TheFlyingDoctor

I’ve saved one last activity for its own post, since it was easily the best day of the trip. Whilst the seed vault had maintained my interest in Svalbard over the years, while browsing the excursions available another curiosity caught my interest – the (officially) abandoned Russian mining settlement of Pyramiden. Although express services have since launched, back when I was booking the only option to reach it was to commit most of twelve hours to a cruise. That meant it didn’t make the cut for my original three day itinerary, but when the Finnair flights fell through and I extended the trip, it became viable again.

I’d booked with Henningsen Transport & Guiding, who offer daily sailings billed as the world’s northernmost fjord cruise. Despite my usual focus on enjoying the journey as much as the destination, I had mostly seen the boating aspect as a means to an end, namely of pressing even further north to Pyramiden. Had the fast boats been available, I might have opted for those instead and squeezed in a visit to Barentsburg too. I’m glad they weren’t, as the cruise – helped no doubt by the best weather I experienced in Svalbard – was a fantastic experience.

A bus did the rounds of various hotels to collect today’s travellers for both Pyramiden and Barentsburg - Henningsen operate trips to both each day, alternating which vessel goes where, so it’s important on arriving at the harbour to board the right one! For us today, that was the smaller of the two, MS Langřysund.


That test passed, we were given a safety briefing – donning a drysuit to survive immersion in arctic water is worth knowing how to do, and a bit more involved than the ‘pass the straps around your waist’ of an airplane lifejacket – and rules about moving around the ship were explained. We would have a guide for the duration of the trip; she explained that there would be short talks about various locations of interest; which would be announced five minutes before. In practice, with beautiful weather and a light passenger load, I was usually on deck already for these- plus the views were continuously interesting, and the guide happy to share insights at any time. (Information was delivered in English by default, including the safety briefing).




After a few hours of smoothly unrolling scenery, a wonderful smell had begun to emanate from the kitchen, which I couldn’t reconcile with anything on the café menu… Lunch (included in the ticket price) is an on-deck barbecue, but rather than rely entirely on open-air arctic cooking, they prefer to ensure the meat is cooked through in the ship’s kitchen first. Out on deck, the barbecue added the warmth and spectacle of flames, as well as searing in more flavour via an industrial vat of marinade. Our options today were ribs, salmon and/or whale steak, with sides of rice and salad, plus a locally-cooked bread supplied only to Henningsen’s ships. Obviously whale-meat is the must-try – I was surprised by the tenderness, with plastic cutlery being up to the task of dissecting a steak – but found the taste hard to pin down. (Other guests compared it to liver.) Novelty meat aside, the salmon was my highlight – wonderfully cooked, and huge portions – and the bread was pretty great too. Boat food clearly trumps plane food – although today’s ticket cost more than my flight from Oslo!





Taking lunch inside gave the crew time to sneak up on our other highlighted destination, the Nordenskiöld glacier, which already loomed large by the time I returned to deck. Once we had sailed as close as we could, the crew cut the engines and let us slowly drift through scattered ice. The resulting peace was almost a tangible thing, the only sounds a gentle lapping of waves, and the strange creaking of the towering ice wall, contorting itself under massive forces. The occasional boom would punctuate at moments when the stresses and strains proved too much for some portion of ice and sent it tumbling into the water. Even if my photos could do justice to the view, they cannot capture those sounds, but they’ll stay with me for a long time – my first encounter with a glacier, and truly a remarkable experience.




Whilst parked, a tiny iceberg was fished out of the water in a plastic crate. Once it had been broken up by the crew (assisted by a small child), its purpose became clear once a bottle of whisky was also produced – the world’s northernmost tipple?




Eventually we had to power up the engines and turn our backs on the glacier, although it never quite fell from view as we made our way half an hour along the shore to Pyramiden. Waiting for us at the semi-ruined dock was our guide for the on-land portion of the trip. Remarkably, given the settlement’s official status as a ghost town, he’s a local (one of eight). It’s immediately clear that he’s a bit of a character: the outfit – and facial hair – aren’t part of the job description, he just likes them… The gun is genuine, however, as he would also be our polar bear guard.




