September 26 the end of an epic voyage

 

Longyearbyen - that is coal mining 'trappings' you can see at the port I think

The tender to take us and our luggage ashore

We disembarked at Longyearbyen early this morning and later flew to Paris - last days and transits are our least favour things to do. It always feels like (and in fact is) we're simply filling in time. Always a real anticlimax. However …. one last glimpse at our wonder-filled expedition. Our final day on board had been a fitting finale to an amazing voyage of discovery. I was looking forward to seeing a little of Longyearbyen but we had limited time.  We were taken to the excellent museum for a short visit (it was much as I remembered it from our visit in 2019).

Today Longyearbyen is the world's northernmost town, but the coal it was founded on formed in southern swamps. The dinosaurs walked the land and fantastic creatures swam the seas. They now lie as layers of rock in the mountains around where we were - and there was once coal in abundance as a result. Lindsay climbed one of these shaley mountains when we were here in 2019 looking for fossils. He found some ferns embedded between the rock layers - we still have them as precious mementos.  Coal is no longed mined I believe but it was very lucrative in Longyearbyen's fairly recent history.

A remnant processing plant and/or infrastructure of one of the coal mine.

We were bussed around Longyearbyen to arrive at an old meeting hall where locals fed us a huge early lunch because most of us had to be at the airport by 1pm. Then once again we said a sad farewell to the Arctic and we were off to the airport to fly to Paris where were to stay overnight before commencing our next adventure. The Paris flight was a Ponant chartered flight and we were treated in true Ponant fashion - a special 3 course lunch menu, snacks, wine and champagne of course.  A bientot!

A last wistful image gazing out at snow falling