This travel update is part seven of our week in Longyearbyen, Norway. It covers August 1. “Any text in quotes and Italics has been copied and pasted from some informational website like Wikipedia.”

August 1, 2023 – Tuesday: The Polar Exploration Museum

We took it easy this morning, kind of resting up from the past two days of hiking. Then at lunchtime we went out and I got lunch from the hot bar at the Coop grocery store and Patti got a cinnamon roll from a bakery to eat along with a banan. After that we walked down to the water because we were curious about how cold it was. There’s a rocky beach along the fjord at Longyearbyen and we both put our hands in the water. It was, indeed, cold.

There were some white seabirds near the beach that attacked Patti. I guessed that they were protecting their nesting grounds that were probably nearby. You can see one of them at the top of this picture and Patti is waving her arms to ward it off.

The birds made loud sounds of clicking and screeching that I could easily hear.

After the waterfront we walked over to the Polar Exploration Museum and spent a couple of hours there learning about the early explorers. I refreshed my knowledge of Roald Amundsen’s trip to the south pole in December of 1911, and learned about his flyover of the North Pole in May 1926 in the airship Norge. I didn’t realize that he was the first to see both poles.

After the museum we stopped at Kroa, where we’d previously eaten, to have supper. I got the moose burger with sweet potato fries and a cream cheese with lingonberry sauce. It was good!

After supper we went back home to do some pre-packing for our journey tomorrow.

So, what are my impressions of Svalbard and Longyearbyen? In my opinion it’s an exotic place to go, placed well within the arctic circle, where you get the midnight sun in the summer and 2 months of darkness in the winter. It looks like most of the industry here is focused on tourism. I’m glad we came here — it was quite the experience ~ another amazing adventure!!!

Future Plans

• We are currently staying at an Arbnb in Longyearbyen.
• August 2: We fly SAS Airlines from Longyearbyen to Tromsø.
• August 2 – 10: We reserved an Airbnb in Tomsø.
• After Tromsø, we may head south down the coast of Norway, making reservations as we travel along.
• October 17 – December 3: No plans yet.
• December 3 – 9: I will be participating in research in Durham, North Carolina, at the Med-El facilities there. Med-El is the company that made my Cochlear Implant. I’ll spend 9am to 4pm for five days being a lab rat. They say they will test various new programming options for my cochlear implant with the goal of improving their systems. It should be fun. I’m looking forward to it.
• December 9: We drive to Bradenton, Florida
• December 9 – 31: We reserved a cabin at Horseshoe Cove RV Park in Bradenton, Florida, where we stayed last year for two months (November and December). We look forward to singing in the Christmas Choir again.

2024

• January through April: We plan to travel through Belize, Costa Rica, and Panama. We don’t have reservations yet.
• May and June: We reserved a cabin at Horseshoe Cove RV Park in Bradenton, Florida. We’ll spend these two months getting our yearly medical stuff done and visiting with family and friends. May and June are “off-season” in the Sarasota / Bradenton area, and the rate is $56 per night for these 61 days, which is pretty good for a place like this in this location. In season, January through March, the price doubles.
• After June 30, we have no plans, but we are entertaining options about where to travel next summer. Maybe Germany/Austria/Switzerland.