Longyearbyen

Longyearbyen - perhaps you have heard the name before. It is the most northerly permanent settlement in the world and home to around 1700 people. It is on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard - often known as Spitzbergen - half way between the very north of mainland Norway and The North Pole.

Longyearbyen is really only a hundred and twenty years old. It grew because of coal mining and owes its name to an American mining investor called John Munro Longyear. Fishing has also been an important industry and nowadays there is some tourism with associated facilities and a scientific research centre

Svalbard Church - the most northerly church in the world

Most inhabitants of Longyearbyen are Norwegian but other residents hail from Sweden, Russia and perhaps surprisingly Thailand. Thais form the second largest ethnic group. Mostly they arrive to undertake menial jobs including cleaning and kitchen work and invariably send the money they earn back to their families in Thailand.

The North Pole Expedition Museum

Svalbard boasts a pretty hostile climate with the average annual temperature being -6.3 centigrade. It would certainly be a "cool" place to visit! Natural vegetation is of the Arctic tundra variety. Polar bears can be a nuisance at certain times of year and there is in fact a by-law that states you must carry a gun if wandering away from Longyearbyen.

Surprisingly, Google Streetview has covered the roads around the remote township. I believe this was done by a Danish man on a bicycle in June of this year. I don't know his name but I would like to thank him for dodging the polar bears and suffering the cold. I clipped my four pictures of Longyearbyen from his Streetview imagery.

The shoreline at Longyearbyen

from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/CnGi3R9