We spent a couple of hours on a looping tour of much of the town, with Sasha’s deadpan delivery of historical facts and personal experiences adding considerable wit and insight to the experience. I’ve put a step-by-step version of the tour on my blog if you’d like more of those details, but if you think there’s a chance you could visit, I’d suggest skipping it and going in relatively unspoiled, as I did. I’d been imagining Pyramiden as sort of a polar Chernobyl, but the reasons for its abandonment were economic, not apocalyptic, and the forces of decay work differently this far north. Buildings were designed to withstand the scouring of arctic weather, and I see worse dereliction on some of my commute to work… There are no weeds to overrun yards, no vines to choke walls, no trees to topple through roofs or smash windows – although a polar bear did once break into the (occupied) hotel, clearing out a case of beer from the bar before being scared away.



As well as the hotel (with bar, gift shop and museum – plus the opportunity to get your passport stamped, which I deeply regret missing out on), we were also able to go inside one of the unoccupied buildings, the Cultural Centre. Whilst it’s clearly had better days, it’s still in decent condition structurally, and hard to gauge how long it’s been like this - the plants, whilst thoroughly dead, never quite rotted. Certainly, we weren’t warned to avoid any particular sections, although I’m not sure to what extent health and safety regulations extend to a Russian arctic wilderness…




(As usual, I took more photos than can be comfortably shared here; you can find the rest in this gallery.)

All-to-soon it was back to the Langřysund for our lengthy return journey to Longyearbyen. This was almost three and a half hours, although they charted a different route to the outbound in order to collect a few more sights: beautifully striated mountains; a reindeer playing in water near a shipwreck; Svalbard’s oldest house (the Svenskhuset where 17 perished in 1872). As the day wore we experienced a not-quite-sunset, the light fading as it dipped to (but never quite under) the horizon. By early evening I could no longer resist the lure of the café menu:





I opted, of course, for a waffle (cheaper than Norwegian, but less tasty). The temperature also took a drop, and so I spent more time in the interior cabins – with today’s passenger levels, there was plenty of space for everyone. Shortly before seven we returned to civilisation, at least electronically – with phone and data signals back in reach, it was time for most to settle up the tabs they’d been running at the cafe/bar whilst out in the wilderness.

Thirty minutes later we arrived physically, and I discovered that whilst the water had seemed smooth as glass, with no discomfort at all during our extended sailing, back on land I had a serious case of sea-legs, which took me over a day to correct! That inconvenience is honestly the only downside I can think of – although this was the most expensive excursion on my trip by a considerable margin, I think it was entirely worth it, especially when you consider it fills a day.

If you'd like to see more from the cruise, here's the full gallery although be warned: there are many, many pictures of ice.

TheFlyingDoctor

Room Type: Large double
Nights: 1

I had to switch hotels for my final night since there was no rooms – of any category – available at the Radisson. Checking out it was clear why – a cruise group had arrived and presumably block-booked. They’d also completely filled the luggage store, so whilst I was welcome to leave my case, it spent the day out in the lobby. I figure crime is low in a community this small – my bigger fear is that it would be loaded onto a ship by mistake!

Fortunately it was still there on my return from the seed vault, so I dragged it the short distance along the pedestrian high street to my new digs – the Svalbard Hotell and Lodge. As a business this has existed for a while, but the building I’d be staying in is practically brand new, the rooms having been completed in February. I’d made sure to book a ‘large double’ as a result, to guarantee I’d be in the modern main building.

Perhaps because it’s new, they take the shoe thing more seriously than the Radisson, with a big reminder emblazoned across the floor just as you get through the door. Storage is to the right, and houses a contraption which I can only assume is a double-headed hairdryer for shoes:




Padding across the lobby to reception in my socks, I was immediately impressed with the communal areas – the Radisson lacked social spaces that weren’t for eating or drinking, but here there’s some very cosy-looking seating wrapped around a fireplace and the central staircase.





The room was also clearly very new, and I liked both the wood-cabin styling and the abundance of window (although that did mean a bit more light and noise pollution at night). It’s really not a lot of space though, especially considering they have a smaller room category than this! The bathroom was pristine, and the shower put out plenty of heat and pressure (useful as I spent the next day dog sledding).





