Friday Aug 18, 2023
Hi All! I hate to even write the words but today is our last expedition day! We did two expeditions. The first one was to Ny-Alesund which is the world’s northernmost settlement situated at 79 degrees north in the northwestern region of Spitsbergen, Svalbard. From the end of the 1960’s, scientific research has been the main activity in Ny-Alesund. At the present time however, it is a research station with scientists from over 10 different countries and only has around 40 residents living there throughout the whole year.
The second location got changed due to fog. We were originally supposed to go to the Ossian Sars Nature Reserve but instead we went inside this fjord to the end where there was this massive glacier. The name was Lilliehookbreen. It was so long I took a panoramic pic and don’t even think I got it all in! And our zodiac went thru all these icebergs that I didn’t think we’d make it through!
In Ny-Alesund we didn’t have to do a zodiac boat since they docked at the pier and we just walked off. There was an interesting museum there describing the old coal industry there. There also was a statue of the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen who was the first to both the North and South Pole as well as the Northwest passage. They also had the original mast that held his Zeppelin that he used to fly over the North Pole and it launched from this exact point. But of course the coolest thing was a gift shop they had there so I could buy stuff for my grandkids!
We also saw both an Arctic Fox and a Harbor Seal… but alas, no polar bear! Bummer! But they told us an interesting story about the Arctic Fox. As part of their research they put a GPS tracking device on one and they said it traveled across the sea ice from Svalbard to Greenland to Canada! That is crazy!
We then had a nice dinner and finished our evening early listening to our friend Chase on the piano since we had to get packed and put our suit cases in the hallway.
We’re sad to end the cruise portion of our trip but we have a few more days left in Norway to visit the fjords! TGIF to all!
The Wandering Italian 