Introduction

We flew to Oslo, Norway, then flew to Longyearbyen the next morning - this was about a 3 hour flite. Not quite to the North Pole, but getting close. Svalbard is a group of islands half way between Norway and the North Pole. The largest island is Spitsbergen.








We boarded the ship, which was a Russian Research Vessel that had been converted to a "cruising" ship - we had about 50 people total in our group. The accommodations and food were comfortable - but certainly not up to Princess Cruise standards (which was fine with us).








Going ashore:

Scenery

It's hard to describe this part of the world. We left Spitsbergen and headed out to the ice, in search of polar bears and other wildlife. The vistas were impressive ... just amazing to see the vast fields of ice and the mountains. Took some time to adjust to having daylight almost 24 hours each day.

The Birds

During the first three days, we didn't have much to do as we were traveling to the areas where we might find the polar bears. We entertained ourselves by learning how to take photos of "birds-in-flight" from the deck of the ship. It was hard at first, but we began to have a bit of success. Conditions ranged from bright sunshine (at 2 am in the morning!) to fog, rain, and snow.

Seals

We saw seals sunning on the ice as we motored by. Most didn't seem to mind posing for us.

A Polar Bear

We saw a few polar bears during our trip, but one female bear was our star model, as we saw her on a few different occasions. At one point, she was lounging a short distance away from the ship. We were fortunate because we had a perfect view from our cabin, and the close-up photos were taken from our porthole.

I am the Walrus

We saw a number of walruses on the ice floes, but the most exciting viewing was on one of the land excursions. They were curious creatures, and we were able to get quite close.