Last Updated on May 2, 2023 by PowersToTravel
Back to “Two Weeks in Norway – Trondheim to Tromso – Days 8 to 12”
Day 13 – Fly to Svalbard
Introduction
I had dreamed of going to Svalbard for so many years. I had poked at the trip and it had appeared to be very expensive. I certainly couldn’t get anyone else to get excited about it.
Excited about flying from Boston to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Oslo, Oslo to Tromso and finally Tromso to Longyearbyen? All to see a bunch of glaciers?
However in planning this ultimate two week trip to Norway for Greg, pulling on my previous four trips to come up with both my favorite destinations as well as my dreams, I felt I had come up short. Yes, the trip would be spectacular for Greg – but for me? I’d seen most of it already. The stretch from Lofoten to Tromso would be the only new road, and while Tromso had always seemed like an amazing jewel – a real city set so high on the world – it wasn’t enough to truly excite me.
I reviewed the approximately ten itineraries I had developed – from Hurtigruten cruises with off-season sled dog carting adventures, to small cruises to Geirangerfjord to drives in fjord country. I waited for Greg’s assessment.
“But do I get to see Polar Bears?” was his only question.
“Polar Bears?” I answered in astonishment. “There aren’t any polar bears in Norway.” But suddenly I remembered my dreams of Svalbard where they do have polar bears.
The conversation immediately stopped and I went back to the drawing board. My research began anew. As I expected, the expedition cruises around Svalbard were still so horribly expensive. We couldn’t justify such a cost for a brief vacation when Greg hadn’t seen Antarctica yet, the only place I feel such an such an expense is justified.
However, I remembered a conversation with my mother, back in 2000, when I planned our first Norwegian trip. She was under the misconception – due to Hurtigruten marketing – that the only way for people to access the coastal communities in northern Norway was on a cruise ship. After they returned from their Hurtigruten cruise in 1998 with excitement over the scenery they saw, but disappointment over the lack of photography opportunities, I had started to research the Lofoten Islands.
I learned that while the Hurtigruten is a great way to see coastal Norway, it is not the only or the best way. It is very easy, our future trips would demonstrate, to fly to Bodo, ferry over to the islands with a rental car. We stayed in local fisherman’s cabins fancied up for tourists, and photographed to our heart’s content with no swaying deck under the cameras.
This is all to say that maybe it is possible to visit Svalbard independently, without a cruise.
I found that to be true!
I brought my itinerary once more to Greg: two weeks in Norway and then five extra days in Svalbard to try to see his polar bear. It was an instant success!
The Polar Museum in Tromso
But first, before we got to Svalbard, we had a morning to kill, as our flight did not leave until 12:20. To prepare us for the Arctic cold in Svalbard, we visited the Polar Museum in Tromso, right on the quay.
It was a wonderful place, full of exhibitions and dioramas of earlier life in the polar regions. From hunting to famous explorers, it kept us busy quite long enough.
Flight to Longyearbyen
It was a short drive from Tromso center out to the airport where we would drop off our rental car prior to our flight. The previous day we had been astonished by the public parking lot in the mountain; this day we were amazed by the rotary inside the mountain. Unfortunately it surprised us; I didn’t get a picture since Greg didn’t go round-and-round until I could get my camera out!
The flight was only about an hour and a half, and luckily we would be traversing almost the entire archipelago as we flew to Longyearbyen. The view en-route was truly breathtaking. Yes, we are not in Kansas anymore!
A shuttle took us to our hotel, the Radisson Blu Polar Hotel, which cost a bit more than the Radisson Blu in Bergen. However, I consoled myself with the dollars we were saving not taking a cruise. We checked in and strolled the town. It had all the air of a frontier town – few roads and few buildings.
We were happy to find a grocery store with a gift shop area, a hospital clinic, a Thai Restaurant, and the Svalbar, where we would end up eating many of our meals. I’d planned no activities for our arrival day so we spent a long evening trying to fall asleep in such bright light. Here it was not a matter of dusk, with the sun hovering on the horizon, an orange ball. The sun just sat in the sky at a significant height, and glowed right into our west-facing hotel window. Although there were good curtains, I was simply too amazed and excited.
Day 14 – Searching for a Polar Bear in Pyramiden
Boat trip to Pyramiden
Pyramiden is not a bucket list item for most people, and certainly wasn’t expected to be for us. My goal was to get out on the water, far from the town, to increase our odds of seeing wildlife. We were partially successful in one respect and saw more than expected in other respects.
Pyramiden is a former Russian coal-mining town. We were staying in Longyearbyen, the major Norwegian town in the Svalbard. Norway actually controls all of Svalbard but historically both Russia and Norway carried out mining enterprises there. A significant town up until the 1990s, Pyramiden has since turned into a ghost town, with a couple of ghosts.
We took the M/S Billefjord ship day tour to Pyramiden.
The trip started with a glimpse of some Beluga Whales. Going on a whale watch can be so frustrating because you never know where they will surface, and your camera is just always behind the times. This was my best shot, sorry. Here’s a glimpse of our Beluga whales, a Minke whale, a puffin (we actually saw more, but my camera didn’t), Barnacle Geese and Brunnich’s Guillemots.
We saw remote cabins (what did the owners’ do out here so far from civilization?)
and we came close to a monstrous glacier. What blue ice, even under gray skies.
Finally, after about four and a half hours, we reached Pyramiden, the Russian ghost town:
and our Russian “ghost”, Sasha, one of six guides that live in this desolate place.
Note that he carries a rifle to protect himself and us from polar bears who may stray into the town. If only that had happened… but it didn’t.
Sasha led us on a tour of the entire town, which included a movie theater, cultural center, housing, a dining room, a museum and a post office, all in the same condition as when they were abandoned in 1998. The cultural center was actually quite “cultural” with a theater, musical instruments, even a basketball court. At its height, over one thousand workers and families lived in Pyramiden. It is so hard to believe people lived their daily life in such cold and dark conditions. It’s just as hard to believe that people live their lives in Longyearbyen twelve months of the year, but at least in Longyearbyen they get an influx of tourists almost every month.
To our surprise, they have re-opened the hotel, and people can actually stay here in Pyramiden. We were quite happy with our M/S Billefjorden ship tour and would be happier too, to return to Longyearbyen and our Radisson Blu Polar Hotel.
We saw the northernmost statue of Lenin in the world:
If you want to learn more, read this interesting article about the history of Pyramiden.
Back on our ship, we returned to Longyearbyen, this time receiving far-away glimpses of an Arctic Reindeer:
as well as a fin whale:
On our return to the metropolis of Longyearbyen, we were greeted with a view that would become ever so familiar over the next several days.
Next “Two Weeks in Norway – Dog Sledding and a POLAR BEAR – Day 15”
