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Longyearbyen

Longyearbyen is situated in the valley with same name. It is the biggest settlement with around 2000 residents and is a administrative centre of Svalbard.

Valley, river and town were named after John Munro Longyear, who established the town on helaf of Arctic Coal Company.

Nybyen is the part of the town in the upper part of the valley.

During a blowing snow.

Spring evening with aurora glance.

Stranded sailboat.

Church in the part of the town where the first settlement was built.

The main town square.

Sunset on the 8 April.

And midnight sun on 22 April.

Western, industrial part of Longyearbyen bathing in the midnight sun.

The town was established in 1906 as a mining settlement.

Mining heritage is now protected. Aerial tramway is leading towards Gruve 2. A mine that was established after the second world war.

The Gruve 2 coal mine.

View back on Longyearbyen.

Snowed in upper part.

And big cornices threatening to trigger avalanches.

By the protecting wall.

The only accessible part was the loading area.

Staircase that leads to other mine parts was snowed in.

Coal was coming from these jaws.

And being loaded for tramway transport.

Mining settlement Hiorthhamm on the other side of the fjord.

Cabins are now used as weekend houses.

Aerial tramway in Adventalen. There is a Gruve 5 on the hill in the distance. It is still operating and mining coal for the thermo power plant.

One of the remaining steel stations in Adventdalen.

Here, almost everything is the northernmost.

The dog sledging race for example.

Impatiently waiting.

For the race to start ...

On the 17. May. The Constitution day of Norway.

As in the whole Norway, there is a parade also in Longyearbyen.

With many people wearing their traditional costumes - called bunad. The light blue one is bunad of Svalbard.

Through Longyearbyen.

Many different bunads from different parts of Norway ...

Very frequently used contemporary requisite.

Slightly different type of requisite.

Celebration by the memorial devoted to victims of second world war.

UNIS representatives.

Continuation of celebration in sports hall.

A breath of spring from the norwegian mainland.

Swimming with icebergs after the parade.

When it is possible to measure water temperature with decibels.

UNIS. The biggest building in Longyearbyen, except maybe for the coal power plant.

Hummocky ground in the town.

Operating rooms for heating, water, etc.. Pipelines here are much more discreet than those in Inuvik.

Colourful row houses.

Looks like a bus station. But there is no public transport in Longyearbyen.

Just mailboxes.

Longyearbyen hospital.

Culture centre.

SSvalbardbutikken, the Svalbard supermarket, where you can buy pretty much everything you can buy elsewhere.

The Radisson Blu hotel.

Interesting and slightly eccentric accommodation Mary Ann's Polarrigg.

Governor of Svalbard palace. Governor represents Norwegian government and exercising its sovereignty in Svalbard.

Interesting bow of the Governor ship in the harbour.

Signpost in front of the Svalbard airport. Where the majority of Svalbard visits begin and also end.