DAILY LIFE ON AN EXPEDITION SHIP

 Trip Background information: This Journey is an Adventures by Disney (ABD) trip where we used our Disney Vacation Club points for this trip. ABD contracted with Ponant Cruises for this journey. 



 The ship we were on was Le Boreal which has a capacity of about 240 passengers and our group size was about 114 guests. The crew to passenger was better than 1 : 1. This made for a great experience.  Ponant is an upper end cruise offering. I will say they did an excellent job in every aspect of this cruise. 



ABD supplies a staff called Adventure Guides, they facilitate the trip with great efficiency. They are herding cats and do a most excellent job. They also keep the activity level rolling right along. They are very caring and assuring so the guests will have a great experience.

A trip to the Arctic is about the vast wilderness, the flora and fauna. While the days plans can vary due to weather, wildlife sightings, ice conditions, etc. There is an unstructured routine we fall into.

As our days were filled with landings, zodiac cruises, wildlife spotting and lectures. The order just depends on what might be found. I think it would be repetitive to do a day by day account. 


The highlights of these trips for me were an Ice Bear encounter like none I have ever had. Walrus’s on the beach. Puffins on the cliff’s. Arctic Turns are always favorite of mine. Visiting sites of historic value during the Golden Age of Arctic Exploration.

Here is a sample of some of my photos to give a feel for our experience. All in all, it was a very good trip and who knows, someday we might just return to Svalbard for a 3rd time. 

You can see additional photos at these web sites. 





Scott M Hughes Soggy Moose Photography Art Collections 

 

Soggy Moose Photo 

 

 

 

Off to Longyearbyen

 Traveling to Longyearbyen.

Svalbard is the archipelago, Spitzbergen is the Island, and Longyearbyen  is the city. 

Up at 0300 and get ourselves together. Sack Breakfast that would feed an army or two. Off to the airport, check in, security, passport control and then our flight to Longyearbyen. 

It is in Longyearbyen that we will board the Le Boreal, a Ponant expedition ship. As this trip is not at capacity, there is a lot of room to stretch out on the plane. Stuff to do before we board.

We arrive and get our baggage and load onto a bus. We are then taken to the town’s shopping area and turned loose. My research showed a coffee shop we can relate to - Cafe Huskies. We walk to the cafe and have a cup, actually a bottle, of their tea and latte. It is a fun place with pups running about getting petted and begging, just like home. 

We come back to the meeting place where we visit a local sporting good store. WOW! the firearm prices are crazy high. Then to a local grocery store to see their offerings, high prices as expected as about everything has to be shipped in.

We board our bus and go for a nice lunch in a school auditorium. Then off to see a sight or two before boarding the ship.

I opted for a coal mine and brewery tour. 

Coal mining is pretty much the reason Longyearbyen came into existence, so I chose the coal mine tour. This was very informative and fun to walk in the cool underground and learn about the mining methods. Currently there is one operating mine which supplies the coal to produce electricity for Longyearbyen. 

Next up was a stop for a beer tasting at the Svalbard Brewery. This is the northernmost brewery here on earth. Their beers were good and I really liked their stout. I made a note that their products are available in Tromso. The owner was quite the entrepreneur and persistent in establishing his brewery.

Off to the Ship. Our ship is Le Boreal, part of the Ponant Line. It is a beautiful ship with an excellent crew. Safety drill, intro of crew etc etc.

Dinner (Excellent Food) and we then unpacked and settled in when we get the word, an Ice Bear has been spotted by a sister ship. 

We sail to some fast ice and find an Ice Bear in the distance. Folks were pretty excited seeing their first Ice Bear in the wild.

Soon we were off to bed. 

Photos from this trip can be found at Soggy Moose Photo  and FAA SOGGY MOOSE PHOTO

 

A DAY IN OSLO

 Breakfast,

Check in with ABD

Off to the Ferry to N Bygdoy for museums.

The first ferry stop is where one gets off for the Folk Museum. Here one can learn about the Norwegian way of life through the years. This location reminded me of Greenfield Village in Michigan. Buildings have been donated and moved to this location. 

We then took the #30 bus to the end of the line where one finds the Maritime Museum, KonTiki Museum and the Fram Museum.

