Longyearbyen has about 2,000 residents, making it the farthest north "town" in the world. According to Wikipedia, the average length of residence is 6.3 years. I took a walk yesterday to see a little more of town.
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| Colorful row of houses in Longyearbyen |
The map of town has marked areas where it is safe to walk without a rifle. Outside of that zone, you need to carry a rifle, or go with someone that is carrying a rifle. So, that means climbing these easily accessible peaks is off-limits unless I find someone to go with!
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| Coal miner statue in "downtown" plaza |
The town itself stretches along both sides of the Longyear River (that receives meltwater from the Longyear Glacier) so there is actually a fair bit of area I can explore.
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| Meltwater chute from sidevalley |
You can see they have plowed out a natural channel, getting ready for spring meltwater that hasn't quite arrived yet! The average summer temperature is only 6° C (43° F) so you see a lot of skis and snowmobiles scattered in yards, but not a lot of barbecues! While less than half of the households have cars, there are actually more snowmobiles than residents.
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| You can see the kirke (church) in the background |
The view from the hills in town shows the reflection of the mountains on the other side of Advent Fjord.
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| Reflection in Adventfjorden |
I crossed the river (presently not flowing) and walked up the dirt road to make a reservation for us at Huset, an award-winning restaurant in town. It has a wine cellar with 20,000 bottles. It doesn't look like much on the outside, but I'm eager to see inside when we take Anna to dinner there on Friday!
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| The river separates Huset on the right, from Nybyen (New Town) on the left. |
I couldn't walk any farther than Huset, because I wasn't carrying a rifle, and I didn't really want to risk running into any polar bears regardless! More adventures tomorrow!
