ironmanjt

This is only my second trip report, so any feedback is most welcome. If you want to check out the previous one, it's at this link:

London to Iran and Afghanistan in a mix of C, F, and LCCs

Several years ago when looking at the Travelers Century Club list and figuring out just where some of the strange "countries" they list were, I realised a trip to the north of Norway was a must when I visit Norway in order to go to Svalbard as well. There's a couple of reasons that TCC considers Svalbard to be a "country." The first is that it's a group of islands over 500 miles north of the Norweigian mainland. The other goes back to the treaty on Svalbard, to which 40+ countries are a signatory. The treaty specifies that all signatory country citizens have the right to visit, work, etc in Svalbard and recognizes Norway as the sovereign. Because of this, Norway can't enforce border checks the same way, and Svalbard is outside the Schengen area despite being part of Norway.

A bit of research turned up that there are daily flights from Tromso in northern Norway, so that would have to be in the plans too. A little more research showed that Longyearbyen (the main city on Svalbard) is also home to the northernmost marathon in the world...so that was definitely in the cards as well. A bit of searching on the ANA site, intra-Norway tickets purchased, and everything was set.

This report will be split into a few parts:

I. Washington (IAD) to Frankfurt (FRA) in United First
II. Frankfurt (FRA) to Oslo (OSL) in SAS "Business" and the Hotel Continental, Oslo
III. Oslo (OSL) to Trondheim (TRD) in SAS Economy and the Rica Nidelven Hotel
IV. Trondheim (TRD) to Tromso (TOS) via Bodo (BOO) in SAS Economy and the Rica Ishavshotel
V. Tromso (TOS) to Longyearbyen (LYR) in SAS Economy
VI-a. Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen Funken Hotel, and activities around Svalbard
VI-b. The Spitsbergen Marathon
VII. Longyearbyen (LYR) to Oslo (OSL) and the Radisson SAS Blue Scandanavia Hotel
VIII. Oslo (OSL) to Newark (EWR) to Washington National (DCA) in Continental Business and Economy

Norway would become country #91 on my list of 207 countries, and Svalbard would bring me to #120 on the TCC list of places.

This would also, unfortunately, be my second trip in a row with missed connections, rebookings, and other various flight drama. Fortunately, the Icelandic Volcano which had been spewing its ash straight towards Svalbard for a few days settled down, the airport reopened a couple of days before the trip, and with bags packed, marathon not trained for due to spending most of March and April in a cast, it was time to head to 78 degrees north latitude.

AJO

Crazy Americans, Oslo is not a country

On a more serious note, looking forward to your report as I really liked the Iran / Afghanistan one!

ironmanjt

That's what I get for not proofreading! ...and...corrected!

Flyingfox

[QUOTE=AJO;16526156]Crazy Americans, Oslo is not a country
QUOTE]

Oh yes, if a mistake was made it was certainly because the poster is "American".

These kinds of generalisations become very boring on these boards.

BryanIAH

This is going to be good.

ironmanjt

One of my favourite things about the “New United” is the ability to book one-way awards. Beyond the obvious benefit of being able to book one-way segments, it’s also nice for round-trips. I’d rather book two one-ways than an open jaw…it’s just so much easier to maintain.

Originally, I had booked my outbound as IAD-MUC in Lufthansa First connecting MUC-HAM-OSL on an A321 and CRJ in business. However, when space opened up I did the unthinkable on Flyertalk: I chose United First over Lufthansa first for three reasons. One, the 10pm departure instead of 7pm departure made for a full day at the office as well as more shrimp time in the United First lounge. Two, the single connection in Europe instead of the double connection would get me in about the same time. Most importantly to me was reason three: the aircraft temperature. I don’t know why, but Lufthansa and Swiss have this annoying habit on eastbound transatlantic flights of cranking the heat up to the point where I spend the whole flight sweaty and unable to eat. This was a no-brainer.

After stopping off at the Sheraton Herndon for a Mattress Run (can’t beat their $60 rates with the summer resort promo) I made it to IAD just over two hours before the flight. The Dulles Diamond security was closed, but regular security had no queue at all, so I was right through and in the IFL within 15 minutes of arriving at IAD. Even a blind squirrel gets a nut once and a while! This left plenty of time for the IFL shrimp cocktails and a bottle of Veuve before heading to the flight. This feat is less impressive now that they have the 375ml bottles instead.