We started with the Maritime Museum as I had hoped to find a bit of information on Bamse the Sea Dog. There is a reference to dogs on ships during WWII providing comfort to the crew. This is a very good museum showing the importance of the sea to Norway.

Outside between the Maritime Museum and the Fram Museum there are statutes recreating Amundsen’s arrival at the South Pole. Yes they are positioned facing South. 

We grabbed an ice cream for a bit of energy and decided to visit the Fram.

For me, the Fram Museum is a highlight of this trip. I could finish my thought after about 500 pages of
 writing, but will condense things a good bit.

The Fram is a purpose built ship for Polar Exploration. It made three major expeditions and was finally restored at this present location. Being able to walk the deck of such a piece of Polar Exploration is very special for me. 

 

Also housed in this museum is the Gjoa, the first ship to make the Northwest passage. This was led by Amundsen.  

After about 3-4 hours we made a quick run through of KonTiki. 

We had finished our exploring of the various museums and were able to return to the hotel and start the packing up process.

The Adventures by Disney group welcome was very nice as we went to the Fram Museum for about 3 hours. During this time we could again explore as well as enjoy a buffet dinner. I only had one of the sausages and it was very good. 

There were also several stations where docents were posted to answer questions the guests may have.  I enjoyed some great conversations with these individuals. One gentleman suggested I return in November to experience their Amundsen celebration and lectures. Will have to see if this event might fit in with our November trip. 


Back to the hotel finished packing and had our bags outside the door for pick up. We have an early wakeup call at 0300 for our flight to Longyearbyen. 

Photos from this trip can be found at Soggy Moose Photo  and FAA SOGGY MOOSE PHOTO

 

DEN to LHR to OSL AND OUR FIRST DAY OF EXPLORATION

 Good Morning Campers: 

Yesterday was a fairly uneventful loooong travel day. We were slightly delayed getting out of London Heathrow. Arriving in Oslo, we cleared passport control and customs and met up with fellow travelers. Our Driver, Thom, was there to greet us and drive us into our hotel. Our other visits to Oslo we usually just take the train into the Central Train Station.

We will be staying at the Grand Hotel Oslo which is a Grand Old Lady of Oslo. She has been the host to many Norwegian Polar Explorers upon their return to their Motherland. I can only imagine the throngs of people greeting the likes of Nansen, Sverdrup, Amundsen, and the Polar Chef Lindstrom. 

We organized our gear for the next couple days and did a laundry load of our travel clothes and crashed. 

We were up at 0400, cleaned up and got ready for the day. Breakfast is not till 0700 so a hotel walkabout is in order. 

The plan for today is to walk over to the Visitor Center and purchase an Oslo Card for each of us. Many cities have such cards, these cards allow entrance to various attractions, museums etc. as well as public transport. If you hit the ground running it can be a money saver.

We will also be doing some pre trip scouting for our November trip.

At 0600 we did a walkabout of the area near the hotel. We strolled through a local park getting some pictures of fountains and statues. Just across from the hotel is a statue of Sverdrup. 

                                                                           A very nice bar


Returning to the hotel, we had a nice conversation with the gentleman at the front desk and obtained a locator map.

0700 breakfast time, and a nice breakfast it was.

After breakfast, we walked to the Oslo Central Station (train station) where the visitor information center is located. Here we picked up 48 hour Oslo City Passes, this is good for public transportation and entry to many museums. 

While walking to the train station we located the hotel at which we have a November reservation. Scouted out coffee shops etc and other things we may need in November.

From the train station we walked to the Munch Museum. Edvard Munch willed all of his works still in his possession to the municipality of Oslo.  In 2008, Oslo's city council decided to build a new museum for this incredible gift. 

The permanent gallery displays his more prominent works by his themes. He is probably best know for his Scream painting. Actually there were three Scream works by Munch. One Pastel Crayon, Paint and Brush and and then a B&W litho. 

This museum is well worth a visit to see his moods and interpretation of various aspects of life. 



Next we took the public tram to Vigeland Sculpture  Park.  The sculpture park is Gustav Vigeland's life work, comprising over 200 sculptures in granite, bronze and wrought iron. It was installed mainly in the period 1940-1949, but is nevertheless a result of over 40 years of work. It is a beautiful park and is open year round. It is said to be the most visited site in Norway.  

