With Anne's and Ngaire's posts of the cruise, there isn't much else to add. It was a fantastic journey that we all enjoyed. We debarked the ship, identified our luggage and boarded busses to Spitsbergen town center (about 3 blocks from one end to the other.) The luggage went by separate truck to the airport. We had 2 and a bit hours to explore the town and the Arctic/Polar museum is a gotta do - one of the best in Northern Europe. Princess Ngaire, having been there a few times, volunteered to watch all of our carry on bags so we didn't have to lug them all around. Sandwiches & bacon wrapped hot dogs were consumed for lunch. The busses picked us up and took us to the airport where, unlike Regent efficiency, we waited about 30 minutes for the luggage to arrive. It took the luggage 3 1/2 hours to make the 3 km trip from ship to airport.
The flight to Tromso was uneventful but, since Svalbard is a duty free zone, we had to collect our luggage, clear customs (walk thru "nothing to declare" exit, drop our luggage at check in, go thru security again and reboard quickly. The flight to Oslo was smooth. We all said our goodbyes at baggage claim and Pat & I joined Anne & Gary the take the Airport Express train to Oslo central station. We each walked to our respective hotels and, shortly after, Anne & Gary met us at our hotel and we went for an enjoyable dinner. August is a hot month, usually the only one, so air conditioning is not a feature of the hotels or restaurants. The windows open a bit, but it's not bad later in the evening. As we left to walk back to our hotels we remarked that tonight would be the first darkness we'd seen for 12 days.
As Brayden mentioned, today poured rain. we used a break in the rain to walk to the harbor area for a wonderful Norwegian lunch but had to linger for a couple extra wines until it let up. The sun finally came out around 3:00pm and it was glorious but steamy. For us it was a day to catch up on emails and post photos on Facebook and wind down. We have 3 more days here before heading off for 3 more weeks in Scandinavia. Stops on cruises are far too short so we're going to see the cities for 4 days each.
