Brown & Keene Travel Silversea Cruises

Flights: All flights will start with an international connection into Oslo. Depending on your flight arrival you will spend a night in Oslo or continue on to Tromsoe or Longyearben. Most cruises will require an overnight stay at some point before boarding the ship. SAS services both Tromsoe and Longyearbyen. The planes are 737 jets. The flight to Longyearbyen stops at Tromsoe and you do de-plane clear customs and check your bags again. Flight time from Oslo to Tromsoe and from Tromsoe to Longyearbyen are both about 90 minutes long. If you cannot buy these flights in conjunction with your international ticket you can purchase your flights on line at the SAS website. The flights are always very full this time of year so do not delay in getting your reservations.

Expedition Itinerary-the itinerary of every trip will be different depending on the weather and ice conditions.

Wednesday, June 17^th, 2009 - Longyearbyen
This is the main town and commercial airport for the Svalbard Islands. A small place that is basically an old coal mining town but that is growing in tourism. Only the very hearty people could live here year round. The town has quite a few shops, most selling the type of clothing that is necessary here, windbreakers, waterproof clothing. The favorite restaurant in town is called KROA. We checked it out and it had a nice environment, a very authentic feeling, sitting on seal skins with wooden tables. Everyone we asked suggested we eat here. We all had pizzas (about $15 for a large pizza) and they were good, not spectacular but I do no think you will find spectacular restaurants here. We stayed one night at the Spitsbergen Hotel at the end of our cruise that had basic rooms but comfortable. There is a restaurant at the hotel but it was very expensive and those that ate there said it was acceptable but $150 for dinner for two with no wine. There are numerous day trips out of Longyearbyen, dog sledding, walks, kayaking and outdoor activities. I would not suggest spending a night here post cruise but simply flying home directly from the cruise.

Just a few days ago this bay was solid sea ice but it now in early June it is breaking up into a passable passage. The zodiac made its way around the flat ice pieces and I think our driver was having fun moving in between the ice. The day was SO perfect, the water completely calm and all the mountains were reflecting in the water. The mountains remind me of Antarctica and it is a really beautiful fjord and the Polar Bear sighting made it very special.

We arrived on a perfect day. No wind, scattered clouds and very calm water. This is a beautiful spot. The 14^th July Glacier is wide and right at the waters edge. You can actually walk up on the glacier. The walk from the landing spot to the foot of the glacier is about 20 minutes, this is over a very rocky area with snow and boggy places. There is a lot of moss in this area. This is not difficult but extremely uneven and you can find your self sinking down in the snow or bog so you must be careful and those with any walking difficulty would find this difficult. Once you reach the foot of the glacier it is another 20 minutes to walk and stand on the glacier. Some of this is quite steep. The view from the glacier was great and the area had black ice. This is where the ice is so translucent that it picks up the black ground at the base and the ice looks really black. Quite a unique thing to see.

The bird hills are in the other direction and the hills are teeming with birds of many species. However they are very high so you cannot really see the birds very well except for the noise and activity level of the nesting birds. In this same area you can usually see some reindeer and they were in residence during our visit.

This is a really nice landing. The combination of the mountains, the large glacier, green mossy areas and the blue water of the fjord make a stunning landscape

Blomstrand, Halve
This is a landing all about Granite. A company spent a lot of money setting up a granite production company in this area. Unfortunately the granite was not of good quality and crumbled and the company went bankrupt. This area has the remains of the huts and a lot of the equipment left from the granite operation. Entering this area was very scenic, there is a Russian research center and a small town directly across from the area where the ship had its landing. The little town is called New London and we did not visit the town as we will be visitinganother small settlement later on in the cruise.

Magdalena Fjord
This afternoon we cruised to the Magdalena Fjord. This is one of the most visited fjords on Spitzbergen island. A huge glacier is at the head of the fjord and the scenery is really majestic. A walrus was on an ice flow but a little too far away to get a good picture.

We took a walk on the tundra that was really fun and very spongy to walk on. Certain areas were quite wet so you did have to be careful it was quite boggy. The flowers were just beginning to bloom and hot pink saxifrage flowers and yellow arctic buttercups were seen all over the area. These are supposed to be in full bloom in early to mid July and give carpets of color in contrast to the white ice and snow. The polar bear guards were on duty protecting our perimeter as we spend about an hour walking the area. During our walk many varieties of birds were flying over head and landing on the tundra.

At the landing spot was a wooden hut that is still used by a vacationing family. It used to be a trappers hut. The windows had nails sticking straight out to stop polar bears from trying to break into the windows as they would encounter the nails and back off the attack. There were heavy beams angling out from the building to make it difficult for the polar bears to push on the sides of the building. We found this to be an interesting spot to visit.