                                                        KEWL Little Library

Now it is well past lunch time and we are off to find Syverkiosken. We decided to take a bus  as we had originally planed to walk there, we were very glad as we had underestimated the distance and the route was up hill.

Syverkiosken is one of the last hotdog kiosks in Oslo. Here, you can get sausages prepared the traditional way, in lompe, a flatbread made from potatoes, or with new, innovative flavor pairings.
The toppings are always homemade, and the sausages are boiled in a rich stock, made according to Syverkiosken’s secret, traditional recipe.  

I must say they serve an excellent polse (hot dog). As it was not that busy we had a nice chat with the person attending to the stand. Soon others started to arrive and a line was forming as we left.

The jet lag was catching up to us as rain started to fall so we decided to get back to the hotel to chill and prep for tomorrow. We arrived back at the hotel at about 4:00 later than we thought. We had a good day and will go out for a simple meal tonight. We want to eat light as we will be on a cruise in a couple days. Oh look, hot dogs across from the hotel in the park. 



 

RETURN TO SVALBARD

 

 

RETURN TO SVALBARD

In 2015 we traveled to Svalbard with Lindblad/Nat Geo. On that trip we traveled from Oslo to Longyearbyen and boarded the Lindblad/Nat Geo Explorer and sailed from there to Iceland. This journey will be only sailing in the Svalbard archipelago.



We will be spending a little time in Oslo before flying to Longyearbyen. While in Oslo we will explore some of the sights and find the oldest hot dog stand in Oslo. I am really looking forward to a return visit to the Fram Museum. 



While sailing the archipelago we will be looking for Ice Bear, walrus, seals, whales, and many seabirds. There are also several locations of interest we may visit from whaling stations to fjords where polar expeditions from air and sea used as jumping off points. 



This is an Adventures by Disney trip using the Ponant ship Le Boreal which has been chartered for this trip. Our previous experience with Ponant in Antarctica  was very positive. We are using our Disney Vacation Club points to pay for this trip. 
One point of interest is we will be on the ship for the summer solstice. As we will be above the Arctic Circle we will not see the sun set or rise. 



In preparation for this trip Lynn and I have been reading our guidebooks, watching lectures, reading many many books, studying wildlife guides and more. I have been working on gathering my camera gear for this trip and will be the first trip using all mirrorless cameras.

We hope to capture Arctic wildlife and some great scenery. 

So, buckle up and enjoy the ride with us.




 


A Day in Reykjavik

 Our First Day in Reykjavik:

Random photos in no particular order 

We started our day at 0700 with a good breakfast here at the hotel/ Some how an tooth implant of mine came off. Will get it fixed when we get home. Honest, the oatmeal was not that tough. 

After breakfast we struck out in the sorta nice weather for the Botanic Gardens, Good Old 14 bus took us there as they are just a short walk past the pool. At first I was not sure if we would see any flowers as most of the beds were bare and prepared for planting. A crew of horticulturalists were walking about planning the planting. Worry not as we did find some blooming flowers. We stopped in the conservatory for a WC break and check on the koi fish. We did see some  geese on the way back to the pool. 

One interesting feature near the Botanic Gardens is the Wash House. This is a location where one finds  remnants of the public location where clothes were washed and dried. The wash ladies would make the 3 km truck here carrying their laundry to wash and dry only to have to return the 3 km back to Reykjavik.  

We enjoyed a swim/soak at the favorite pool followed by a Hot Dog. :)

Next we were back on bus 14 towards the old city. Disembarking we strolled along the city pond finding our way up hill to the cemetery. 

In the cemetery you can find the grave of many famous Icelanders such as Jon Sigurdsson, the hero of Icelands independence. Some of the graves I found interesting were the mass graves of sailors who passed away in ship wrecks.  While  most graves are old there are some newer graves as recent at 2021. 

One other important thing to note is the Cemetery is a  green space where you can find examples of the many trees which used to cover Iceland.  

We finished the day at The Drunken Rabbit, just a good bit of pub time. Meeting some locals who work in the tourist industry, a coupe of guys fleeing Venezuela, an American from New Mexico, and a couple from Canada. A fun break before returning to the hotel.