This property is not part of Spitsbergen Travel but instead the Svalbard Adventure Group. This means that you can order room service from either the hotel itself, or nearby group member Svalbar. There’s also a small menu of fancy but pricy dinner options at the hotel restaurant, but as soon as I spotted ‘arctic kebab pizza’ on the room service menu I knew which way my evening was heading (I probably should have mentioned a few thousand words back that my trip reports are never going to introduce you to a world of sophisticated cuisine). My first couple of calls to reception went unanswered, but once I got through it only took fifteen minutes for the food to arrive (plus plates and cutlery for two):




This monster, which is presumably meant for sharing, should have set me back 179NOK but I noticed (a few days) later that it had grown to 240 on the bill. Whether there’s extra tax/delivery/plate charges to be factored in, or they just muddled it up with the cheese plate, I don’t know.

Having skipped the restaurant for dinner, I at least got a look at it for breakfast. The range available is less impressive than the Radisson, and of course you don’t get that view, but it’s still a decent start to the day in pleasant surroundings:



Since I wasn’t flying home until the evening I had hoped for late checkout, but the best I was able to negotiate was an extension to 1pm – not much given the standard of 11am, but enough to shower, change and reconfigure my luggage/camera case after a morning of dog sledding.

I’m glad I got to try a couple of hotels here, but as with Oslo I think my recommendation varies based on what you’re looking for. If you have points to redeem or can make use of the ones you’ll earn, the Radisson is clearly the way to go; likewise if you want a more spacious room and better sleep. But the Svalbard Hotell is newer, much more stylish, even more centrally located, and cheaper – I can definitely see an argument for five nights here rather than four at the Radisson.

Seat 2A

What an exceptionally well written and photographed report! Honestly, trip reports don't come any finer than this, all the more so for me personally as those "far end of the world" type destinations like Longyearbyen/Pyramiden have always attracted me.

This one's definitely getting bookmarked as a reference for when I finally get around to visiting there.

Whether I fly there or somewhere else, I will definitely try to avoid Transavia. Those rubbery looking green seats and that lilliputian leg room would not work for me.

TheFlyingDoctor

Thanks for the kind words, Seat 2A. Sadly this one hasn't gained much traction; perhaps I should have picked a title that indicates where Svalbard / Pyramiden are!

As for Transavia, well, it did the job, and it's worth being reminded of the reality of LCC travel now and then. But having made a start on your latest report, it's clearly a very different approach to outfitting a 737-800 than your regular Alaska Airlines experience. Standard pitch is just 29", and even the roomier seats we went for would only be up to the regular leg room on Alaska. Sadly this is the way of the world on European short haul - even on BA, should you find yourself in the last few rows of a densified A319 you'll not have more to work with. At least the seat material Transavia used wasn't as uncomfortable as you might imagine - Norwegian's cabin looks much smarter, but I found their seats much less forgiving!

Anyway, on with the trip...

TheFlyingDoctor

DY397
Dep: LYR Svalbard Longyearbyen 21:10 (local time) 18th July 2016
Arr: OSL Oslo Gaerdermoen 00:05 (local time) 19th July 2016
Flight length: 1255 miles, 2 hours 55 minutes
Operated by: Norwegian Air Shuttle (Boeing 737-800, LN-NHC)
Seat: 8A (Economy)
Trivia: Norwegian is now my third most-used airline

Having never figured out where the airport bus stops for Svalbard Hotell, I had relocated to the Radisson. Pick up from there is about ten past 7, and we’re at LYR in less than 25 minutes.




At over 90 minutes before departure, this is clearly far too early to arrive at an airport of this size. With two check-in desks it's not the smallest I’ve been to – that would be Barra – but it's still a case of use the one queue for the one security lane leading to the one departure gate. However, security was swift – no problems with shoes or belt through the metal detector – so I’m airside by 19:45.

Which raises the question of now what… It’s a nice terminal: high ceilings, clean, reasonable seating, some art, a café, nice bathrooms, free water. But we have 80 minutes to kill and this savvy traveller left all his snacks in hold luggage. At least there's two hours of free Wi-Fi.





