Longyearbyen

Longyearbyen is rich "northernmost" superlatives - northernmost post office, northernmost pizza delivery, northernmost wi-fi hotspot, northernmost four star hotel, and probably, northernmost roads where you'll see a BMW sport sedan. There aren't many towns in the Arctic as comfortable as Longyearbyen, nor many as close to the North Pole. A slice of Norway in the high Arctict, Longyearbyen is the largest settlement in the Svalbard Archipelago, and a surprisingly lively place.

The winter landscape is mostly white

The town was founded in 1906 by American businessman John Munroe Longyear, head of the charmingly named Arctic Coal Company of Boston. It came under Norwegian jurisdiction in the 1920's, was bombed by Germany in WWII, was rebuilt, found itself a front line in the Cold War, and kept producing coal. Until recently the town was little more than drab apartment blocks where miners slept, ate, and pined for the lush Norwegian forests back home. Now, every year people from all over the world spend thousands of dollars to come to Longyearbyen. An adventure tourism industry has blossomed. Visitors race snowmobiles across glaciers, climb unnamed mountains, navigate kayaks through ice-laden fjords, and feel a giddy rush for being so far from anywhere. Longyearbyen has evolved. The town now boasts restaurants, bars, and two upscale hotels.

Streetlights illuminate Longyearbyen's single icy road
in the winter dusk

Despite the new creature comforts, Longyearbyen still feels otherworldly. For one there is the light and the landscape. Summers are continuous sunshine on nothing but rock and tundra. Winters are one three month long night over uninterupted ice and snow. The breif days In between are long shadows and soft light.

In winter, snowmobiles are the preferred mode of transport. Motors whine as sledders zip between buildings in the winter dusk. Polar bears are a serious enough threat that you're required by law to carry a gun if you leave the center of town . As a result, you see a lot of people strolling down the street with a rifle slung over a shoulder (tourists can rent rifles from the hardware store).

Several years ago, in an effort to make the town a more appealing place to live, an interior decorator was hired to color co-ordinate all the buildings in the town. As a result, Longyearbyen stands as a striking splash of pastel color against the subtle blue, whites, and grays of the arctic landscape.

Pleasingly colored houses in Longyearbyen

While the L.L. Bean colors of Longyearbyen's houses show a charming attention to detail on the part of the town's administrators, they pale in comparison to the visual experience of the arctic winter landscape. The last month of the winter nights, before the sun comes above the horizon in the Spring, offers soft dusk light all day long, with gentle gradients of blues and pinks fading into the white horizon.

From the glacier above town

Coast near Longyearbyen

One of the strangest sights in Longyearbyen are brand new luxury cars. You wouldn't think you would need a high-performance German sports car to get around the one kilometer of roads in town, which are covered in snow and ice half the year anyway. But at least a few people seem to think they do. They're just trying to save money. As an incentive for people to move to Svalbard, Norway's normally high sales and import taxes are waived for residents. This includes the nearly 100% tax on luxury automobiles. At least a few short-term residents have decided to take advantage of this incentive to purchase expensive cars, have them shipped to the island, and then bring them back to the Norwegian mainland when they return.

Longyearbyen is a relatively easy place to get to, and an easy place to stay. SAS has daily flights from Tromso, in northern Norway. Two hours on a 737 will take you to a modern airport, where you can catch a bus to the Radisson Hotel in town. In no time be sitting in your hot tub watching the northern lights through the window while you eat the whale steak dinner from room service.