Longyearbyen is an interesting place! Small, to be sure, but not small like a village. Feels like a mining town. Streets are dusty and dry like a desert town. Every house and hut has a couple of skidoos out the front, many covered. Some sitting on crates. Down towards the shore there was a skidoo parking lot with hundreds in rows, all waiting for some snow to return.
It was overcast as we landed. From the air we could see rocky black peaks layered with snow, then a blanket of cloud as we decended, then fairly clear from the harbour up to a couple of hundred feet.
We had dinner at the hotel restaurant. Some Japanese or Korean flavour in the wasabi, miso and sweet potato kimchee, but my monk fish was delicious, and the desert of fig and miso pie was delicious.
Tomorrow is forecast to be relatively clear, and to help that along its way, the sky is starting to clear. It’s a quarter past nine and the sun is about to come out. It’s already shining on some of the glaciers we can see around the bay, from our room in the hotel.
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