We were taken by shuttle bus to the Radisson Blu Polar Hotel in downtown Longyearbyen. After checking-in to the hotel we set off to explore the town. But before we went outside we needed to put on the right clothes. Even through it was summer and the sun was shining it was cold outside. Longyearbyen is the closet town to the North Pole on the planet! Longyearbyen is only about 800 miles from the North Pole so it is cold here even in the summer! To dress for the weather we put on warm clothes, jackets, hats, gloves and sunglasses.

There is really not much "downtown" to Longyearbyen. Only about 2,000 people live here. Downtown is a wide walkway with shops and restaurants, and a bank, post office and hospital, too. It reminds us of some ski towns in the U.S..

In front of one of the building some local boys are selling fossils. (We bought one.) They found them outside of town where the glaciers have pushed rocks in the valley. These fossils of leaves, shells and trilobites in coal! Coal mining is the main job for people here. From downtown we can see some of the old mines up on either side of the valley this town is in. Many of the mines have shutdown but a few still continue to provide jobs for the coal miners. Because coal mining is so important to this town there is a coal miner statue in the middle of downtown!

In the center of the walkway is a statue of a coal miner because that is the main job for people here. They dig for coal underground in the hills and ship it down to Europe. Many of the mines have shut down, but there are still few open that provide jobs for people. As we walk around town we can see several old mines on the sides of the hills on either side of Longyearbyen.

This ski town feel to the downtown is because Longyearbyen is a popular tourist destination. Tourist come to explore the mountains and glaciers on skis or snowmobiles and to see the animals that are here, too! On land reindeer live here all year round and in the summer birds fly here by the hundreds of thousands to find food and have their babies. In the ocean whales migrate here to feed on the abundant food in the ocean. The animal that everyone wants to see is the polar bear! There are more polar bears here than people! People here love polar bears...At the airport there is a huge stuffed polar bear! In the lobby of our hotel there is a huge standing stuffed polar bear! In the entrance of the super market there is a stuffed polar bear. In the fellowship hall of the local church there is a stuffed polar bear! In the middle of town there is a full-size metal polar bear statue!

Even though everyone here loves polar bears they know that polar bears can be dangerous and attack people! In town no one is allowed to lock their front doors in case a polar bear comes into town people can run into the nearest house to get away! We are not allowed to leave town unless we carry a rifle to protect ourselves from polar bears!

As we explored town we didn't see any live polar bears but we did see a young reindeer running through town. Fortunately reindeer aren't usually dangerous. In the summer when a lot of the snow melts away the reindeer are busy eating lots of grasses and flowers to get fat before winter comes and they have trouble finding food.

We returned to our hotel late but it didn't seem like it because in the summer the sun never goes down! It is light all the time, every day! Fortunately our hotel room has special blackout curtains that block the sun from coming in the windows. When we turn off the lights everything is dark and that makes it easier to go to sleep.

We will be getting up early tomorrow to hike to the top of the highest mountain near town with some of the expedition staff that we will be working with after we board our ship in the afternoon.