lass who calls herself the Princess of Whales- get it?) that had been discontinued several days ago when a bear was sighted. The lecture room simply got abandoned mid-lecture! The speaker is not offended as she too left the lectern. Her talk on the different species of whales included many sound clips of their sounds which were surprisingly quite different depending on the species.

Next was a fascinating talk by the good looking (as noted by the ladies) Italian naturalist, Stefano Pozzi on what it was like living a full year in Longyearbyen where  he took  a one-year college course on tour guiding. He showed slides of the different activities they had to do during the four seasons. I was mostly enthralled about his comments about what it is like when there is absolutely no sunlight for months. You need headlamps whenever/wherever you go all day/night long! He said they would go skiing while wearing headlamps.  I cannot imagine how you adjust your body cycles under those conditions.

Around lunch time we broke out into brilliant sunshine and found ourselves off the shore of snow covered mountains and two totally immense, distinct glaciers, one with a vertical wall (Game of Thrones) of ice and the other with a gentle slope of ice into the water. I had never seen this before. It was Zodiac tour time! We were fortunate to again have Kasper, the Danish naturalist who is an expert on this area, as our Zodiac driver/guide. We headed toward the shoreline but before we got there we found ourselves facing another Zodiac occupied with fierce-looking men in Viking helmets. Kasper said that not all Vikings were fierce and nasty, so we ventured closer only to find that these were friendly Vikings who offered us cups of hot chocolate with an optional addition of scotch, aquavit or my choice-peppermint schnapps.

Gathering our drinks we moved on to the sightseeing along the sea ice and glaciers. Kasper explained what we were seeing and why it was what it was. The sea ice before us was rapidly melting and would be gone in a few weeks. The edge of the glacier was a huge wall of black, which turned out to be extremely fine ground rock, the texture of very fine sand or pumice. It is created by the movement of the glacier over time and ends up as silt in the bay.

We saw no animals during our Zodiac ride, but the scenery before us was stunning. Unfortunately an hour later we were transported back to the mother ship as other groups were waiting to do what we had just done. What started out as a bummer of a morning turned out to be a spectacular afternoon.

The five of us had been invited to join Matthias Breiter, the National Geographic photographer and bear expert, and his wife for a private dinner in the Chart Room. The 6th guest at our table was an 83 year old widower from NYC who had owned an umbrella manufacturing company. Needless to say we peppered Matthais with so many questions about his life and experiences the poor guy could hardly finish his meal. And because it was my birthday I, too, was serenaded by the staff and presented with a birthday cake which the table shared. It was a lovely dinner in all respects.

There was an after dinner viewing of the Emmy-nominated 2015 documentary “Polar Bear Summer” where Matthais Breiter was the photographer. It is definitely worth watching if you have access to it.

Thus ended  a marvelous 78th birthday. Hopefully there can be more to celebrate like this….on an international expedition somewhere!

Zoe is 15 today. 

It is a balmy 8 degrees C (47 degrees F) with a brilliant blue sky. We are shocked at the magnificent weather we are having. There is no wind and the seas are absolutely calm. We are basically in the same position as last night. There is sea ice nearby and two polar bears were seen but they are so far in the distance and hardly discernible even with a telescope. We did not bother going to try to see them. The game plan for today was wide open -see what we might see and hope for more animal sightings.

Ella, the self proclaimed “Princess of Whales” started a presentation on whales when suddenly the bridge announced over the PA system that a bear has been seen near the coast line. Well, that sure ended the presentation as even Ella left the podium to join the rest of us outside looking for the fairly close in bear. Sure enough we got to see one, even without the aid of binoculars. It was on the move and often went behind small hills, but we got enough views to at least satisfy ourselves for awhile. Once we were convinced the bear was gone we returned to the lounge for more morning lectures (Ella planned to finish hers at a later date).

There was an excellent presentation by visiting lecturer (Matthias Breiter) who is an expert on polar bears. He told us about the habits of the bears and shared stories of his interaction with them in the field. Several of the stories were pretty scary.

Our on-board guest lecturer, Tony Wheeler, the founder of Lonely Planet books, shared  stories of some of his travels and places visited in the past thirty years. He really enjoys going to relatively unknown historical sites and given his notoriety he seems to be able to gain access to places you and I probably could not go to, like North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria. 

Suddenly it was lunch and because the weather was so good, the staff set up another outdoor luncheon on the aft deck. When the sun hits you no jacket was needed but if you moved in the shade you got chilly very quickly. It reminded me of Colorado weather in the winter.