The flight had been showing F8 C0 Y0 all week and true to form after boarding there were only three people in first until the door was about to close at which point the nickname of "Employee Class" for United’s First cabin was demonstrated in a most obnoxious way. All eight of the seats were taken by employees – two gay couples and their four mothers. I don’t begrudge it at all - awesome on them for taking the moms on vacation, but eventually I had to ask the flight attendants to talk to them because they were loudly talking to each other across the cabins and generally being obnoxious. “Mom, you have to HOLD DOWN the green button” and "Quick, grab a movie before they're all gone" and such. Indoor voices people!

Left the gate on time, and taxied out to the runway, where Channel 9 suddenly went quiet. A few minutes later the first officer announced that they were “working on a small issue” and we should be set to go soon. Thirty minutes passed and then we got the news that was dreaded: “Um, folks, I don’t know how to tell you this, but there was some dangerous cargo loaded, and in such a quantity that it really shouldn’t be sitting next to each other, so out of caution we’re going to have to return to the gate to unload it.” Um, yeah…. Ten minutes later back at the gate, and the baggage crews are seen removing what appears to be a small duffel bag from the hold, and we’re off. Takeoff is just under 90 minutes past scheduled departure. So much for my daring 50 minute connection in Frankfurt!

After my last trip report, I promised I would do better by Flyertalk and actually take some food pics. Well, I tried a couple, and trust me they're blurrier than the antics of Congressman Weiner on Twitter. I admit I had to swipe the menu from another thread to even remember what it was. The shocking part was, it was the first time on United I can actually remember having a meal I would have paid for in a restaurant. Maybe things ARE getting a bit better!

The appetizer was a jumbo shirmp cocktail with wasabi-infused cocktail sauce. I have to admit I tasted no wasabi in it, but it was still good. Even after the IFL, there’s no such thing as too much shrimp cocktail!
Second course was a mushroom brie soup that was far and away the best soup I’ve ever had on United.

Even the salad course seemed upgraded: Seasonal greens with raspberries, pecans, feta cheese and croutons. Choice of Ceasar or Asian Sesame Ginger Vinaigrette dressing. Have to admit it was pretty tasty.

There were four choices of Main Course:

Grilled filet mignon with port wine demi-glace
Zucchini, yellow squash, and roasted garlic lasagna
Grill mahi mahi with mushroom and sherry wine sauce
Pomegranate glazed duck breast

Despite being tempted by the duck, I went with the big bloody hunk of cow which was miraculously perfectly cooked. A nice medium rare and restaurant quality. Sometimes miracles never cease!

Desert was the usual ice cream sundaes, which I asked for with a bottle of Bailey’s over the top. Flight attendant was nice enough to warn me it was strawberry ice cream, but why not! Strawberry works with a little fudge and Bailey’s too.

After dinner managed to lay down and pass out for a solid five hours, only to wake up 30 minutes from landing. Still plenty of time to brush the teeth, have a diet coke before landing. We’d made up quite a bit of time in the air, but would still be landing nearly 40 minutes late – 10 minutes to bus into the terminal, clear immigration, and make my connection. Um, yeah, that’s going to happen, right!

Overall, the flight was great. I do fault United for the misloading of cargo and subsequent delay, but the inflight service was miles above what it normally is. Hopefully this segment wasn’t an outlier. Off the plane, pile onto the bus, when an agent gets on and starts asking people to shout out their connections - destination and time - so she can determine who still has a chance. After a few, I shoult “Oslo, 10 minutes” and her comment: “you are hopeless, you have been rebooked tomorrow” Not exactly what you want to hear when you know there are several more flights.

Pull up to the terminal, and she says “go to the transfer desk, they will take care of it.” At the transfer desk, I met perhaps the rudest United agent in the entire system. She confirmed there was another flight in just over four hours, but “I cannot book people on a free ticket on that since it is Lufthansa and not SAS” I asked for a supervisor. “No. I just told you I cannot do it.”

After beating my head against a wall with her for 10 minutes I decided to leave the transfer area and try my luck at United’s check-in counters. There another agent managed to put me on the flight, but with no seat assignment since “only gate-assigned seats remain.” Definitely three thumbs down to the Frankfurt Customer Service team. In the end, the misloaded “dangerous cargo” would cause me to get into Oslo nearly five hours late. Never once heard an apology from United.

