Saying hello to the land of Iorek Byrnison

In this part of the globe there is midnight sun from late Apr to late Aug and polar night from late Oct to mid Feb. Quite something to adapt to for the 2000 plus inhabitants.

I realise that I have described a little of all of the places we have visited so far but said little about our means of transport, our ship.

The MS Trollfjord is a lovely vessel to travel on with cuisine that is way beyond superb. It has just been refurbished and this is its first outing and indeed its maiden voyage to Svalbard.

It has three restaurants one with buffet breakfast and lunches the other two with sit down menus to choose from.

All of our meals have highlighted the local produce of the areas that we are currently travelling through. We have had locally sourced seaweed, salt, reindeer, oysters, prawns, salmon, arctic char, lamb, beef, pork, eggs, herbs, cheese, berries and fruit. Plus any amount of teas, coffees, beers, wines, spirits and soft drinks as might take your fancy. The main bar has a singing piano player who is very talented but who unsurprisingly only sings very beige songs.

The staff have been fabulously friendly and helpful, the ship is kept spotlessly clean, we have had daily informative sessions on local points of interest, culture, wildlife, geology and tasting sessions.

The boat has plenty of large and small spaces to socialise or isolate depending upon mood and preference. It also has a small gym, sauna and library/games room.

We passed Bear Island halfway on our sail to Svalbard and unsurprisgly saw no bears.

We also stayed up late on our passage to observe the midnight sun but it was rather cloudy and overcast and not very photogenic but it was light.  The picture below was taken at 1am. Honestly. Hopefully we will catch an actual midnight sun to photograph.

Today is our 35th wedding anniversary and we arrived at Longyearbjen at 13:00. Just as we berthed polar bears were spotted by the shore across the fjord!  They were a good distance away from us but I definitely have some blurry ill-defined white blobs on pictures taken with my borrowed zoom-lens camera. There were five of them, they were definitely bears, they definitely moved...🐻‍❄️🐻‍❄️🐻‍❄️🐻‍❄️🐻‍❄️

This was followed by a ceremony on the quayside to welcome the MS Trollfjord's first visit to the archipelago. 

We had been warned that on leaving the ship we must go left and not right into polar bear territory. At least not without an armed guide.

On this stopever we had signed up for the Svalbard Wildernes and History Experience and so set off by coach to the location of Camp Bergen. Where we were introduced to some huskies and given more information about the polar bears of the archipelago. 

We then went to the local museum and had a wee wander around the very frontier feeling town of Longyearbjen.

And then there were more bears! Or perhaps more of the same bears? The captain took us closer to the far shore of the fjord as we left Longyearbjen and Soaz saw them quite clearly with binoculars although I'm less sure that I caught anything with the camera. What a fabulous experience.

This being our 35th wedding anniversary we ended the day with a meal in the exclusive Røst Arctic Fine Dining restaurant. And...it was somewhat disappointing, sadly. Our first disappointment this trip really. Compared to the excellence everywhere else this just didn't meet the grade. Never mind.

Tomorrow we head even further north to Ny-Ålesund. We had a compulsory safety briefing today in advance of this short stopover to ensure our safety in this very small research post on the Brögger peninsula.