All morning long we cruised slowly along the east shore of Spitsbergen, looking for animals.  No luck, but the surrounding scenery was so spectacular no one really minded. The captain had hoped to proceed north to go through one of two gaps to get to the east side of Edgeoya and Barentsoya, the other major islands in the southern part of the archipelago where satellite imagery showed open water.  Unfortunately the ice was still too thick for us to penetrate either of the channels separating the islands. We had to turn back and go back the way we came.

In the afternoon it was decided that because the weather was so good and the seas remained calm the kayaks would be offloaded for those interested in doing some kayaking amidst the floating ice and icebergs, of which there were few relatively large ones floating nearby. For those not interested in kayaking the staff offered Zodaic rides in the same general area. Yvonne and I chose the Zodiac rides while Steve and family decided to kayak. We lucked out by having a local Danish naturalist, Kasper Jaeger, as our guide, for he is very conversant about the area having lived and worked here for many years. He took us over to a walrus sleeping on a patch of ice and clarified and added to what we had heard about walrus yesterday. He also explained a lot about what life was like living and working in this area, when there is total darkness for several months during the winter! It was a stunning hour ride on the water.

We no sooner returned to the ship to hear that the “polar plunge” would be occurring later after the kayakers returned. This seems to be a tradition with Lindblad as they did the same thing when Steve and I were in Antarctica in 2013. I had considered doing it then but did not as Steve said maybe it would be a bit much for a 72 year old. Well, I am 78 tomorrow and felt it was time! Besides Steve, Julie and Zoe were going to do it. Yvonne said she really wanted to  go BUT someone had to photograph the event and she sadly volunteered so the rest of us could go.  The water temperature was around 36 degrees, the ship’s physician was standing by along with the bar staff with shots of hot soup and vodka so what could go wrong! We were some of the first to jump in, figuring the longer we waited the better the chance someone might chicken out; at this point Julie seemed like the most likely candidate as she was wavering. Steve and Zoe went together and Julie and I followed. I was surprised at how deep I went; it seemed like a long time before I broke the surface and reached for the helping hands of staff members who were there to help pull people out. I quickly wrapped myself in a towel and downed both the hot soup and vodka.  I had done it and I have an embroidered patch to prove it! Furthermore I believe I was the oldest person on board this trip to do the polar plunge.

The evening wrap up included two short talks. Dennis talked about his love of flowers and Peter Webster, a dive specialist, showed some video that took while diving on one of our stops. He did admit to wearing a dry suit during the dive in the frigid waters.

It is summer solstice and that is a reason for a big celebration by the Swedish people. Sara, our Swedish chef, appeared at the lectern wearing a garland of flowers to tell us about the special Swedish dinner she has prepared for our dinner, starting with aquavit and pickled herring made multiple ways. We were apprehensive about the herring. I tried the herring and it was not bad; washed down with aquavit made it palatable, but it still does not make the list of my favorite foods.

 

We awoke to another sunny day with a morning temperature of 38 degrees. It is expected to get to around a high of 42 degrees. We traveled around the southern tip of Spitsbergen during the night and entered Storfjorden, the body of water that lies East of Spitsbergen. Our destination is the island of Edgeoya. It is much smaller than Spitsbergen and is uninhabited. The morning activity will be a series of hikes in the Arctic tundra located here. There are three hiking options offered: long, with an expected distance of about 3 miles; medium with an expected distance of 1.5 to 2 miles and short with a distance of 0.5 miles. Yvonne and I decided that medium would be the best for us as we did not know what to expect. Steve, Julie and Zoe were going on the longer hike.

We modified our clothing option from yesterday when we found we were too hot. Today we only wore puffy vests and raincoats. I chose to not wear rain pants as the seas are calm and there has been no spraying when riding in the Zodiacs. I even wore a baseball hat rather than the wool hat worn yesterday. We did wear our boots as they said the trails were boggy and occasionally wet. That turned out to be the most important item of clothing.

Our group of 20 was led by Maya, an undersea specialist from California. She did have the requisite high-powered rifle rifle on her shoulder. The hike indeed was very boggy. The ground is spongy with patches of watery marsh where our feet sunk 3-4 inches in the soft cushiony soil.  This is Arctic tundra. There are no trees and no vegetation other than mosses, lichens and a few tiny flowers. Rocks and boulders completed the landscape.

The only major animals we saw were several reindeer, which were easy to spot today as their coats are still winter white. The deer turn brown as summer progresses, camouflaging at its best.  In the “I did not know that” department: male reindeer get their antlers earlier than females but also lose them earlier(December) than the female who uses them as a defense (don’t bother me) mechanism as she is pregnant during that time. The inference of this is that Santa’s reindeer and Rudolph were females, not males!