Next up: Part II. Frankfurt (FRA) to Oslo (OSL) in SAS Lufthansa “Business" and the Hotel Continental, Oslo

knoebelsPT

Great start ^

Looking forward to the rest.

ironmanjt

So let's see, where were we. Oh yes, due to customer service issues and dangerous cargo I was stranded at Frankfurt and transferred from my SAS flight to a Lufthansa flight meaning a delay of four hours. There's only so much time a person can spend in the Senator lounge, plus I'd headed outside immigration and security to actually get booked by someone who cared, so I did what any bleary-eyed redeye survivor would do: camped out at Starbucks. One quad venti lowfat iced latte later, I was feeling nearly human. After about an hour of playing around on the iPhone (thank you AT&T unlimited international data) and fending off a group of cougars from Nebraska who were after my Splenda stash (understandable since they'd been in Europe for two weeks) I headed back through security to the Senator lounge, where I found...

...no würst!!! I mean, come on, that and the beer (ok, and the potato salad) is the only thing that makes the Senator lounges better than Red Carpet Clubs. So faced with that, I decided to take advantage of the only other thing that makes the Lufthansa Lounges nice after a redeye: the showers. Despite being overheated and humid (I'll never understand the German fear of being chilly) the showers are always welcome, plus they offer one of the few places in Germany where someone whose German is as poor as mine can actually practice since the shower attendants rarely speak more than 2 or 3 phrases of English.

Suitably refreshed, and having tucked into all the potato salad and beer I could stomach at 2pm, I wandered the terminal a bit to get a bit of exercise before heading to the gate. Flight left from gate B-3 which was kind of cool to me, only because in all my trips through FRA I'd never been at that little upstairs pod of gates. Of course, it still dumped us into a bus to the gate, but it's the little things that matter to us aviation nerds.

Lufthansa 862
Frankfurt - Oslo
Seat 1A (in the end)
Registration D-AIQR
Boeing 737-600 Manufactured 1992

On board...I was met with an odd gaggle of seatmates. There were fives rows of what passes for "business" on intra-European Lufthansa flights, meaning 20 seats. 18 were occupied today, 17 of which were by chinese and koreans. Not something you see every day between Frankfurt and Oslo I imagined. However, strangely, the two empty seats were 1A and 1C....where I quickly bolted when the door closed and had an entire row to myself. SCORE!

Not terribly much to report on the flight really. The meal/snack was more like a mini tapas platter with a small dessert and a couple of small side dishes. I know other folks here wish Lufthansa would get over their recent asparagus fetish, but I rather like the stuff so I say keep bringing it on. At Fraulein Schwarzendruber's insistence I wasn't able to stop at one bottle of Bier, and had to move onto #2 and #3. Hey, if they're going to burn all that petrol to transport those big heavy bottles across Europe the LEAST I can do is make it worth their while!

So we landed in Oslo...at the last possible gate, meaning we had to trek halfway from Sweden just to get to the terminal. No biggie, at the end was the promised land: the world's largest Duty Free store. Had I been thinking, and had I known what I was in store for on the other side, I would have stocked up. But I was too preoccupied with getting to the hotel, the other Mr Ironmanjt, and dinner.

Out to the SAS Flybussen to the city were I was fleeced for the return sum of around US$45 and it was off to the Hotel Continental.

So, just a brief review here since some people enjoy hotel reviews. Room was "nice enough" and the major worry on TripAdvisor of "loud drunk Norwegians" outside on weekends was mitigated by triple-glazed glass, so all-in-all it was a good deal. Oh, and all the Koreans and Chinese on the flight? It seems there was some sort of Asia-Norway business alliance deal going on in Oslo, and the Continental was ground-zero. Wait, somehow I forgot to mention the breakfast buffet. You'll hear more on this in the rest of this thread, but it seems to be deemed a human right in Norway that your hotel MUST include breakfast in your rate.

I gorged on more bread, salmon, tomatoes, cucumbers, brown goat's cheese, and pickles at breakfast during this trip than one man should be allowed to. Killer cucumbers/sprouts/peppers from Germany/Spain/etc? Pshaw, bring it on! I'm not afraid of killer veg!

Had two days in Oslo which we spent heading from museum to museum. If you're the efficient type who doesn't dwell for hours and hours over each museum, the Oslo Pass is a killer bargain in this city where everything costs two or three internal organs. For around US$50 or so (I forget the exact amount) you get 24 hrs of unlimited public transport and most museums. Considering the average museum is nearly US$20 and one-way on public transport is like $5 the pass is a bargain!

