All good things ...

We were up early to do our packing as bags had to be outside our cabin before we went to breakfast at 7.30. We then had a last pleasant breakfast with Sue and Rob and some of the others. But all too soon it was time to leave the Ocean Explorer. The ship had moored away from the jetty so we were transferred to shore in the zodiacs. It seemed odd not to have to don waterproofs and muck boots but life jackets were still required.

When we arrived at the jetty Ryan was there to help us ashore and say a final goodbye. Ian and Kelly were there too, to help with life jackets, and the latter gave me a lovely goodbye hug.

We were ferried into the centre of Longyearbyen by bus and left to our own devices for three hours. Chris and I walked down to the museum to get postcards in the shop there and then went to Café Huskies for a coffee where we bumped into Dr Andy and some of the other passengers.

We walked around for a bit. The weather was much duller than on our outward visit but I took a few photos nevertheless.

The town was celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Svalbard Treaty and apparently the Crown Prince of Norway was in town, but we saw nothing of him apart from a red carpet being rolled out near the town square. A stage had been set up here and we heard a few bursts of music as, we assumed, they tested the sound system. But we were too early to see anything of the celebrations apart from a couple of women in traditional dress hanging around the area.

We also popped into the supermarket, just out of curiosity and something to do! It had a large selection of tourist souvenirs in addition to the basic necessities for local life, but none that appealed to us.

We had another drink in the coffee shop in the shopping centre, and I enjoyed one of their cinnamon buns as I had on our outward journey through Longyearbyen. Then it was time to catch the bus to the airport which is the most northerly one in the world in regular use.

Ours was the only departing flight at that time so although small the airport was easily able to handle our group. We checked in, went through security and settled down to what we thought would be a fairly long wait. There was an hour to go to our scheduled departure time and as the incoming flight from Helsinki had been delayed by about thirty minutes we assumed we would be a bit late leaving. But after only about ten minutes we were called to the departure gate. We boarded and took off about twenty minutes early!

We had a last look at the Ocean Explorer moored right next to the airport and some great views over snowy Svalbard before the clouds hid it from sight. It was Chris’s turn for the window seat but he let me lean across to attempt a few last photos of this awesome landscape.

A sandwich and soft drink were served during the flight. We landed about twenty minutes ahead of schedule but had to wait a while for a bus to the terminal, where we found ourselves in very long queue for passport control. Eventually we were through and unsurprisingly the bags had already arrived. We decided to get a taxi to the city centre as it was already quite late, and got to the hotel Klaus K by around 8.00 pm. We discovered we'd been upgraded to a small suite with a separate seating area and odd wall decorations!

We freshened up and went out in search of dinner. We didn't want to go far so chose the Italian restaurant attached to the hotel, Toscanini. We got a great table by the open window and enjoyed watching the activity on the street as it got gradually dark - a novelty after eleven days of Midnight Sun. The food was excellent (I had a very good aubergine ravioli followed by gelato) and the service very friendly. We reminisced about our Arctic adventures over the meal before taking a very short walk then heading for an early night.