Wednesday 27 August 2025 – The day started, as do so many when we’re on holiday travelling – with an early alarm call. We had decided to take the 0648 train to the airport, which meant leaving the hotel at 0630, so 0500 would give us time to get our arses in gear. After all, we’re out of practice, having had several weeks without having to get up, pack and bugger off somewhere. In the event, old habits meant that we were ready to leave the hotel by 0600, having checked out and picked up the sandwiches the hotel provided in lieu of the lovely, lavish breakfast we would have had if they’d only started serving early enough. Thus, we could aim for the 0618 service.

You’ll remember, of course you will, that we’d had a practice yesterday at getting the ticket. We knew that the ticket machine would balk at a contactless payment from our usual credit card, so had a debit card set up instead. But it was declined, so I tried the debit card for our joint account back in the UK. Declined. However, when Jane provided her debit card for that joint account, the transaction was accepted. There’s an algorithm at work there the workings of which I wot not.

Anyhoo…

Apart from a minor technical glitch with the departure board on the platform

which would suggest that we were due to catch the 81:90 service, all went well, and we got to the airport, deposited our bags and got through security in double quick time. We had, for some reason, been allowed Fast Track through security and also access to an SAS Lounge. Our destination was in Norway, so we went to the national departures lounge, where a nice lady told us that it would be a better idea to go to the international departures lounge, as we would need to go through passport control. I think this is because our destination (Longyearbyen) is on an island (Spitzbergen) in the Svalbard archipelago, which also has a Russian settlement on it (Barentsburg), which has Schengen-related complexities in monitoring and supporting travellers. Anyway, we went to the other lounge, where we had coffee, and then through passport control to our gate.

Since Longyearbyen is not what you might call a high-volume destination, I’d been expecting to get on some kind of propeller-propelled plane, but no, we had an Airbus A320, and we had seats quite near the front. I don’t know if the punters in the back of the aircraft got a meal as part of their ticket, but we were given exactly the same chicken-and-pasta meal we’d enjoyed on the way out to Oslo in the first place, except the hummus wasn’t still frozen in this one.

The flight was entirely uneventful until we got to the difficult bit, which was getting the aircraft down. The driver needed two goes at this; in his defence it was pretty cloudy.

It is greatly to the credit of the passengers that when the pilot actually touched down, there was no applause. We were quickly off the plane, and greeted by a local at the baggage carousel.

When we’d consigned our bags to the tender mercies of the SAS baggage system, I’d noted that the tag said “PRIORITY”, which is normally a fictitious description, designed to give the punter a false sense of importance. But my bag was fourth on the carousel and Jane’s was sixth, which got us out of the airport and on to the waiting bus very promptly. Of course we had to wait for all the other passengers, too, but no matter. The driver pottered down the bus taking payment – 110 crowns (about £9) per passenger. We had been expecting to have to pay in cash, but technology obviously has reached the bus system 12 degrees north of the arctic circle, and we could use contactless, which was very convenient.

It’s a short bus journey from airport to the town of Longyearbyen. The first part of the journey looked a bit grim, particularly under the lowering skies and because it leads past a mining operation – Longyearbyen’s history is very much that of a coal mining town.

The very low cloud seems to emphasise the very functional nature of the landscape.

The buildings all have a very modern feel to them, which is unsurprising, since the town was destroyed by the Germans during the second world war, to stop the allies from getting the benefit of the coal. These days, there’s only a vestigial mining operation, and the town mainly revolves around the university, research and tourism.

The bus called in at a few stops before ours – the Hotel Polfareren, which might be translated as “The Pole Traveller”.

Confusingly, several hotels are labelled “Svalbard Hotell”, but we stumbled into the right one, where it became immediately apparent that the first thing we should do was to take our shoes off.

It’s hardly surprising; people will generally be wearing heavy duty footwear which would trample snowy grit all over the place, so taking one’s shoes off is more than merely courtesy in these parts. So, shoes go in the Boot Room and the hotel provides guests with their own slippers.

Our room wasn’t immediately available, so we settled ourselves in the reception area

which had one very comforting sight.

In a matter of minutes, we were able to go to our room, which, as one would expect, is very well-designed and should be very comfortable. We found a little welcome present from one of the local cafes awaiting us.

We had the afternoon to amuse ourselves, so, after a little time to relax, we went for a walk. Obviously.

There’s not a great deal to the town itself – two roads bisected by the main shopping street. But there’s everything you need to support a population of 2,400 plus all the tourists – library, cinema, local government offices, a church,

some touristy, souvenir-y shops,

several hotels, cafes and bars and a supermarket, which is massive – not quite a major Tesco, but very substantial, selling a variety of food and non-food stuff. Unnervingly, it has a sign on the door prohibiting anyone from bringing guns into the store. We bought the essentials, which means mainly some milk to put in any mug of Twining’s finest Earl Grey that might happen to get brewed in our room, and then pottered off to look around.

You’re never far from seeing the influence of the town’s mining history

but there’s a university, research centre and museum complex down by the water’s edge.

We were also never far from a reminder that we’re here in summer weather. The place is literally littered with hundreds, possibly thousands, of skidoos.

The cuddlier side of the town is demonstrated in the Huskies cafe, which serves coffee alongside, erm,

huskies. Today’s grey weather has hardly shown the town off to its best advantage. The skies did clear a little, and, as we went for a stroll after dinner, we could see that even in summer as we are, there’s a glacier not far away,

and a lot of work has been done to protect the houses from the possible ravages of heavy winter snowfalls.

Tomorrow is forecast to be sunny, so I hope to be able to bring you some photos of the place looking positively cheery. We also plan to take a bus tour of the area, from which we should learn a lot more of its history, which I should think is absolutely fascinating. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.