Sorry for the lack of pictures up on til this point, there was seriously nothing noteworthy of taking pictures. Stay-tuned....there are definitely pictures to come!

Next Up: Part III. Oslo (OSL) to Trondheim (TRD) in SAS Economy and the Rica Nidelven Hotel

macabus

deleted

ironmanjt

So having donated a couple of internal organs to the economy of Oslo, it was time to start the slow and gradual trek northward towards our ultimate destination of Svalbard.

The trip back to OSL was very efficient thanks to the SAS Flybussen. I don't know all the details, but this bus service operated in all the airports we flew into on this trip, and was a timely and affordable (all things being relative) option all over Norway. I'd highly recommend it, and based on the number of locals on the busses it's the way to go.

Go to OSL, off to the Star Gold check-in which was quick, friendly, and efficient, and then off to security which was equally so. So far, this is a great economy experience!

Until...we got through security and learned two things about SAS domestic Norwegian flights: (1) there is no lounge...ever and (2) there is only economy on these flights...ever.

Now, #2 is actually a good thing if you have an economy ticket and are *G. The first few rows of the plane seem to be reserved for *G and status pax...but the strange thing is they actually sell business fares on these routes? 1-800-...? Other than 50% bonus EQM I'm not sure what you get, but for us this was great. We killed a little time playing iPad games and drinking $5 diet cokes, and then it was off to the plane.

Flight: SK338 Oslo (OSL) to Trondheim (TRD)
Time: ETD 10:05 ETA 11:00 - on time
Seats: 16A, 16C, 16D, and 16F
Plane: LN-RPL 737-800 delivered in 2000

We had booked the exit row on this flight, and with four of us we took a chance the middle seats would remain open for the 45 minute flight...and they did! Honestly, there's almost zero to say about this flight. Coffee was free (and taken advantage of) and before we knew it we were landing in Trondheim.

Once again, bags were out quickly, and we were on the SAS Flybussen to the Rica Nidelven Hotel. For those who have never visited Norway, it seems to have a complete lack of the major international hotel chains. One hhonors property in Oslo, but otherwise, nothing at all. This would be our first try at a Rica hotel, and overall for no status we were quite impressed.

Checked in, and out to explore. The main purpose of stopping in Trondheim was to find the other Mr Ironmanjt's great-grandparents farmstead, which required a ferry across the Fjord. Was great to see a smaller town, where we were served pizza at the only joint in town by a couple of asian immigrants....for $30 a personal pizza of course!

Other than that, Trondheim was a fun medium-sized town. Enough to see, but not so much you felt you were rushing from place to place on a quick trip. The cathedral was pretty cool, the shopping felt like something out of the 1980s, but perhaps the coolest thing we saw was the Munkholmen Island. This is an island a couple km off off Trondheim which has at various times served as a monastery, Nazi base, and a few other things.





We spent two nights at the Rica Nidelven, home of the "Best Hotel Breakfast in Norway Several Years Running." Remember my previous post that breakfast seems to be a Human Right at hotels in Norway? By this point, you should be excited about this statement.

The breakfast buffet seemed to be included for all guests, and was a massive spread consisting of well over 100 dishes and stations. Several fresh breads for the slicing, at least 10 different types of fresh fish (salmon, herring, mackerel, etc etc etc) cheeses, fruits, eggs to order, etc etc etc. It just went on and on. You could literally stock up here and not need to eat for a day.

The Rica Nidelven probably ranked as the best included hotel breakfast I've ever seen anywhere in the world. Although the actual rooms were pretty average, I can't give this hotel high enough marks for the friendliness of staff (who went on the internet to print out ferry schedules for us) to the great breakfast. Two thumbs up.

Next Up: Part IV. Trondheim (TRD) to Tromso (TOS) via Bodo (BOO) in SAS Economy and the Rica Ishavshotel

BryanIAH

Awesome report thus far! I agree about the breakfasts. It seems that the Radisson Blu hotels offer some of the biggest. I spent over an hour eating at the Radisson Blu across from the OSL airport before flying OSL-HEL!

ironmanjt

We spent a couple of days in Trondheim, and soon it was time to continue the trek north. One note on Trondheim I haven't posted yet, and that relates to the sun. Sunset in Trondheim was officially around 11-something with sunrise around 4am, however, it really didn't get dark before 12 or so, and was already pretty light around 230 or 3am. All darkness would disappear after the next segment, however!