We did see several different species of local birds as we walked the area. Not being birders I had no notion of what I was seeing but the guides were great in identifying and telling us about them. The nature of the landscape: flat with flat-topped mountains indicated the area was formed by glaciers eons ago. At one time this whole area was under water. There is a deathly silence here as there are no vehicles, no airplanes and no humans; only peace and solitude. There is actually only one song bird in the Arctic.

Two hours and 8,000 steps (more than the 1.5-2 miles we had expected) later we were back at the ship for lunch. The ship immediately started moving to another location for a late afternoon excursion.

While in transit one of the naturalists, Jamie, who was a self-nominated “bird nerd” gave a short presentation on sea birds which Steve and I attended as our wives rested(I.e. napped). There are over 10,000 bird species in the world of which only 300 plus are sea birds, which seems somewhat surprising and out of proportion, as water covers 70 percent of the planet’s surface. He gave us some surprising facts about the dominant sea bird groupings along with great pictures. I found it interesting.

The final ship destination and excursion for the day turned out to be a colony of walruses who inhabit this area. To avoid stressing them we were sent out in smaller 50 person groupings and limited to a 45 minute visit on the beach to observe these mammals. It was still sunny but because it was later in the day I wore a bit more clothing to compensate for the lower temperatures. Yvonne had developed the start of a blister from the morning walk and chose to stay on-board for this excursion. The onboard doctor(normally an ER physician from Reno) made a “room call” and gave her some bandages to prevent further damage to her heels.

The ship staff went through great precautions to not stress the walruses. Only 50 people at a time were on the beach. Also we landed quite a way away from the resting (actually mostly sleeping) animals and we were asked to not talk once we got closer to them so as to not disturb them. The naturalists did brief us before about the habits of the animals. The walrus feed on mollusks that they stir up from the sea bottom by blowing air through their mouth to disturb the sand. Their right flipper is larger than the left and it is used to help disturb/shovel the sea bottom. Their eye sight is not good but their whiskers are fantastic sensing devices. Walruses eat 75 kg of food a day (doing it in a couple of hours) then spend the rest of the day sleeping on the beach, digesting the food. They “suck” the food from the shells. Scientists were surprised to learn that they are capable of eating without getting any shell remnants in their stomach.

The walruses on the beach here are all males. The females and babies “live” elsewhere. We proceeded to watch about two dozen walruses sleeping!  Occasionally one would raise his head for a short time, then quickly return to a prone sleeping position. Luckily there was one entertaining animal who rolled onto his back, used his flippers to stretch his head and stomach, and other animated antics. Other than that it was a bit like watching grass growing! Trivia for the day: the plural of walrus is walrus. Also there is no term for a group of walrus, unlike a herd of elephants or a covey of ducks, etc.

About 45 minutes after landing we were directed back to the boats as another group would come from the ship for their viewing. After the busy morning trek this was an easy way to finish up the day.

There was an evening daily briefing at 6:45 with more hot hors d’oeuvres and drinks followed by our executive Swedish chef who came to the group meeting to tell us about her desire to providing sustainable food dishes and the menu for the evening dinner. Needless to say she received a resounding welcome from all of us.

It was a beautiful evening so we retired to the Observation Lounge on the upper deck for some games and picture taking as we slowly sailed along the coast.

I forgot to mention in yesterday’s entry the first animal sighting we had on this trip which according to the naturalists was an important one. After dinner because it was still so light out many people wandered up to the bow of the ship and the bridge area to see what they could see. We had entered a spur of the fjord near Longyearbyen and were approaching the end where sea ice met a glacier. Suddenly the staff announced that a grouping of beluga whales had been sighted. These are the small white/ yellowish whales that like to congregate near the edge of ice. The staff seemed surprised to see so many; they estimated there were at least 20, maybe more frolicking and obviously feeding. Beluga whales can be up to 18 feet long and weigh up to 3,500 pounds. It has a “stocky” body  and a funny shaped head which gives rise to name they sometimes are called “melon head”.  They also do not have a dorsal fin (like other whales) which allows them to swim under the ice.They are very slow swimmers but can dive to depths of 2,300 feet. The ship stayed stationary for at least 30 minutes while we all peered through binoculars and took way to many pictures that occasionally did show the presence of whales as their backs broke the surface of the water. People were happy; some were even ecstatic  The trip was off to a good start.

