Category Archives: Norway

It was time to leave Longyearbyen and I was very sad to go. That said, the weather had turned decidedly chilly, with a cold pelting rain greeting us on our final morning. One other tidbit on Longyearbyen: no one...

On a remote island in the Arctic Circle halfway between the northern tip of Norway and the North Pole, where do the ~2,000 residents go out to eat?  Would it surprise you to know one restaurant has a wine cellar...

There was one thing I did not mention in my earlier piece on Pyramiden: there are polar bears roaming around. America is not the only home of gunslingers: in Svalbard and particularly on Pyramiden, you don’t go outside without a...

Let’s play a game of imagination. Imagine a thriving village bustling with hard working men and women who have left the comforts of home to serve the motherland in a far corner of the world. Imagine a formal dining...

While most people just spend a few hours touring around the mostly-abandoned Russian mining settlement of Pyramiden, you’re invited to stay the night. That’s what I did. After the mine closed in 1998, the island’s population sank from over 1,000...

The highlight of my trip to Svlabard was an overnight trip from Longyearbyen to Pyramiden, a near-abandoned Russian mining settlement reached via boat. I booked with Arctic Explorer because it offered the better schedule, though other companies offer full...

As much as I love solo travel, exploring the world with others represents many of my best travel memories. Last summer I traveled to Scandinavia with my Uncle Bill, who I have mentioned before in this story on why...