Day Two (6-10-12)

Hello again,

So, we travelled through the night, waking to find ourselves surrounded by mountains. You are looking at the ships and our zodiacs in action on our first outing.

The mountains remind me a lot of Alaska except that they are smaller. As we cruise through fjords, I never stop being amazed by the number of glaciers. Every couple of mountains or so lie valleys & most of the time these valleys have glaciers. Some of the glaciers seem to be receding, but much of the time they are good size - not huge, not always spectacular. But for me each glacier renews my sense of awe. The largest glacier today was the result of two glaciers merging. It was the first time I've seen that.

Ny-Alesund is an old mining camp that has been turned into an international scientific research and environmental monitoring station. At 79* north it is the world's northernmost permanent settlement. The population varies between 30-150 depending on the season (summer is busiest). I guess this means it's summertime.....

This site is important for another reason too. Amundsen (a polar explorer) and crew are credited with opening polar flight. They were the first to fly over the North Pole in 1926. This is the mast that was used to moor the airship.

This train was brought to Ny-Alesund in 1917 to transport the coal.

The North Pole Hotel :-)

The northernmost post office where I had my passport stamped (poorly, unfortunately)....but I know I was there!

About the land. At first glance the Arctic looks so barren - with no animals or plants. But it not true. As we walked over rocks, snow and mud we found tiny flowers like this:

After Ny-Alesund we returned to the ship for lunch and cruised a bit further for our second zodiac trip of the day. We first stayed in the zodiacs to cruise near the cliffs where birds nest.

Then we went to shore again....this was a wet landing (we found out that this AM was our only dry landing), which just means that to exit and board the boats we have to get in the water - below the knees. And our loaner boots are excellent...feet don't get wet at all! At least not yet.... I have touched the water and would guess it's in the 32* range. Anyway, we walked over the beach toward this glacier.

PS here's a live reindeer for Captain Heidi! I think we'll see more in a couple days. It's unusual for them to be in this area because there's nothing to eat in the snow. No sign of Santa yet, but locals tells me he summers on warm beaches.