Halfway through the wait, the inbound (LN-NHC) arrives. They get it cleared out and ready for boarding within fifteen minutes, so by 20:45 I’m in my seat.




As one of the first on I got a photo of an almost empty cabin, but a member of cabin crew objected and so I deleted it rather than quibble. I'm sure you know what a 737 looks like, and if not, I was able to keep this one looking forward:




There seems to be some confusion about seat assignments with various debates taking place around me, but thanks to a light load everyone settles into an arrangement they're happy with even if it wasn’t what they were booked into. Fortunately this leaves the seat adjacent to mine empty when doors close at 21:00 – who needs Club Europe?

Norwegian’s fleet is pretty modern; this plane is barely 18 months along from its first flight, and this translates into a pleasing cabin environment. For instance, not only is there mood lighting, but it changes colour when announcements take place. The estimate is for 2h50 of flying, and we spin up a minute ahead of schedule for an on-time departure. Ten minutes later we’ve punched through the clouds and are on our way.

Service is at 21:35; an advertised waffle and drink combo at 60NOK doesn't apply to water so those run me 40 and 30 respectively. This time there's a swift second pass to collect rubbish, so I'm served, fed and cleared away within fifteen minutes.




The Wi-Fi is misbehaving; at 22:15 they announce they're trying to reset it, but it's another half an hour before they succeed. Thanks to their efforts I can tell that when we spot land below at 23:10 it's somewhere near Trondheim. However, I'm mostly keeping my eyes to the horizon for my first sunset in five days. As descent commences at 23:30 I learn that despite the hour it's probably warmer than I've experienced for a while too: 14C and no wind.



We set down reasonably smoothly, with the seatbelt sign switching off precisely at midnight. Trouble with the jet bridge delays us another ten minutes, during which they inform us that even for domestic connections you'll need to clear customs and hence collect your bags. Emerging into a deserted terminal with the travelators powered down, it’s easy to imagine we’re the only activity this late... The baggage hall rapidly dispels that notion, with hordes of people and four different flights assigned to our belt. We get moved to another one, but regardless of ‘bags on belt’ status nothing is moving. Whilst it does eventually spring into life, we're thirty minutes into Tuesday before I'm reunited with my case (and snack stash). Fortunately it's less than ten minutes to the hotel, as I'm familiar with the route from February- and unlike then, it's not snowing!

Seat 2A

Kiwi Flyer

Thanks for the great report TheFlyingDoctor ^

I think quite a few FTers have either been to Svalbard, or are wanting to go (or like me both).

eigenvector

Very nice TR. It's always good when people include a lot of the destination(s) and not just the flights. Now that you have seen Svalbard, you should come visit the far north of Canada. Baffin Island is a very similar landscape to Norway just with way less "stuff"!

henrus

I don't normally respond to trip reports but this one has been great and you've done a great job explaining Svalbard.

Svalbard has been on my bucket list for a while but the majority of the time I'm in Europe, its winter and I'm not sure how good it would be to go up to Svalbard in December/January.

TheFlyingDoctor

Thanks for the tip - I have plenty on both my Canadian and arctic shopping lists, but hadn't been aware of Baffin. Will keep it in mind!

TheFlyingDoctor

Since my original plan was to use the Finnair flights and they only had a narrow schedule - just six weeks if I recall correctly - this was always going to be a summer trip. 2016 was looking set to be Longyearbyen's warmest on record, and the first with average temperatures above freezing. My own visit coincided with particularly mild conditions - double digits celsius! - so I probably have an inflated sense of my ability to cope, and therefore am keen to revisit when there's snow on the ground.

I think dec/jan would be particularly punishing due to the lack of light, which would also make photography challenging (a major reason I like to travel). But I did get emails suggesting a christmas visit, and skipping the activities and just settling in to a comfy hotel room to watch arctic winter raging outside has some appeal!

TheFlyingDoctor

Room Type: Standard Guest room
Nights: 1
Club Carlson points earnt: 2484 (Base points 1840 + Gold 35% bonus 644)

I spent less than nine hours here and was trying to sleep for seven of them, so this will be the briefest of overviews for completeness. I'd emailed ahead to advise that I’d be arriving very late (well, very early, but you understand), but this was no problem as reception is open 24 hours. However, the night shift don't seem too fussed about Club Carlson: no mention of my membership, or any sign of a welcome gift / upgrade. I'm asked if I'd like breakfast for an extra 150NOK, but I figure I can survive until I reach the airport lounge.

