We left St. Louis at 8:00 p.m. and flew to London where we had a 5 hour layover before we boarded our flight to Manchester, changed planes and flew to Oslo where we spent the night. The next morning we boarded the plane which took us to Longyearbyen which is the capital and where 1,700 of the 3,500 inhabitants of the islands reside. Longyearbyen's main industry is coal mining and you can see evidence of the old mines everywhere you look. We checked into our spartan guest house which used to be miner's lodgings. There is a tradition in Longyearbyen that you remove your shoes before entering a building because of the coal miners tracking coal dust everywhere. The next day after some shopping and eating we boarded our ice class ship, the R.V Professor Molchanov which holds 52 passengers and 27 crew/staff. I won't give the names of most of the places we visited because most people have never heard of Spitsbergen much less any place on the islands (well, let's be honest here, I am totally clueless to what they are called and couldn't spell them if I did know their names). When we were on land we had to have at least two members of the staff with us all of whom were armed with flares, a handgun and a rifle in case we met up with a polar bear. Initially they fire a flare to scare the bear and if that doesn't work they'll shoot a few rounds in the air but if the bear is aggressive it will have to be shot (which seldom happens). For the sake of brevity I will just tell about the highlights of the trip rather than going through each day's activities. You may show your appreciation by sending a generous donation to the Barbara and Dave Travel Fund. We saw a reindeer on our first landfall and later that day while we were sailing we came upon a bearded seal on the pack ice. The ship sailed very close to him and he wasn't bothered by us at all. I don't know why they're called 'bearded' because the beard is actually a moustache. He smiled pretty for the cameras and struck some nice poses. The thing I most wanted to see was a walrus but never dreamed it would happen. We were sailing through the pack ice which is the best way to see polar bear when we happened upon a walrus on the ice. We immediately got into our gear and headed towards him in the zodiacs. I can't believe how close we got (they turned off the motors and paddled to within 60 feet of him ((it was definitely and obviously a male if you get my drift)) ). We were so close you could hear the sound of his flipper flapping when he scratched himself. We stayed with him for two hours and he didn't pay the slightest attention to the four zodiacs filled with at least 10 humans in each. On August 13 were were on the ship's bridge when we reached 80° 31'N 20 53'E . . . everyone seemed very excited about this event but once again I'm clueless. I think it's because it's the last latitude that ends in zero before you reach the North Pole (which I assume is 90° but I'm not sure). We set out again in our quest for polar bear but were constantly in a fogbank. The next day we went in the zodiacs to a Brünnich's Guillemots' colony where 100,000 pair nest along with Kittiwakes, Black Guillimots, Fulmars and Glaucous Gulls. Afterwards we headed out to the ice in hopes of seeing a bear but once again our hopes were dashed . . . . sigh. We went ashore on another landing and saw three walri huddled together on the shore. We walked up to them and got within 30 feet but they weren't doing anything interesting so we didn't spend much time with them. While we were taking a hike a bear was spotted on a small island across the water about four miles away but these waters have never been charted so we didn't think the ship would try to get closer - especially since the bear was no longer in view. They did bring the ship closer and we clum into the zodiacs and went around the island and there he was. Just a dot to the human eye and he was asleep with his back to us. He must have heard our motors because he awoke and checked us out. We got very close and stayed with him for about a half hour. Just like the walrus, he posed and smiled and was most cooperative and looked so pretty against the dark rocks. We were elated. On our walk the next day we came upon a small herd of Reindeer and got within 60 feet of them. When, oh when will I ever remember to not take photos until we're close to an animal instead of snapping away the moment we see them. I could save a fortune in film and processing if I would ever learn . . . sigh #2. The ship radioed that they saw a polar bear right where we were supposed to be picked up so we cut our walk short and went to see the bear in our zodiacs. Sadly this bear wasn't as cooperative as the first one and meandered off. On a scale of 1 to 10 I give him a 4. After lunch we went to a canyon where 30,000 Kittiwakes breed. We walked into the canyon and saw at least six arctic foxes one of which walked within 15 feet of several people. They had their summer coats so weren't white but beautifully marked. We now have to sail around the southern tip of the island which was rougher than most of the waters and some people were sick. To those of us that have traveled through Davis Straight, this was a piece of cake. This was the last leg of our Arctic Adventure and we arrived in Longyearbyen after traveling 1,29l miles. We had a great time and enjoyed meeting people from over 12 different countries . . . ain't travel great!!!
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