Norwegian Experience Day 1: Longyearbyen & Barentsburg

Svalbard © Jens Henrik Nybo/www.visitnorway.com

Picture it: You’re aboard the MS Fram in the waters of Northern Norway experiencing the incredible scenery of Spitsbergen’s most remote areas. Watching the midnight sun create “unearthly hues” on the sea’s surface, ice, and glaciers. Sounds pretty good doesn’t it?

Starting today, our Norwegian Experience winner, Rob Kodalen and his wife Donna will be embarking on the trip of a lifetime, an 8-day Hurtigruten cruise of the waters surrounding Spitsbergen, courtesy of Borton Overseas and Sons of Norway. Svalbard is home to seven Norwegian National Parks and over 60% of it is protected land. To learn more about our winner, check out our blog post here.

To kick off their cruise, Rob and Donna will be exploring Longyearbyen and the surrounding area on a guided bus tour before embarkation. Longyearbyen is a Norwegian settlement often referred to as the capital of Svalbard. This is a lively small town, situated amid some incredible Arctic landscape. Barentsburg is a Russian settlement with an exotic collection of Russian artifacts and architecture. This “Company town” was built in 1935 around the entrance to the coal mine.

Be sure to check back to the blog tomorrow as we fill you in on the next destination in Rob and Donna’s Norwegian Experience journey, the largest fjord on the North West coast of Spitsbergen, Kongsfjorden.