Netherlands, Norway and Svalbard

[jxv]

Svalbard’s mining heritage is very visible. Several bucket conveyors, now no longer used and some of them dilapidated, lead from mining sites to near the harbour area.






It looks like most of the bucket conveyors (I made that up, is there a proper word for these?) came together in this alien looking building.


These pipes are in use. They have branches going into buildings and here and there along them is a "fyrhus" (boiler house). I assume this is for the town heating system.

 

[sjk]

Here is a nice-looking fyrhus.

 

[jxv]

There are not many reports of polar bears coming close to Longyearbyen, but the danger is real. Every guide on an out-of-town activity carries a gun. Even people walking the dog on the outskirts.


The shops in town, especially the bank, are not happy for people to bring their guns inside.

 

[jxv]

View attachment 146253 Here is a nice-looking fyrhus.

Thanks, I realised that I did not have a photo! Most of the fyrhusene look very new. The heating system must have been updated recently.

 

[drron]

I liked this sign about guns when we were there.

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But there was one place you could take your gun.

.

 

[jxv]

I liked this sign about guns when we were there.

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I saw that sign too and remember which shop it was!

 

[jxv]

My son is a photographer, so a lot of time was spent looking for vantage points with good views. We started by going to the church, a good focal point of the town.

 

[jxv]

The architecture of Longyearbyen is not particularly eye-pleasing!


We walked South from the town into the valley and looked back at it. The clouds were lifting!


By the time we got back to the waterfront it was clear. The light on the mountains reflected in the windows of the buildings.


The mountains reflected in the river between the ice.


We had to wait till these small birds flew off. The little waves they made travelled an amazing distance over the water surface, ruining the reflections.

 

[jxv]

Everything on Svalbard is expensive, but the daily specials of the Barentz Pub & Spiseri at the Radisson Blue Polar Hotel are a good buy. The pizza seems pricey at $32, until you realise that it is big enough to share.

The Søndaglam (Sunday lamb) was reasonable at NOK189 ($32). Actually the rack of lamb was melt-in-the-mouth delicious!

 

[jxv]

About the Aurora Borealis.

The Physics. Eruptions on the sun send clouds of charged particles into space. When they come close to earth they are caught in its magnetic field, which funnels them in the direction of the geomagnetic North Pole. High up in the atmosphere the particles collide with molecules of the air. This emits light, usually green, but also other colours. Because it happens high up and because of the geometry of the earth’s magnetic field this does not happen above the geomagnetic North Pole, but in a ring around it.

To see the Aurora, there has to be auroral activity, it has to be dark and the weather has to be clear.

Abisko in Sweden, about 100 km inland from Narvik in Norway, seems to have more than its fair share of clear nights. It is on the shore of a large lake and the prevailing winds come over the mountains and clear the clouds. It is a micro-climate effect. Because of this the small town is overrun by tourists chasing the Aurora and accommodation is overpriced, but it may be worth it, if you want to increase your chances. You can check Aurora visibility on the Abisko webcams page.

Because the sun activity is closely monitored, it is possible to make quite reasonable predictions of Aurora activity on a day to day basis. Several apps are available to show these. Two examples for iPhone:

My Aurora Forecast and Alerts by jRuston Apps.

Northern Lights Aurora Alertsby Letovaltsev Maxim.

The first seems to be better at predicting activity; the second seems to be better at including the weather.


An Aurora prediction map showing the ring of lights. Note that you have to look South from Svalbard!

 

[jxv]

October is between seasons. Most summer activities have finished, but the winter activities have not started yet. Dogsledding is done year round. It is available in summer by using wheeled sleds. There wasn’t enough snow yet to do real sledding, so we had a go on wheels.


Two sleds, three people on a sled. The guide drove the first sled, my son the second. I was in the very cramped front seat of the second sled.
Getting the dogs ready.


Driving off into the sunset. No, it was only 11 am! This is how high the sun comes early October. At the end of October it no longer rises at all.