Flight SAS 4556
Trondheim (TRD) to Bodų (BOO)
Boeing 737-400
Registration LN-BRI, manufactured 1990
Seats 12A, 12C, 12D, 12F

One of the things that I was excited about (and I only figured out after booking this flight) is that it was one-stop through an airport with a really cool code. Who wouldn't want to fly to BOO! I'm also working on FUN and DAM... Plus BOO would enable me to add one more to my total number of airports visited in a lifetime.

So, once again we were in the exit row, hoping the middles would stay free. 12E did, however, 12B ended up occupied from TRD-BOO and then empty for the second segment. This is probably a good time to talk about SAS mobile check-in. All of the tickets for this trip had been purchased on the SAS website, and I had given them my mobile number. At flight time minus 22 hours I got a text, containing a link to a mobile checkin site - which worked like a charm. It enabled me to secure exits or bulkheads on every segment...got to love that! Finally a mobile check-in that works!

So the first segment departed before 9am, which on SAS means you're entitled to a free "breakfast." I find it ironic that the airline that charges $5 for a diet coke gives away a free breakfast before 9am....and I stand by my claim that in Norway breakfast must be some kind of human right. Breakfast today was a boxed sandwich with way too much butter and a thin slice of ham on it, so I opted to skip in favour of extra coffee...which was also free. Still $5 if you want a Diet Coke, however.

On this segment the load was easily 95% for the hour or so flight up to Bodų, but honestly there's nothing exciting to report. Landed in Bodų about 10 minutes ahead of schedule, where about 60% of the plane got of....and only around 15 people got on. It was going to be a very light load for the 50 minute continuation up to Tromsų! Another unusual thing about this flight - it was the first time in many years I'd been on a true "through" flight were you didn't have to get off the plane. It felt strange. Soon, the 15 people were boarded, and we were off again 15 minutes ahead of schedule.

Flight SAS 4556
Bodų (BOO) to Tromsų (TOS)
Boeing 737-400
Registration LN-BRI, manufactured 1990
Seats 12A, 12C, 12D, 12F

This segment was empty - maybe 40% of seats were taken which was kind of nice. I finally gave in to the sirens, and shelled out NOK 25 for a Diet Coke on this segment - which is about the most notable thing that happened. Plane went up, plane went down, plane landed 20 minutes ahead of schedule, and life was grand.

Once again, we took advantage of the SAS Flybussen to the hotel, which in the end turned out to be a huge mistake. We had no idea (and nobody told us) that the next day when we planned to return was a national holiday in Norway, and 75% of the busses would be canceled. They were only running every two hours or so, instead of every 30 minutes or so. This resulted in us having to throw away our return portions and take a cab. Boo. (Boo as in disappointed, not BOO as in the airport code ) Note to self: some countries still celebrate Ascension Day as a national holiday. (I'm also now dealing with "Youth Day" as a National holiday when trying to ticket another trip...but that's for another trip report)

So, got to the hotel, the Rica Ishavshotel. Honestly, if you read the last installment on the Rica Nidelven in Trondheim, you get the idea. Was a perfectly adequate, clean, and comfortable hotel, but certainly not the lap of luxury. Once again, breakfast was absolutely amazing with a huge spread. Perhaps the most notable thing about this hotel seemed to be the number of conferences going on. When we arrived probably 30 groups were checking out (in fairness, it was exactly noon) and when we tried to check out, probably 30 more were trying to check in!

Tromsų was quite entertaining for the one day we had on the way north, and we really maximised it. A couple of museums, the "World's Northernmost Brewery and Pub," the "World's Northernmost Botanical Garden" and the Tromsų Cathedral. All quite interesting.

The Botanical Garden. This was just the start of the midnight sun period, so the flowers weren't fully in bloom yet, but still very impressive:



Along those lines - the sun never set here, and it never even got a tiny bit dark. When we finally hit the bed at midnight the sun was still way above the horizon, and it was bright as mid-day outside. However...in my opinion...the hotel was terribly inadequate. Typical hotel shades which you can never get closed all the way, allowing the room to be mostly dark at best. Very happy I'd saved my eyeshades from the flight!

From the Tromsų Museum, "Walrus Fetus" anyone?



Next, we were on to the Polar Museum, which was the story of the exploration of the north, and had a focus on Spitsbergen where we were off to, including this warning poster:



The next stop was the Ishavskatedralen, or Polar Cathedral. A shot from inside:




Next morning we enjoyed the great hotel breakfast, before learning about the holiday fiasco and grabbing a cab to the airport, which turned out to be a nearly 250 NOK ($50) mistake. Oh well, we didn't know about the holiday, and there's not much you can do at that point!

