Paintings, drawings, sculpture and writing
I had the amazing opportunity to visit this restaurant and indeed all the other fabulous places in Norway that I got to see because of my travelling companion Heather who researched so diligently. Without her hard work I would certainly have missed all the best stuff. She booked all the trips and decided which were the best things to do, what a champion. perhaps she might change jobs and become a tour guide/organiser. They even made the Heather Honey ice-cream in her name!
Taking a boat trip was the probably the best thing we did during our visit to Svalbard.
We sailed on MS Langøysund with our guide Stein (pronounced more like Stain) from Henningsen Transport.
Steaming off around the western tip of the mountain range to the north of the harbour, we saw a few Minke whales as well as lots of different seabirds, even Puffins. The land around seems almost barren with no trees but plenty of grass and moss and in a few weeks there will be colourful shows of wild flowers.
As we passed Bird Rock on the southern side of Sassenfjorden, thousands of birds were swarming, swirling in the skies and screaming into the wind. A sharp-eyed young man shouted out “there’s a fox” we could just make it out as it ran with a white bird in its mouth, seeking his foxhole for some privacy.
Longyearbyen is the largest permanent settlement of Svalbard, with a population of just over 2000. It is fully dark for 4 months during the winter, the sun never rising above the horizon. In summer the sun stays well above the horizon 24 hours. So dusk and dawn only happen in Spring and Autumn. Northern Lights are happening all the time but they can only be seen when the sky is dark.
We spent 4 days here, beginning with a bus tour lasting a couple of hours, slowly driving around the outskirts and through the town being shown various points of interest, whilst being served traditional dishes from the area. Lamb that had been dried for 6 months, dried fish and two kinds of smoked or dried pork. All of which were quite chewy but surprisingly tasty, though the fish is definitely an acquired taste.
Later we were served with a large plate of delicacies, including reindeer heart, very tender and savoury, three kinds of smoked fish, mashed swede, and cubed beetroot and pickled berries. All delicious – though I didn’t eat the swede, bad memories from school days. Several cheeses were served last of all along with a small pot of cheesecake made with Norwegian “fudge” cheese. Artic Tapas Tour
The remains of one of the first coal mines, unusually the strata is horizontal and each coal seam is around 2 metres in height. The town-scape is dominated by abandoned and decaying signs of its earlier coal industry.
Ben is an enterprising young man exploring solutions for growing fresh green foods in challenging conditions. He is building an enormous greenhouse to supplement the local diet. The structure is based on Buckminster Fuller’s Geodesic Dome. It will be covered with one of three types polythene . Whatever the angle of the sun there will be a panel perpendicular to it maximising the intake of heat and light. The local temperature rarely exceeds 7C even in summer. The structure available in various sizes from Arctic Dome Greenhouses also has extremely high wind resistance.
What a delightful town, we had a great time there, just for two days. In the Arctic Cathedral we attended a midnight concert of Norwegian folk songs to celebrate the summer solstice, sung by Harald Bakkeby Moe, accompanied by Hanne-Sofie Akselsen on flugelhorn and Robert Frantzen on piano.
Despite the poor weather we took the cable car ride up to the hill behind the cathedral with spectacular views over the town and mountains beyond. We were lucky to have a short-lived break in the clouds.
At the Polaris museum where we saw a great film about northern lights, all caused by gas escaping in bubbles from the sun and then interacting with magnetic force fields. Of course we didn’t see the lights as it was 24 hour daylight but the interaction still goes on, we just don’t see it.
Two days in Tromso to get accustomed to the midnight sun, then 3 days in Longyearbyen, the most northerly permanently inhabited place in the world.
They say midnight sun but we have yet to actually see the sun. It is light all “night”, very light but the hills around are permanently swathed in low cloud. Today, our last day, we are forecast for some sun. We’re sailing north to Pyramiden, an abandoned Russian mining village, which will look even more dramatic if the sun appears.
Sally Wakelin - Studies in Creativity 
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