Back to today:

We slept like babies, lulled by the rhythm of the engines of the ship. I had set the alarm for 6:15 but we were up by 5AM, fully rested and excited to start our day of exploration. At 7AM Peter Wilson,  the expedition leader, came on the public address system to wake those who might not have yet awaken and to brief us on the activities of the day. The buffet breakfast was served from 7-8:30 and at 9AM there was a mandatory meeting to explain how excursions off the ship are handled. We were told how to act once on land and what to do/not do if we encountered a bear. The guides are all armed with flare guns and high-powered rifles on the outside chance we did have an unexpected bear encounter. National Geographic is obviously super cautious when on land. I am certain the odds of an up close and personal encounter would be extremely unlikely. In fact before we are allowed on shore a scouting party is sent to explore the landing area and surroundings to assure them that an encounter would NOT happen when we are on shore.

We are headed south along the west coast of Spitsbergen to an area called Hornsund, a fjord. Once there we will look for wildlife and eventually make a landing, conditions permitting, to explore the area.

The rest of the morning was spent relaxing or joining the staff in the lounge for lectures. If there were any sightings an announcement would be broadcast on the PA system and people would inevitably run to viewing sites to see what they could see. We were a good distance off shore and no sightings were reported this morning.

After the off-ship briefing one of the staff photographers gave a 40 minute lecture on photography and how to take better pictures. He gave us some good pointers and showed some great nature pictures he personally has taken.

About half of the ship’s passengers on this voyage are 87 young adults from 28 nations who are part of a group called “Climateforce 2041”, which is an environmental group aimed at educating young people to the necessity of addressing the impacts of global warming. It was started by an English gentlemen named Robert Swan who was on board with us. At 11:30 he gave a one hour lecture explaining what he did as a young man that ended up with him starting and leading this endeavor.  He is the first person to ever walk to both the South and North Poles! He is quite an accomplished lecturer and his talk was fascinating as he showed slides of his efforts to reach the poles and resultant activities of Climateforce 2041 since that time. By the way the 2041 is the year that the original treaty protecting the sovereignty of Antarctica expires and would need to be renewed.

Suddenly it was 12:30 and lunch time! All this salt air makes one hungry, or so that is our excuse to eat once again.  Lunches are buffets with soup, salads, make your own sandwiches, and some hot dishes. Steve and I knew of the option to sit up in the observation lounge area next to the library where a limited menu option was offered and we all opted to go there. It is a marvelous lounging area with panoramic viewing windows and tables where one can play one of the many board games located there.

Our ship was already in the Hornsund bay and the captain simply let the ship slowly rotate so we could enjoy the surrounding mountains. There were a few remnants of icebergs floating around (we named them “ice cubes”). We were the only ones there. Although the morning had been cloudy the sun began to emerge and the rest of the afternoon we had blue skies. Surprisingly the temperature was around 45 degrees; I had expected colder temperatures this far north.  It was a spectacular setting.

We could see the Zodiacs being offloaded and the staff “scouting” crew went off to survey the proposed landing area to make sure it would be safe to explore. At 2:30 the “all clear” was given and we were directed to proceed with our gear and life vests to the lower “mud room” for disembarkation. It was suggested that we wear layers of clothing and to assume we might get some sea spray so rain gear might be appropriate. The landing would be a “wet” landing, meaning we would need to step into some water as we exited the Zodiacs, so boots were suggested. We had brought our “Bogs” boots so that should not be a problem. We donned rain pants, our down coats and rain jackets and ending up looking a bit like the Michelin tire man as we boarded the short ride to the shore. We had been instructed on how to properly enter and exit the Zodiacs and there were multiple staff people on either end to assist us I doing so. The water depth at the landing point was only about 8 inches.

We had the option of taking a series of walks: a medium one of about 1 mile, a shorter one, or a photography one. Our group chose the medium walk which turned out to be more like a 0.5 mile or less walk but no one complained. Once on shore We were met by one of the naturalists, Karen, who was our walk leader. She had the prerequisite rifle, flare gun and radio as part of her gear. Hmm, they really do take this seriously. We stopped at a nearby rustic trappers cabin that dates back to the 1920s that is still in use today. We learned of its history and had a chance to actually go through it; not my idea of a place to spend a weekend in! The guide told us the story of a famous lady trapper who hunted here for many years, surviving any issue with polar bears, only to be killed by a truck when she returned to the mainland; another example of when it is your time….

We “hiked” up the slope a bit, saw and heard about the tens of thousands of nesting birds on the cliffs above us, crossed a remaining snow field to a beautiful viewing point overlooking the sound, our ship and the mountains. Our walk took us through an area of permafrost mosses that were amazingly soft and spongy. Tiny purple and white flowers were in bloom. We even saw a couple of yellow buttercups starting to bloom.  What we thought would be a hike was really a leisurely walk but we had no complaints. It turns out we were way overdressed for today’s conditions and gradually stripped off clothing as we did our walk.