The dogs rotate between the “working yard” and the “resting yard”. These dogs are having a few days rest.


They also breed the next generation.

 

[jxv]

Sunday night, our last night on Svalbard. The previous nights had been overcast. During the day it was clear and we just kept our fingers crossed that it would stay that way. We had our Søndaglam at the Barentz Pub and set off just before sunset to photograph the town in twilight.


We had found a good spot for Aurora watching about 3 km from the hotel, going South up into the valley, just past the Gruvelageret restaurant. It was dark, except when a taxi picked up the last restaurant customers and triggered what looked like a sensor operated searchlight!

It was -8 degrees when we left the hotel. It must have been quite a bit colder while we were waiting for several hours in the snow. We only had a small thermos with hot tea, just enough for one cup each. The tea cooled very quickly!

Shortly after we arrived we had seen a bit of a greenish glow above the mountains to the South and nothing more after that. We were just contemplating how much longer we would be able to stay out in the cold when around 23:00 the show suddenly started! There was a fantastic display for about 45 minutes.

I had read a blog explaining that you can take Aurora photos with an ordinary little camera with “night mode”, but mine did hardly register anything. With some post-processing this is the best I have.


My son, with his professional gear, shot lots of great photos like this one!

 

[SuePa]

Were you with a group when you left town for the photos?
I've read you can't leave the town without an armed escort because of the bears.
Your son's photo is spectacular! Definitely one for the wall.

 

[VPS]

How professional was your son's gear and what did you use?

 

[jxv]

Were you with a group when you left town for the photos?
I've read you can't leave the town without an armed escort because of the bears.
Your son's photo is spectacular! Definitely one for the wall.

No group, just the two of us. The bear danger is real, but it has been a while since a bear was seen on the outskirts of town. We did go about 100 m past the last group of town buildings.

 

[jxv]

How professional was your son's gear and what did you use?

I have a Panasonic Lumix TZ60, which produces good pictures, but has somewhat disappointing low light performance, as shown here.

Son has a Canon camera of some description and used an extra wide angle, large aperture lens. I can ask for more details, if you like.

 

[VPS]

I have a Panasonic Lumix TZ60, which produces good pictures, but has somewhat disappointing low light performance, as shown here.

Son has a Canon camera of some description and used an extra wide angle, large aperture lens. I can ask for more details, if you like.

Thanks - don't need any more info - if he has that fancy a camera then mine isn't going to cut the mustard.

Great TR btw

 

[jxv]

After a very successful Sunday night we had one more look around Longyearbean Monday morning before taking the bus to the airport. There are busses meeting every fight and dropping off and picking up passengers at the hotels and other accommodations around town. Return fare is NOK 120 ($20) payable by credit/debit card to the driver.

I had been invited to bid for an upgrade again and again was successful with my €51 p.p. bid. That worked out to be a waste of money! LYR has no dedicated PE check-in, no priority lane for security and there is no lounge! The only advantages were the guaranteed free middle seat and included food and drink, on just a 1h35 flight, SK4425, a B738 to TOS (Tromsø) in Northern Norway. Can’t win them all…

A public bus took us to town (NOK 60 one way, $10), to within a few minutes walk from our accommodation, the Enter City Hotel, where we stayed two nights. We had chosen this hotel because of its location, its reasonable price and because it was an apartment hotel. We got a studio apartment, nice, with all we needed to prepare meals ourselves with supplies from a supermarket down the street. The only negative was the view from our 2nd floor unit. We now know to ask for a unit on a higher floor!

 

[SuePa]

Thanks the photos and information, jxv. I'll stay aboard for the rest of the trip, but this was the bit I really wanted to know about. Can't wait.

Did you hear or see anything about 'Arctic Tapas'? Arctic Tapas Tour | Arctic Tapas
I'm thinking about going on this on my one night in Svalbard, before flying out after my cruise/expedition.

 

[tgh]

We "had" friends on Svalbard, and some of their pics and stories are amazing.
They have recently relocated to Tromso so we will catch up with them there in june.