An uneventful flight with a solid cloud cover until Svalbard and the island of Spitzbergen is approached.
There is beauty in its starkness. A theme that is repeated often up here.
A brief look around Longyearbyen after being shuttled there from the airport. Apart from the central shops with its tourist traps, it is a fairly industrial and mining looking town, with coal being one of the reasons for its establishment by Mr Longyear just after 1900. There are some nice looking, colourful, houses in net rows along the hillsides, just under the avalanche fences.
Then onto our home for the next week, the MV Hondius. A touch more luxurious than the coastal ferry we were on the previous week. A lifeboat drill, followed by fin whales on the starboard side. A taste of things to come.
