20260615 Monday, June 15, 2026 Longyearbyen, Svalbard Day 1

20260615 Monday, June 15, 2026 Longyearbyen, Svalbard Day 1

As the ship approached Longyearbyen on Spitsbergen Island of Svalbard, a series of texts came streaming from Doug, who was on the bow of the ship in the Explorer’s Lounge with the ship’s naturalist.  Through his high-powered 14x binoculars, he had managed to spot a polar bear on a headland about 3 miles off.  It was a big white spot on a brown background moving around.  The naturalist confirmed this through his 1200mm telephoto lens as the bear turned and began running up the bank; it disappeared around another landmass as the ship continued.  

Svalbard is a very impressive island archipelago very reminiscent of Antarctica, but with a bit less snow and ice.  The mountains that make up these islands are quite impressive, and there are huge tidal glaciers visible in the distance.  

Longyearbyen itself is a small settlement with a distinctly industrial sensibility.  It was mainly a coal mining town, and this is evidenced by the presence of cable-suspended dump carts that were used to transport coal from the mines to a storage and loading facility on the waterfront.  The cable cart network is supported by massive timber trusses.  The coal industry was largely shut down in the 1980s, so the dump carts remain as a reminder of the settlement’s past heritage.  There are scars of old mine entrances on the valley walls and abandoned mining buildings and structures like you might find in western ghost towns, but in an Arctic setting.  

While Viking guarantees one free excursion in each port of call, the Neptune will spend overnight.  There were two “included” tours listed— “Highlights of Longyearbyen” and “Husky Dogs of Camp Barentz”— but you could only choose one or the other, and not both.  A second tour would be at extra expense.  We all had late morning “Highlights of Longyearbyen” tours booked for today, but nothing for tomorrow.  

We were hoping to book a wildlife viewing excursion for tomorrow, but all the excursions on the Viking Excursions App were sold out.  However, Doug and Sandy were able to book two RIB boat tour seats at the Passenger Services desk.  At the time, they said there were 4 openings for a Catamaran boat tour, but within minutes, those had sold out again. 

 
Since we had a few hours before our “Highlights of Longyearbyen” bus tour, we wandered into Longyearbyen with the intent of doing a hiking loop around the town.

Hiking outside the city center required an armed guide to provide polar bear protection, although it is extremely rare for polar bears to wander into the city.  As we walked into town, Mark saw a sign for Svaldbard Wildlife Expeditions on a building, so we went inside to see if it was possible to find a tour for our group.  It took about an hour, but he ended up being able to book us for an enclosed and heated RIB boat tour for a maximum of 12 passengers for tonight at 6 p.m.  

One unusual custom in Svalbard is the removal of shoes when entering public buildings and residences.  We had to remove our shoes to enter the building where Svalbard Wildlife Expeditions was located, as well as the museum.  However, some stores and shops don’t require this of tourists.  

At the time of booking, there were only 2 other passengers booked, so it looked like we’d make up the majority of the passengers for that excursion.  Both Ben and Mark’s credit cards had problems getting processed, but Doug’s card worked to cover all the tickets.  

Janet, Jan, and Sandy walked into town and did some window shopping while “the Boys” worked out the tour details.  Janet found a reindeer wandering in town and got an incredible photo of it.  

Then we all rendezvoused in town in time to walk back to the ship together with just enough time to grab lunch and then head out on our bus tours.  

The bus tour was just that.  The bus did drive from one end of the town (Coal Mine #3), which was just past the Svalbard Global Seed Vault) to the other, which was near the Svalbard Museum.  The bus windows were dirty so it was impossible to get good pictures of anything, and it did not stop at any key landmarks for photos.

Between the coal mine and seed vault was a ravine, and at the bottom of the ravine, we saw a pile of reindeer antler sheds that had washed down from upstream and ended up on a bank.  It would have been nice to have scrambled down there to pick up a reindeer antler for a souvenir.  But the bus didn’t stop except for a brief photo stop at a sign warning of polar bears at the outskirts of town close to the museum. 

The Husky dog facility was between the polar bear sign and the museum.  

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a facility that holds over 1,300,000 crop seed varieties in cold storage.  Countries around the world can use the facility.  It keeps seeds at close to 0ºF with refrigeration, but because it is buried deep in the mountainside under permafrost, even if the power were to be cut, the seeds would be held at a passive storage temperature still safe for long-term preservation.  

The coal mine is linked to the town by cable ways that carried dump carts like gondolas.  These operated until the 70’s but were eventually replaced by large dump trucks.  The cable ways, called the taubanesentralen, lead to an elevated building which transferred the coal to storage and distribution facilities on the waterfront.  

The museum is small but very well laid out and maintained.  There are some taxidermy pieces in the middle representing some of the local wildlife, including what is likely to be one of the only polar bears we will actually encounter in Svalbard.  There were exhibits on what life was like as either a trapper or coal miner, and some on how the Russians, English, Norwegians, and even Americans influenced Svalbard. Longyearbyen is named after John Longyear, an American who established the city as a coal mining town in 1906.  