About an hour later we were back at the beach and reluctantly headed back to the mother ship. Then it was nap time to rest up for the rest of the evening. 6:30 PM was the Captain’s reception where hot hors d’oeuvre and drinks were served while our captain (Aaron Wood- who once was captain on the QEII) introduced his senior staff, part of the 100 staff members on the ship. Ella, the English naturalist with an expertise on whales (she calls herself the Princess of Whales) gave a short presentation on the whales in this region of the world. This is a ritual every evening: cocktails and a recap of the day before dinner.

Dinner was at 7:30 and from now on it is menu driven with several starter and main course options. Needless to say the dishes were beautifully presented and tasted great. The wines offered with the meal focus on wine from Chile and Argentina.  I did learn there were about 40-50 optional bottles that you could have at no additional cost. If you did not finish them at the meal they will simply store it until the next meal. Nice!

We retired to the upper lounge area where we finished the family card game (Phase 10) that we had started before dinner. It was near 10PM and the sun was still high in the sky.

Our first day at sea was complete. It had gone by quickly. What was surprising to me was how warm it was and how little snow or ice was present where we were. At the cocktail reception one of the naturalists who has been coming to this area for 30 plus years told us of the weather condition changes he has seen over that time frame. Where we were today would have been frozen ice at this time of the year with polar bears evident. Today the ice and bears are gone. People who do not believe global warming is occurring (whether man-made or otherwise) have their heads in the sand!

We had a charter flight from Oslo to Longyearbyen which left at 9:45 AM. Lindblad was well organized getting us from the hotel to the airport. We self-selected one of four bus departures from the hotel to the airport where we picked up our luggage, which had been sorted by ship room number, and checked for our SAS flight. There were multiple staff members milling around to guide us through the process. We left the hotel at 7AM and by 8:30 had checked in and cleared both security and immigration.

We left on time for the 2h 40m flight to Longyearbyen which is 2,042km north of Oslo.  Once there we claimed our luggage which was loaded into a truck to be delivered to our staterooms on the ship. We, in turn, went into one of 4 buses with a local guide who took us on a brief “sightseeing” tour of the area, followed by lunch at a local hotel. When I put quotes around the word sightseeing it was meant to indicate that there is really not very much to see here.

The 2016 population of Svalbard was 2,667, of which 423 were Russian and Ukrainian, 10 Polish and 322 non-Norwegians living in Norwegian settlements. Longyearbyen has a population of 2,144, not a big city by any means. The next largest city in Svalbard has a population of about 300.  In the 17-18th centuries whaling was the main industry here, followed by coal mining in the 20th century. Now the main industries are tourism and research stations. Another name one often hears regarding this area is Spitsbergen. This is the name of the island where Longyearbyen is located.  Svalbard refers to all the islands in the archipelago.

The surrounding area is ringed by hills/mountains. I was surprised to see that the ground was snow free and the temperature was a balmy 40 degrees. The tops of the mountains still have snow but there are only a few patches of snow left in town. There are no trees or other visible vegetation. It is a barren landscape. We later learned this is Arctic tundra. There are remnants of abandoned coal mining equipment on the slopes of the hills.

The town is only several blocks long, lined with housing units used by the researchers who reside here. There is only one coal mining operation left in the area which now employs 20 people. We stopped at a local museum that housed paintings produced by a local artist, historical maps of the region, and historical pictures from the heyday of mining. Local artisans also had art and crafts for sale, ranging from clothing to soaps to jewelry and photographs. As we entered the museum we were told that it is tradition here to remove shoes when entering buildings (probably because of the snow/mud). We had the option of donning the blue booties or removing our shoes and going in with stocking feet.

We walked the Main Street where there is a post office, library, grocery store, coffee shop and several sporting goods stores. There are snowmobiles parked everywhere. Tommie, our local guide (a researcher, moonlighting as a guide) said there are twice as many snowmobiles than people here!

The rest of the tour was a brief stop at the only church in town which claims to be the “most northern church in the world”. It is truly ecumenical in that the Lutherans, Orthodox and Catholics all use the facility. Again we were asked to remove shoes but here they had dozens of “crocs” for people to use when in the church.

We passed the local cemetery which housed a few graves dating back to the early 1900s. Now you are no longer allowed to be buried in Svalbard because the prevalent permafrost here allows the bodies to gradually work their way to the surface and there is fear that diseases might be spread.