To be honest I'd been hoping for an upgrade just so I could recycle photos from last time, when I was bumped up to a more spacious ‘business friendly’ room. But I delayed heading to bed by a few more minutes to grab you these:



The high tech bed has USB charging points – handy when your adaptors are buried in luggage – and the colour strip can be adjusted to your preference with a touch-sensitive wheel. Since it was now 1AM, my preference was to switch it off and call it a night, combining the inevitable pair of single duvets as best I could.

My only remaining notes are that at full chat the shower will flood the bathroom; and I managed to get from room to terminal via checkout in nine minutes. So let's resume the tale there...


 

TheFlyingDoctor

BA763, 19th July 2016
Dep: OSL Oslo Gaerdermoen 11:50 (local time)
Arr: LHR London Heathrow Terminal 5 13:20 (local time)
Flight length: 750 miles, 2 hours 30 minutes
Operated by: British Airways (Airbus A321, G-MEDN)
Seat: 6F (Club Europe)
Trivia: The only longhaul seat I flew in this year

My swift turnaround at the hotel means I’m in the terminal a little after nine… only to realise that there’s no BA check-in staff available. I had imagined the desk would open three hours out – and if it turns out to be two, I’d rather had had an extra 45 minutes in bed! Fortunately things seem to get going around 9:20, which is good as by that point there’s a couple of dozen similarly mistaken / cautious passengers milling around. As the lines form I’m glad that all but one couple head for the economy lane. Unfortunately instead of serving them, the staffer for the Club Europe queue vaults the desk and wanders off to get a coffee…

By 9:35 I’m making my way to security, for a rather more premium experience. I spot a fast track lane; it’s empty; I’m eligible; I’m airside in 30 seconds. Bliss.




BA don’t operate their own lounge, but honestly I don’t think they should try to, based on what they use instead. It's a shared lounge – the straightforwardly named ‘OSL Lounge’ – which you can also pay 300NOK to access. However: half of the lounge is specifically for passengers travelling in business class. This is furnished to a much higher standard, and when I arrived I discovered that a) I was the only guest and b) the pastry of the day was waffles. So I took advantage of the lack of company to grab photos – this is easily the nicest lounge I’ve been in all year.





The only disadvantage is that despite the array of expensive beverages, there’s no still water to be found – if I ever wind up in charge of lounge policy, there will at least be a tap in all of them… Another guest arrives after 15 minutes and numbers slowly build after that, but it never feels busy and remains impressively quiet. There’s no tarmac view from this half, instead offering a lofty vantage point to observe the BA check-in area, where a deep queue has now formed.

In the interests of completeness I took a look at the regular half of the lounge before heading to the gate – here I discovered more substantial food (Irrelevant; business half had waffles), still water, plenty of natural light and a bit of a tarmac view. Again, it’s large enough to not feel crowded, although there are definitely more people around which makes taking photos slightly awkward, and the furnishings don’t look as comfortable.





I set off for the gate, and since that’s another trek out to the F pier, it’s ten minutes before I find a new seat there – although admittedly, I got distracted by a shiny new Norwegian Dreamliner. I should try their longhaul offering at some point! At 11:20 they begin to call all types of priority boarding – in norwegian, but I’d recognise the marketing-speak in any language. So I’m the fifth of us to enter the overheating jetbridge and make our way aboard today’s aircraft: G-MEDN.

BA does not, officially, have a midhaul offering – you either have shorthaul (Euro Traveller and Club Europe) or longhaul (World Traveller and Club World, then maybe World Traveller Plus and/or First). However, when it absorbed BMI it inherited some airbus A321’s in a fixed two cabin config – 131 economy seats, and 23 Thomson Vantage business seats which have IFE screens, are arranged in an alternating 1-2/2-1 pattern and convert to a fully flat bed. These planes are typically used for destinations like Beirut or Moscow, but they find their way onto shorthaul rotations too and for me it’s easy to check where they’re headed each season. With no long haul flying, this is as good as it gets for me in 2016!






