In August 2008 I went to Svalbard on a boat expedition with my parents to spot my friends
the Polar bears. We found a few, but we never came close enough to cuddle with them, not that we where allowed to, but still when you get the chance...

I was constantly looking through the cabin window of the ship, but actually never spotted them from that position. Thank God we had the eagle eyed crew with us. They made call-outs every time they saw a polar bear.

Even though Svalbard somehow belongs to Norway, they do have their own capital town.
Longyearbyen, here seen from above, is the largest village at Svalbard, they have about
2000 citizens (2008).

This is a classical photo site in Longyearbyen; the remedies of a coal mine.
There is still an active coal mine in Longyerbyen at another location.
However, the main business these days are tourism and research.

Mr Longyearbyen himself, the man who gave the village its name!

This is the most northern hotel in the world. It is located in Nyålesund at 79 degrees north.

Finally, you may wonder if we saw any polar bears?
Yes we spotted five of them at different locations and took a lot of photos of them too :0)
When that photo album is ready I will link to it from here!

Svalbard is also a part of Norway and there you can find polar bears!

More about Svalbard here: www.lk-panorama/svalbard

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