Another oddity of the area is that you are not allowed to house most dogs in town. Huskies, the predominant species, are barkers and can be annoying. They solved the problem by building a series of kennels right outside town where dogs are housed. You visit your dog at the kennel dog run.

Guns are a common sight and are required whenever you leave town (for protection against wildlife). There are even gun mounts on snowmobiles. There are signs on building entrances banning firearms when entering the building. This is obviously a “frontier” town.

Again the transfer of the people was well orchestrated by Lindblad. To avoid overwhelming the area the 4 buses were never in the same place at the same time. But by 4:15 we gradually all converged at our home for the next week, the famous National Geographic Explorer expedition ship, the “grand dame” of the National Geographic fleet.

We were greeted by the hotel manager as we boarded and assigned a staff person who took us directly to our stateroom and explained how things operated. Our luggage was already in our rooms. The rooms are spacious with a large picture window and tons of storage space. Steve’s room is even larger than ours because it is designed  to house three people.

Steve and I took the ladies around the ship to show them what it has to offer. The ship is in magnificent shape. Lindblad obviously has taken great care in keeping the 1980’s ship (which formerly was a ferry) in tip-top shape.

At 6PM there was a mandatory safety drill to convey the procedures for ship evacuation if needed. We were then introduced to the various department heads as part of the pre-dinner briefing. Dinner was served at 7:30 and was a buffet for this first night on board. Future dinners will be menu driven. As expected the food was extremely good. Wine flowed freely.

I was somewhat shocked to see how high in the sky the sun still was at 10 PM. Julie checked and said sunset here was theoretically at midnight and sunrise would be at 1AM! However, there is no difference in lighting; it is daylight all night long. Luckily the ship has heavy room darkening shades so hopefully sleep will not be an issue, although we did come prepared by bringing eye shades if we need them.

 

 

 

A relaxing morning as we await the arrival of our son, Steve, and family (wife, Julie and daughter, Zoe) who are arriving from their brief visit to Bergen. Today is also the starting date for our Lindblad Expedition to Svalbard.

There is a local team of Lindblad people in the lobby, greeting the some 160 arrivals who are part of the tour. The ship is fully booked. I was told it is mostly Americans but there are always a small number of foreigners on their trips. Lindblad is offering a three-hour tour of some of the local sights for interested parties. There is a meet and greet cocktail party and buffet dinner this evening at 7PM.

Yvonne slept in while I sat in the lobby, waiting for Steve and family and working on my blog entries. They arrived about 11:30 and we all gathered in our room so Yvonne could greet everyone and develop a game plan for the day. Steve wanted to visit the Viking Ship and Fram Museums here, two very famous museums dedicated to famous explorers from the area- the Vikings and Roald Amundsen, a famous 20th century Norwegian explorer of both the North and South polar regions.

Yvonne and I had seen the fabulous Viking Ship Museum on a previous visit to Oslo but I had never been to the Fram Museum so that intrigued me. And I certainly would enjoy seeing the Viking ships again.  Yvonne decided to continue her day of R&R and four of us ventured out to begin our day of exploration under sunny skies and upper 60 degree temperatures. It was a beautiful day in Oslo.

The two museums are located on a peninsula across the harbor, most easily reached by taking a 15 minute ferry ride from the downtown harbor. We walked the 0.5 mile to the ferry and soon were on our way as the passenger ferries run every 20 minutes.

The Viking Ship Museum is famous because it houses several magnificent preserved Viking ships that survived being buried for over 1,000 years. The Oseberg ship, named after the farm where it was discovered in 1904,  dates back to 834 AD and is the largest burial ship found to date. Vikings believed in the afterlife and so were buried in their ships, along with provisions needed in the afterlife. Besides the ship many of these astounding artifacts are on display in the museum.

The ship is a OMG amazing sight. It is 71 feet long, 16 feet wide with a 30 foot mast. When not under sail it had 30 rowers to provide propulsion.  I was very surprised to learn that it was the burial site for two women, obviously important people as I always thought these were burial sites for men.  In addition to the human remains there were skeletons of 14 horses, an ox and three dogs in the burial site. There were also many household goods including three sleds and a magnificently carved cart among the artifacts. All are on display. I was amazed by the detail of the carvings on the sleds and cart.  If you are interested in learning more about this ship use this link.: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oseberg_shiphttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oseberg_ship

There are two other ships on display: the Gokstad and the Tune. The Gokstad is even larger than the Oseberg ship; it is 78 feet long and was used mainly for warfare, trade, transportation of people and goods. It housed 32 oarsmen. The Tune is a smaller ship (72 feet) and only fragments of the hull remain. Both ships date back to around 900 AD.

