LONGYEARBYEN, SPITSBERGEN, SVALBARD
SUNDAY NOV 8 – MONDAY NOV 16, 2015
TRAVEL DAY SUNDAY NOV 8 - LONDON TO OSLO
First day and we have managed to get up to three suitcases because we just aren't sure how cold it is going to be and I don’t want to have to buy more stuff there since Norway is rather expensive so Svalbard is bound to be even more expensive. Problem is, then we layer up everything we need to layer, we can hardly move. Hmmm. Maybe should have gotten much larger sizes for the final outer layer. At least we both have some good snow boots to wear!
Norwegian air now uses an automated check in that not only prints your boarding passes but also prints your luggage tags and you must put them on your luggage and then take it to a conveyer and scan it and put it on the belt yourself. There were people there to help but not too many. Was a bit odd at Gatwick but we were old hands doing it in Oslo.
Today we are just going to Oslo and spending the night in the airport hotel. There wasn’t a way to make the connection in time unless we wanted to fly very early in the morning to Oslo and didn’t feel like that. So when we land in Norway, we get our bags and head for the hotel. It’s across the street from the terminal and looks vaguely like there isn’t a way to get there. We were standing and wondering about it when two couples came striding by us and walked around a corner and towards the hotel so we decided to follow and the route opened up clearly. Just wandering through the construction to get there.
Asked if we wanted a high room or low room. Asked for a quiet room. That gave us a room on the 6th floor facing the airport. Luckily, they don’t seem to fly at night so it was quiet but it was also rather warm under the duvet covers with no sheet so we had to leave the window open all night.
Decided that we could probably eat cheaper at the airport so we walked back over there to get a pizza for dinner. Somehow we ended up paying almost $30 anyway for two slices of pizza and two drinks. Geez. Not a cheap place anywhere.
DAY 2 – TO THE NORTHWEST! Monday Nov 9 OSLO TO LONGYEARBYEN.
Went over to the airport around 8. I had gotten us a fast pass so it didn’t take too long to go through the security except when my husband forgot to take out his tablet so his bag had to be redone. We looked at the domestic departures and saw that a flight to Longyearbyen was leaving at 9:55 a.m. hmm. We thought our flight was 9:50 but hey, not so bad that it’s 5 minutes late. So we strolled down to the gate and it was full of people waiting to go to Stavanger so we sat at the next gate.
The Stavanger flight finally left and so after a few minutes, we walked back to the gate and it was a different flight. Said ours was now leaving at gate 14 which of course was much further down the concourse. Also noticed that it said SAS, NOT Norwegian, so we stopped and asked the information lady who informed us that our flight was considered an International flight because it was out of the Schengen area so we had to go through passport control and our gate was really gate 51 – at the other end of the airport.
It’s 9:15 and our flight is due to leave at 9:50 so we hot foot it through the concourse and to the other side, the international side until we get to the last few gates where you have to go through passport control. The immigration officer commented that we had only spent one night in Norway. But then he saw that we’ve been here before so he wasn’t too miffed that we were leaving so soon.
On the other side, the gates were in our favor, meaning the higher numbers were closer to the main part of the terminal but on the international side, the higher numbered gates were further away – of course – so through passport control and we still have a number of gates to trot pass before we reach ours at the very end. Even though we had been huffing and puffing to get there, we still made it with time to spare as no one was at the desk. That lasted about long enough for me to catch my breath and then the gate was opened and we all entered.
The flight from Gatwick to Oslo was totally full. This flight wasn’t. Apparently most of the tourists come in summer or in mid-winter so once again, we are out of season. We were in the exit row but before we left, people moved around so we all had an open seat next to us.
It is a 2 hour and 45 minutes flight from Oslo to Longyearbyen. It’s way the heck out there in the ocean. So by the time we were getting ready to land, the sun had already been up and was gone again. Very eerie coming into land and all we could see were huge hills out the windows and then some lights on the ground that coalesced into small homes.
The airport does not have gates so you walk down the stairs and across the tarmac and into the terminal and it was slippery. It had snowed week before and then had rained and gotten cold again so it is slippery everywhere as there is a covering of ice over all the driveways and sidewalks. We didn’t go through passport control here though but just got our bags and then went out and got onto the shuttle bus that will drop us at our hotel.
The bus stopped a couple of times before getting to Basecamp hotel. Getting our bags out from underneath the bus and walking into the hotel was tricky because it was so slippery. There were several almost fall downs but we made it. Our room wasn’t quite ready so we were offered a hot drink and to sit and relax. They had a print out of activities that were available, not just through them but with every other company that does things. That makes it easy to choose. There are several things on there that look good.
Unfortunately, my husband is weirded out for some reason. Maybe he’s tired, but the dark at 1 p.m. is bugging him so he’s not sure what he wants to do or if he wants to do. Not sure what I can do to help. We didn’t sleep good last night because of being too hot then cold then hot so maybe he’s just tired.
We get our room finally and it’s the one right off the lobby so that’s handy. She had showed us around while we were waiting. They have a lot of items for sale, many of Masai origin because of their basecamp hotel in Kenya. There is a room at the top of the stairs with a glass ceiling but so far it’s been tough to see anything out the windows. There is also a restaurant attached to the hotel but not a part of the hotel. We are welcome to eat there.
We decide to unpack and then go to the grocery or out to lunch and see what we can find. As we walk out, we decide the first thing we need are the crampons that fit on your shoes. It is so slippery that we are not going to be able to walk around without them.
The first store is just clothing and gifts and two huge bear rugs and a musk ox rug and a buffalo head. The next store has outdoor clothing and such and she shows us a rubber thing to put over our shoes and puts them on my shoes for me. Not cheap but immediately the effect is so much more secure.
We walk to the grocery, better on our footing, and get a few things to go back and have a snack at the hotel. We get Thai spring rolls which, in the end, I didn’t like. But we had buns and cheese too – always a winner.
We decide to do dog sledding tomorrow and sign up for that then sit and read for a while until it is time for dinner and we go to the restaurant attached to the Basecamp Hotel for dinner. It is doing a pretty good dinner trade of mostly locals I think. We get a seat and while they have smoked Minke Whale on the menu, I am not near adventurous enough. What we did get had fairly large portions so I couldn’t eat all of it.
Then back to the room to read and just as we go to bed, a dog starts howling outside our window. At first it sounded far away and like a wolf but then hubby looked out the window and saw that it was a dog. He finally went to the desk and she knew immediately why he had come out of the room and said it would probably stop as they go into the pub and leave the dog outside. She was right, shortly after, the dog stopped and we were able to sleep but we were also too hot and too cold alternately. Need to find a way to keep the window open because they have floor heating so everything is too hot inside.
We were told on the map there is a pink area. And that area is safe to walk. At the edge of the pink area are signs that say polar bears with some Norwegian written underneath. Probably saying don’t go beyond this because of the risk of polar bears. If you are going outside this area, you must take a gun or a guide and also tell someone. If a bear comes within the pink area, they are hauled away by a net under a helicopter. If they come back they are shot. All good to know. Really want to see a polar bear in the wild but in the circumstances so neither of us are in danger.
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