Oslo: Norwegian boats and blonds

We closed out our trip in Oslo, the beautiful capital in the southeast part of Norway. What we saw was sort of a combination of San Fransisco, CA and Williamsburg, VA in the US. It snowed as we left Svalbard (78 degrees North) but it was near 75 degrees Farenheight in Oslo. On the 18th, we took the Hop On, Hop Off two-decker bus to a sculpture park, the outdoors "Folk Museum" and the Viking Museum (and several other maritime museums). We then took a ferry ride back to Center City, where we relaxed on the docks for early evening. Pictures follow: The above were all from the Folk Museum. The Stave Church and farm storage house were 1700 style buildings, while the latter picture was chosen to show a folk Norwegian costume - Not! From the harbor area, here is a Viking ship from about 800 AD, the Kon tiki which they sailed from Peru to the South Pacific (to show it could be done) and a current harbor scene: For our last day, we visited the cultural Historic Museum, the Edward Munch Museum, and a local, non-tourist neighborhood called Grunerlokke. On recommendation from a helpful nurse travelling on our tram, we had a late lunch, early dinner at a Turkish Cafe, Noah's Ark. It was a superb end to a very special trip. Only one or two more posts for this trip; we will close with a recap, and perhaps a "homecoming" blog.

Longyearbyen - leaving Svalbard

We arrived in Longyearbyen, the largest town on the Svalbard Islands, last night. So today, June 17, we had a brief walk around the town, and then took off for Oslo. Here are views from the museum in town, the town, and the front of the airport. We are on the way home!

No winners in this beauty pagent

For our last full day in Svalbard (June 16), we travelled to Poolepynten bay, to see if we could find walrus - oh, we found them! These guys really flop about getting onto shore, and then they love to all get to the same small area of the beach. Formidible in the water, they are more vulnerable if solitary on the beach. So, as we are leaving for our zodiaks to return to the ship, we had to wait a bit while more big boppers arrived: In the PM, we climbed a steep hill to the St. Jonsfjord glacier. On the way, a nesting ptarmigen surveyed the fjord.

Hornsund - Visual Garden of Eden in Rocks, Snow and Ice

It was rock and roll getting here (June 15), but the waters are calm in the bay Burgerbukta facing the Muhlbacherbreen Glacier in Hornsund. We thought it might be warmer due to the Gulf Stream on the west side of Svalbard, but here the mountains rise straight up, and everything is covered with snow. We are way north of the Arctic Circle. We are in a bowl of beautiful, snow-capped maountains with glaciers flowing down in between the cliffs. We tokk a zodiak ride in the AM to the glacier, and then walked part of the base of Mount Gn-lodden (don't you love the spelling of some of these places?) in the PM. Pictures of the bay and mountains follow: In front of the latter scene, you can see more of the purple saxifrage coloring the tundra at the base of the mountain. We may add a link to a review of the litchen, moss, and grass we saw. Small, but also beautiful in this rugged terrain. We also saw our usual kittiwakes all around.

Cliffs and puffins

In the afternoon of 6/12 we travelled to the northern tip of Bear Island where there is a weather station manned by 11. Purple saxifrage and Tufted Saxifrage (orange) greeted our arrival. While small, they lend a splash of color to an otherwise drab, stoney tundra landscape. Here are pictures of each: We came here, however, primarily for the dramatic cliffs and birds. Here are pictures of Little Auks, puffins, and fulmars: The weather dog and waterfalls from the cliffs round out our highlights for the day.

Kapp Lee - 6/14

We came to see walruses, but we saw reindeer from afar instead. Wild animals are not always predictible. Pictures today include rugged geography, bones, our "Ninja Bear Guard" and reindeer from afar. Addendum: the Polar Bear Plunge attracted 20 jumpers - here are three jumpers, swimming, a view across the water (for verification) and the jumpers' final resting place.

Bear Island - South 6/12, in the AM

We sailed 200 miles north of the North Cape to Bear Island, and made two stops: AM in the south, and PM 20 miles further north at the northern tip. Bear Island has a sedimentary, limestone geology formed below the equator, but shoved north when North America broke free from Eurasia. Steep cliffs and a mix of warm and cold water make this an ideal home for seabirds. In the south we identified three types of guillemot (common - all black head; common bridled morph - with what looks like glasses over the eyes; and runnich, with a white stripe coming off the bill). Here are pictures of each: We also saw gulls, kittiwakes, and fulmars, sometimes individually, and sometimes in large flocks. Here are more birds: A Russian fishing ship ran aground alond the cliffs in 2009. Here is all that is left five years later: Meanwhile, the Silver Explorer awaited our zodiak's return.

Narvik 6/10 - and some history

We sailed into the extremely wide Ofotfjorden to Narvik, June 10. From there we took a mountain train to Katterat and then a pristine walk toward Rombaksbrua. Pictures of our walk follow: Imagine the later scene being 70+ years ago filled with a fleet of destroyers coming around the point. In WWII, Finland was aligned with russia, Sweden with Germany, and both Norway and Denmark tried to remain neutral. Neither Great Britain nor Germany was willing to respect Norway's neutrality. Britain needed to protect its northeast coast, while Germany (a) needed warm water ports for its flfeet, (b) needed Norwegian fishiing stocks for wartime sustenance, and most importantly, (c) needed the output of the Swedish Kiruna mines (connected by rail to Narvik - the same rail we rode). Even today, after a century of production, the mines send 60-car trains of 100 tons each, every two hours, 24/7 all year long, or 30 million tons of ore annually. The ore is 60% iron - most mines produce 6% iron. Here is a view of the Narvik loading dock: As we returned by small boat to Narvik from our walk, we passed part of a sunken German destroyer. As we neared, we could smell leaking diesal fuel - leeaking 70 years after being sunk. early in the war, the German navy including 11 destroyers, captured Narvik and then the Royal Navy with destroyers and a battleship sunk the whole German fleet in and near Narvik. This greatly hampered Germany's ability to iinvade both Great Britain and Russia in WWII.