Today we took the cruise supplied shuttle bus into town and walked around taking in the highlights.
The church in Longyearbyen.
The remaining canteen from the mine.
Barnacle Geese.
Disused Mine No. 2 now used for accepting Santa's letters from the children on the island.
The old cable way system of transporting the coal.
There are more skidoos here than people. They leave the keys in them just in case people need them to escape polar bears. They also leave the keys in cars and their doors unlocked for the same reason.
Lost in translation.
The Svalbard Museum.
From the US submarine Nautilus. This 1931 expedition was funded by Randolph Hearst and it was led by the polar explorer Hubert Wilkins (who was an Australian). It broke down on the way from the States to the UK and had to be towed and repaired. It left Begen for the polar ice and when they were going to dive under the ice, the captain noticed that all the rudders for diving were missing. The theory is that some of the crew who thought it was a suicide mission and wanted to prevent it diving under the ice cap. They made it back to Longyearbyen where I guess this name plate came from. The next attempt was aborted when the submarine was hit by another vessel, and it had to be scuttled
The Museum has a few problems with their signage,
Elizabeth needed a packet of Mentos...could they be any bigger?
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