August 5-7 Tromso & Svalbard Norway

The Tromso visit was for a changeover -- the end of a segment and the beginning of the next. About 900 people got off, 700 got on, and less than 300 of us stayed aboard. We were docked well away from town (but close to the airport)  and there was no shuttle bus available to take us into town.

Since there was nothing of great interest in Tromso we stayed near the dock, and walked about half a mile to a grocery store to stock up on snacks.

We do have a fatality to report. Cynthia dropped her phone while at Nordkapp (no grass, just rocks). It continued to work for 36 hours, then died completely. That means that we lost her pictures from Hammerfest and Tromso. We have several cameras with us, so picture taking can proceed without pause.

Another northernmost. We didn't visit.

Tromso sailaway

Longyearbyen is the settlement on Svalbard, an island sort of belonging to Norway, way up north. It took a day of sailing to get here, and it'll be another two days to get to Iceland. But this is about as far north as most people can go. North 78 degrees.

Port

The major industry here was coal. You can see the cableway that transported buckets of coal to this transfer station where it was moved down to the dock.

Northernmost Circle K.

Svalbard has become a favored movie location for shooting winter/glacier backgrounds.

Vehicles to move people and equipment around

A glacier visible from the port.

The church. We didn't climb the hill to visit.

University Center in Svalbard, specializing in Arctic studies. The piping is distribution of hot water from the central power station for heating.

Tribute to the coal miners. The grocery store in the background was much less expensive than anticipated - I believe because Svalbard is not really part of Norway, but is administratively governed by them. Taxes are low to make up for the delivery costs way up north.

We have been told that although this is a permanent settlement, few people actually live their lives here. Most people come for about 5 years, earning great pay in coal mining or fur trapping or other industries up here. They then move back to the more temperate parts of Norway for the remainder of their lives.

But we did see a large number of apartments, and more under construction. Perhaps there's something to living for 4 months without seeing the sun at all that appeals to some people.

As we sail away from Svalbard and head for Iceland our string of great weather is coming to an end. We were just waved off from our next stop, Husavik - a tender port since it would be unsafe to take the small tenders into the actual dock. We're substituting Akureyri, which has a dock and is at the head of a long fjord, offering significant protection from the weather.