After the bus tour, we returned to the ship to get something to eat before our 6 p.m. boat tour. When Mark and Doug got a call from the tour company informing us that our tour had been canceled because the boat that we were booked on was actually double-booked and committed to the Viking excursion.  After some negotiations and phone calling by the tour company, they were able to arrange for a private exposed RIB tour as a replacement.  Since Doug and Sandy were already booked for a tour tomorrow, we ended up just booking it for Mark, Jan, Ben, and Janet.  

We scrambled to get into our warmest clothing and got picked up at 6:30 p.m. for a brief ride just down the street to Spitzbergen Adventures, who operated the RIB tour.  We changed into heavy survival suits which were one-piece insulated coveralls with built-in floatation.  It was awkward to get into the suits with all our clothes on, and some layers and gear had to be left behind in the office.  We then drove to the tourist dock where our ride awaited.  We waddled awkwardly like penguins in our bulky gear down the dock and onto the boat.

The RIB looked about 35’ long and was powered by twin 350HP outboard motors.  The pilot and co pilot stood at the back with two rows of saddles ahead for seating.  There were 6 sets of seat backs on each side. Mounting the saddles was very awkward in our heavy gear because it was hard to bend our knees sufficiently to get a leg over the top of the saddles. 

 
Since there were only 4 of us for the 12 seats, we were spread out and reasonably comfortable, despite the awkward saddle seating arrangement.  It would have been very uncomfortable being wedged in with strangers spooning each other along the length of the two long divided saddles.  

We had ideal weather and sea conditions for crossing the strait that separated Longyearbyen and the Borebukta glacier.  The crossing was about 20 miles and took about 45-50 minutes.  The boat cruised at about 35 mph, and in the middle of the sound, there were occasional 3’ swells that called for using our legs as shock absorbers.  

The wind was bitingly cold, but the goggles, gloves, and survival suits we were zipped into did a great job of keeping us reasonably comfortable.  Jan and Janet had some trouble with wearing glasses under the goggles, and unfortunately, our heading across the sound took us directly into the sun, which was glaring at us about 20º above the horizon.  This blinded us from seeing what was directly ahead, so we had to look off to either side while using a hand to block the sun from burning our retinas.

 

When we got across the sound, we encountered floating sea ice that had calved off the glaciers that came long either side of a narrow headland.  On a beach on one side of the headland was a huddle of huge sleeping walruses.  They appeared to be a group of males, or bachelors, because they were all huge and most had scars from fighting each other.  The females are smaller and lack battle scars, and have smaller and more curved tusks.

We had an amazing view of these walruses, although initially, it was a bit boring because they were all sound asleep.  However, eventually, a couple began raising their heads, and one decided to wallow its way down to the water.  When it got to the water, it hilariously just dunked its head under water, lifting it occasionally to snort out water a few times.  He eventually did make it all the way into the water.

We drove around the headland to the main part of the glacier, which was impressive, although Alaska’s Hubbard Glacier is much more impressive.  We bobbed among icebergs hoping to catch a glimpse of a calving, but not much was happening.  Then we saw a lot of bird activity in the far corner of the glacier. The boat sped over toward the birds and we found a pod of beluga whales feeding.  There were probably at least 6 belugas in this pod.  Belugas don’t have dorsal fins, and also don’t display their tail flukes when diving, so when they are feeding, there’s not much to see aside from their whiteish-grey backs breaking the surface behind small blows of spray when they breathed.  

While we were watching the belugas, we heard two loud BOOM and CRASH sounds of something calving.  Unfortunately, the first time it happened, the sound came directly from in the sun, so it was impossible to see the calving, but we did see the resulting wave hit the shore eventually.  The second time we heard the same sound, we couldn’t see anything visible along the face of the glacier, so it must have been an internal disruption.  Eventually, we did see and hear a tiny calving and splash. 

 

We headed back towards Longyearbyen and stopped about halfway to look at a puffin that was swimming by itself.  We had seen a couple of small flocks of what we thought might be flying puffins, but when they are flying, it is very hard to know for sure what they are.  But this little guy was unmistakably a puffin.  

The boat then continued across the sound, but not directly back to Longyearbyen.  We could see the polar satellite antenna farm to our left as we headed to what looked like a city.  This turned out to be Grumant, an abandoned Russian mining settlement.  The Russian mining presence in Svalbard collapsed fairly suddenly in 1996 with a combination of unprofitable mining and a disastrous air crash.  The Russians abandoned Svalbard, leaving virtual ghost towns complete with libraries with books on the shelves and dwellings with furniture and possessions left behind.  
Between Grumant and Longyearbyen is an impressive cliff face that houses many bird colonies, and in the midnight sun, had some incredible colors and patterns, including some invoking Norwegian gnome dolls. 

 

We returned to the ship after 10:30 p.m., although it was still plenty bright outside. We were able to grab a few things to eat before Mamsens closed, but subsequently learned that we could order just about anything we wanted from a very extensive 24-hour room service menu including burgers, steaks, salmon, soups, salads, sandwiches, and desserts.  

Tomorrow, we don’t really have anything planned but will probably take a walk around town to get some exercise before the ship leaves in the afternoon.