From the Viking Ship museum it was a pleasant 10 minute walk through a lovely residential area to the Fram Museum, the site of two famous Norwegian expedition ships from the early 20th century. The museum honors Norwegian polar exploration in general and three great Norwegian polar explorers in particular—Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup and Roald Amundsen.

The Gjoa was the first vessel to transit the Northwest Passage. With a crew of six, Roald Amundsen traversed the passage in a three-year journey, finishing in 1906. The Fram is a ship that was used in expeditions of the Arctic and Antarctica regions by the explorers Nansen, Sverdrup, Amundsen and Wisting between 1893 and 1912. One can actually walk through the vessels to see how they were built and what life was like during their voyages. The museum is packed with information and artifacts about the men and their journeys. Our short time there hardly gave it the justice that it deserved

Our bodies and minds wore out and we found ourselves heading back to the hotel around 4PM where we were joined by Yvonne for a round of drinks, appetizers and a card game in the hotel bar.

At 7PM we met with the 164 people plus Lindblad staff for a meet and greet session and dinner. Details about tomorrow’s transfer to Longyearbyen and the ship were conveyed.  We sat with a family that had 16 year old twins (son, Dylan, and daughter, Tate). (Zoe turns 15 on this trip).  The dinner broke up early as we had to have luggage outside our doors by 9:30 PM. One of the major points made at the briefing was that the temperature in Svalbard will be less than 40 degrees (while Oslo temperatures were 70 degrees the last few days), so we were reminded to keep the cold weather jackets and hats out of our checked luggage and plan to wear them on the plane.

We are about to begin the adventure that brought us here.

Norway is expensive. Our cab ride from the airport was $170, and dinner last night was $80 for one glass of wine and two excellent hamburgers with fries. The reason things are expensive here is that Norway has a very high standard of living, one of the highest in the world. They are paid very well. They get free university education, free healthcare, 6 weeks of vacation a year, and 10 months paternity/maternity leave. However, they are taxed at a high rate (35-50%). Bottom line: All these supposed “freebies” come at a price.

Norway is a land of rich resources – oil, timber and fish. Because of this they have not sought membership in the European Union. The  Vikings were the early settlers (800-1050 AD) here. In the 14th century they were ruled by Denmark but in 1814 Denmark lost control  to Sweden who ruled Norway until 1905, when Norway gained its independence. There is still a royal family but, like England, they have no real power. Parliament and the prime minister run the country.

Norway only has about 5.3 million people who live on land about the size of Montana. It is a land of intense natural beauty dominated by mountains and fjords, created by the Ice Age.

Oslo has a population of about 672,000. It was formerly known as Christiania, named after Danish King Christian IV who ordered it rebuilt after a fire destroyed the city in 1624. It was renamed Oslo in 1924. It is a very walkable, compact city and easy to get around.

Breakfast buffets are included in hotels here and the one at the Clarion was outstanding!  The breadth and display of the offerings were a work of art. I was impressed.

We signed up for a 10AM walking tour of the city center to learn more about its history. Surprisingly our tour guide was a young English girl who immigrated here three years ago because she was tired of England! We were joined by a father/daughter from California, two graduating high school girls from NYC (on a summer fling before college) and a young man from San Paulo, Brazil who was visiting before his business conference in London. We obviously were the oldest! The tour was interesting in that we learned things we would never had known had we walked around on our own; however it was not the best tour we have had in our travels. As I have always said the tour guide makes/breaks a tour. The good news was although the weather forecast called for rain we only experienced a 1 minute misting during the entire three hour walk. It was Sunday and the city was a ghost town as we started our walk. We learned that the Norwegians take Sunday seriously; it is meant to be a day of rest with family. We saw only a handful of shops open. By the time we finished our tour around 1 PM people were out and about and a few stores (mostly restaurants) were open and catering to customers.

One of the more interesting tidbits we learned about life in Norway was that people typically work 9AM to 3PM (short lunch) in the summer so they can enjoy the outdoors more. During the winter they work until 4 or so! No wonder people love to live here. Another tidbit learned on our walking tour was that Norwegians pay their own way. If you are on a date it is  always “dutch” treat so no one feels obligated. Likewise, people do not pay for a round of drinks or meal; everyone pays their own way. It is the way they prefer to do things here.

Three hours and 16,345 steps later, we were good and tired and joined the locals for a sit down lunch before returning to the hotel for a much needed nap.

We decided on an Italian themed dinner as we expected there would be more than ample opportunity for seafood meals on the rest of the trip and we walked over to the nearby train station for a quick meal. The recommended Italian restaurant could not take us because at 6:30 PM there were no tables available for the entire evening. Does anyone eat at home anymore?

