Svalbard, Day two - Boat trip to Barentsburg

 Day two started with a visit by the special Svalbard Raindeer close to our hotel. Wild but urban.

 The long day on a ship registered in Faroe Island this morning, took us first to the north-western part of Svalbard. Here we really could understand why it is called Spitsbergen.
Spitsbergen was named by its discoverer, Willem Barentsz, in 1596. The name Spitsbergen, meaning “pointed mountains” (from the Dutch spits - pointed, bergen - mountains)

On the image above you understand why Kaare Tveter found many motives for his paintings here at Svalbard. This photo is caught by Tullen

 On the way to the north-west we were met by floes thicker and thicker and more and more. On one of them a seal took its lunch break and relaxed.

Then we reached the first goal of the day´s expedition: the Esmarbreen. Esmarkbreen is a glacier in Oscar II Land at Spitsbergen, Svalbard. It is named after geologist Jens Esmark. The glacier has a length of 15 kilometers, and debouches into the bay Ymerbukta at the northern side of Isfjorden
Due to the calving of the glacier we could not come too close

Our next stop after crossing Isfjorden  to the south was Barentsburg. This "Sovjet" settlement has been a coal-mining community since 1932 and the population is mostly Russians and Ukrainians,

 The Coal sculpture are in the tourist trail in front of an old building and close to the school

 The people at Barentsburg are very proud of the layout on their school giving education to children from kindergarten to high level. However we did not see more than around10 children during the visit. We did not see many people at all except our ovn friends from Veritas

The most Northern Brewery in the world is located at Barentsburg and for 10 nok you could test 3 different variations of the local beer. Of course we did.