Check-in at TOS was an interesting affair. The SAS counter agent refused to help us despite the fact were were Star Gold, and told us we could only check-in using the automated machines. She refused to have anything to do with us. However, once the machine spit out our bagtags and boarding passes, she was more than happy to demonstrate for us how we should sticker them to the bags. Seriously?! This makes United look full-service!

Next stop trying to figure out the VAT refund (which two weeks later the tracking agency has no record of my application - I'm not hopefully) followed by passport control. Although LYR is in Norway, the lack of enforceable border controls means it is outside the Schengen area, so we had to complete immigration formalities which dumped us into the gate area. There's only one international gate pen here at TOS.

Next Up: Part V. Tromsų (TOS) to Longyearbyen (LYR) in SAS Economy

ironmanjt

So the day had finally arrived....after a night in the land of the midnight sun, we were off to 78 degrees north - several hundred kilometers north of the arctic circle.

There were only about 20 people in the gate area, so we were expecting that the flight would be pretty empty. However, based on the online seat map (available until right before boarding) the flight was packed...what was going on? Soon we realised that the flight was a through flight from Oslo to Longyearbyen with a stop in Tromsų - so that explained it.

Soon the plane pulled up, and over 100 people began to slowly pile into the gate area after clearing immigration to exit the Schengen at Tromsų. I know I had looked into this option when booking, but I felt that a gradual trek north with the chance to spend a couple days each in a couple of other cities would make things more interesting - very glad we did!

Boarding was a pretty chaotic affair. Everyone surged to the podium when the first announcement in Norwegian was made so we followed suit. We'd been unable to secure an exit row at e-checkin time, but the through flight explained why. Lots of folks were probably also connecting off of transcontinental flights and thus checked in quite early. Seems people head to Svalbard without spending any time in the rest of Norway - pity.

We were in two different reservations for this one, with two star golds in one, and two non-status folks in the other. We were able to get 1D and 1F for the star golds, but the first few rows appeared to be blocked for non-elites. However, strangely, they could select the exit row! So, we put them in 12D and 12E and everyone was reasonable happy for a 1:45 or so flight.

Flight turned out to be 90% full, so most middle seats were full. We had a chap who'd come all the way from Sydney between us, so our mild discomfort of sharing a middle for this short flight was nothing compared to how much it must have sucked for him coming off of intercontinental business class!

Flight SK 4414
Tromsų (TOS) to Longyearbyen, Svalbard (LYR)
Depart 12:20 Arrive 14:00
Boeing 737-800
Registration LN-RRF, manufactured 2008
Seats 1D and 1F

Really, not much to say on the actual flight - sorry to disappoint. It went by pretty quickly thanks to a great book and a couple of $5 Diet Cokes, and soon we saw the icy ruggedness of Svalbard below. Our first view was snow everywhere:



Followed by even more snow:



Which was followed by the craggy mountains of southern Svalbard:



Shortly we were on decent into Longyearbyen Airport. I have to admit, it was one of the spookier descents I've done in a long time. There was heavy cloud cover, but when we would pop through all I would see is craggy mountains on all sides. I trusted the 737-800 knew the passes in between, but was still unnerving to pop out of the clouds right between a couple mountains.

Of course, nothing happened, and soon we were landing on the permafrost and doing a 180 on the runway to taxi to the terminal. Bags came out pretty quickly, well, after all of the skin bags, arctic packs, etc. This is definitely somewhere I want to come back to for a couple weeks of camping and trekking in the areas away from Longyearbyen!

Oh, and just one picture from baggage claim:



Next Up: Part VI. Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen Funken Hotel, and the Spitsbergen Marathon

Note: this will not contain any discussions of flying or airplanes, and hardly any discussion of hotels so I'm not sure if it's Flyertalk appropriate, but it was the whole reason for this trip and I wish I could have found a report of it myself online, so I'll post it for those interested.

William S

Good trip report so far. Just as a note if you are going to hike in Svalbard area some time in the future you will need to know how to shoot and you need to carry a gun. You probably know that, but you do not want to end up being eaten up by a polar bear.

ironmanjt

Yeah, it seemed almost comical with no actual polar bears to be seen on this trip but everyone took the threat very seriously...even the marathon had marshals along the course armed with rifles!