We fell into bed having walked a total of 19,729 steps today, a new daily record I think! Tomorrow we meet up with Steve, Julie and Zoe and join the Lindblad Expedition tour.

 

 

We are flying to Oslo on Norwegian Airlines again, with a connecting flight in Gatwick (London). We had flown NA to England last September. They are considered to be a “budget” carrier, but they do offer decent reclining seats (think Lazy Z Boy) in business class and the planes are new 787’s.  Also their prices are extremely competitive; you can save a considerable amount of money flying with them. I recall my only complaint last time was that the meals served were only “average” but it was certainly a minor complaint.

Our flight left Seattle at 1:45 PM on June 14.  The flight to London was 9h 15m, followed by a nice leisurely 2h 20m layover so we could stretch our legs and grab a snack. The low cost approach is evident in that the pre-flight drinks were limited to fruit juice or water, no champagne on these flights. Furthermore the “glasses” are plastic and there were no warm mixed nuts.  The meal again was nothing special, served in a box with plastic utensils. We have not often had good luck with ordering beef on flights so we selected the chicken option which turned out to be quite tasty. Another limitation to flying Norwegian is that there is no amenity kit, not that we need them as we have a drawer full of unused ones at home. And the provided earphones are not Bose! There was a limited number of movies available so I spent my time reading a new book I brought along.

Our flight from London was delayed by about 45 minutes but it did not pose a problem to us. There were some people on board who had connecting flights once they got to Oslo and they were concerned. Not sure if they made their flights.

Norway is one of those countries that people admire for their efficiency at doing things. Well, today things did not go well when we landed in Oslo. The lines to get through immigration were very long, so much so that it took us 70 minutes of standing in line before we were cleared. This is the longest we have ever experienced in our international travels. The good news is that our luggage was already waiting for us once we got cleared  and our hotel room was immediately available once we arrived. We fell into bed for a much deserved 2 hour nap before seeking dinner, which we chose to have at the rooftop restaurant in the hotel.

Speaking about the hotel it came as a pleasant surprise. It is part of the Clarion chain, which in the USA is a “modest” (i.e. 2-3 star) level hotel. I did not expect much but the hotel really surprised me; obviously the Clarion chain in Europe is considered a 4 star hotel. It was brand new with high tech elevators where you scan your key card and it directs you to one of 5 lifts to speed up your travel. It was really cool! There are sensors in the hallways to turn on/off lighting as you walk to your room. The room decor is hip and trendy with way too many pillows, a huge (55” ) TV, and surprisingly no in-room telephone (the front desk says everyone has a cell phone so why bother paying to put phones in the room).

Normally we come in one day early, but we are here two days early because of flight constraints this time of the year. We are staying at the hotel that the tour group uses and plan to do some sightseeing before the trip officially starts on Monday. I have booked an Oslo walking tour for Sunday morning and we will wing it for the remainder of the time. We had briefly been in Oslo in 2007 while on a cruise along the Norwegian coastline so we really have not had much exposure to the city.

 

 

In 2013, our oldest son, Steve, had a sabbatical (he is a lawyer) and approached me to take a father/son trip somewhere. When asked where we should go I suggested Antarctica. Our wives wished us well, stating that did not appeal to them at all. Well, we traveled with Lindblad Expeditions on the National Geographic signature ship, the Explorer on what turned out to be a magnificent trip on a magnificent, first class ship.  When our wives saw what we experienced they both wished they had joined us on that ship. Fast forward to today.  Last year Steve said he wanted to take his family on the National Geographic Explorer and was planning to travel north to the Arctic Circle region to look for polar bears. Did we want to come along?  No problem, said my wife, Yvonne. Count us in. So here we are, leaving for Oslo, Norway to begin our expedition trip with Lindblad Expeditions on the National Geographic Explorer headed to explore the region around Svalbard.

Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago (group of islands) in the Arctic Ocean, situated north of mainland Europe, about midway between continental Norway and the North Pole. Yes, it is in the middle of nowhere!

We will be flying to Oslo, Norway, the starting point for our expedition. Here is a link to the trip (“Land of the Ice Bears”) we will be taking with Lindblad if you are interested in more details about the trip.

https://www.expeditions.com/destinations/polar-regions/arctic/itineraries/land-of-the-ice-bears-an-in-depth-exploration-of-arctic-svalbard/overview/

From there we will fly to Svalbard to meet our home for the week- the National Geographic Explorer expedition ship. By the way, contrary to common belief there are no penguins In the Arctic; this is polar bear country!

Join us for this new “Wanderingbishops” adventure.