Although the service remains Club Europe, one of these seats is a definite improvement over the usual offering, which is effectively economy with a blocked adjacent seat –here in 6F, there are no adjacent seats! As well as this extra space to spread within the row, there’s far more leg room than you’d normally get too, thanks to a footwell cut into the row ahead. At-seat you get a light and mains/USB power, and although films etc. shouldn’t be active on the IFE screen, you at least get a decent moving map. Plus of course the seat can be configured into a variety of reclines, all the way down to flat, at the touch of a button. About the only limitations of my spot are the lack of seat-level bag storage – although with direct aisle access retrieving items from the overheads is no great hardship – and the window is basically flush with the back of row 6 so I don’t have as much view as you might find elsewhere in the cabin. Still, I prefer the space and privacy of the solo seat and this looked the best one left.





By 11:40 we have everyone aboard, and the flight deck annoucement explains the unusual config and that the IFE will indeed be inoperable for this short haul service – but we should enjoy the bigger seats. They expect 1h50 of flying, with an “absolutely corking day” awaiting us in London with temperatures already in the low 30s. Equipped for the arctic, I may be over-dressed…

We leave the stand five minutes later, and just before midday are making our takeoff roll. This offers just a tad more oomph than my usual diet of A320s and B737s- I’m glad I padded my camera bag well as I hear a lot of movement in the overheads.

Hot towels – still don’t really understand them – are swiftly deployed at 12:05, and lunch makes its way to me by 12:20 – although I am the last row of passengers. There’s no choice (other than selecting your preferred roll from a separate basket) or hot element, but I think the cabin crew’s description to the previous row of “it’s just a plate of meat” is perhaps selling it a bit short… there’s a reasonably variety on the tray and (especially compared to the outbound) there’s plenty of it: 15 minutes of munching away and I’m full with plenty still left on the plate. Shame about the lack of a dessert component though.




Fast forward half an hour and we get twenty minutes notice of the impending seat belt sign. At 13:20 I spot the Suffolk coastline – plenty of familiar places down there, but it all seems impossibly flat after my time nestled in Svalbard’s valleys. We make lazy ovals in the sky above Essex, with instruction to belt up actually coming at 13:45.

With quite the cacophony of heavy braking we’re down just after 2pm local, which I promptly correct back an hour to local. The pilot was right, as Heathrow is looking seriously sun soaked as we trundle off in search of a gate. We get to one in about a quarter of an hour… but it’s out at Terminal 5C, so I make my way back to the main building by my beloved tunnel.



I clear the border and baggage halls in less than ten minutes, thanks to my case being the second onto the belt. Ordinarily that would be the close, as I grudgingly make my way to a bus for Slough, but this time I have one last hurrah. Priority Pass had recently linked up with the Sofitel – the only hotel connected to Terminal 5 – to offer their Club Millesime room as an arrivals lounge. I was curious as to what it offered and whether you’d need to have actually arrived on a flight to use it, but rather than risk the indignity of being turned away if that was the case, waited until I was flying in rather than passing through the terminal for work.




Based on my experience, the pass is indeed sufficient. The lounge itself is not large, and at this time of day refreshments were limited to fruit and drinks – it looks like there’s a space for food in the evening, though. Plus they can store your case at reception, and showers are available in the gym which is close to the lounge. So it’s an option to keep in mind, but after leafing through the newspapers for a bit I decided it was time to admit my adventure was over, and head home.


So there we go! For those of you who have waded through close to 20,000 words of my witterings, I can only hope you found something of interest along the way. Whether based on the travels or the writeup, this is my first report in over a year, and I’m not sure when the next one will be (here's the previous one). The obvious travel highlight of 2017 will be my honeymoon, but I doubt I’ll be taking notes on that one. However, I’m sure small trips will continue – which you can find on my blog – and no doubt I’ll get the itch for some more bucketlist items soon enough. Thanks again!

kamchatsky

Excellent TR! Thank you for writing this! I am from the other side of the world of LYR (SYD) and I am facinated by the TR and the photos!

cedric

Great report! Thank you.