Isfjord: Alk­hor­net, Barents­burg

Thu
31 May
2018

It is real­ly ful­ly win­ter still here in Isfjord. Snow, snow, snow. Add to that some sun, the sound of a birdcliff in the back­ground and a wide pan­ora­ma of fjord and coast, moun­ta­ins and gla­ciers, reinde­er and geese on the first bits of open tun­dra. Does it get more beau­tiful than this? Hard­ly.

Late win­ter in Trygg­ham­na.

Har­bour seal.

Snow bun­tings at Alk­hor­net.

Some gol­den moments at Alk­hor­net.

We also made a visit to the Ymer­buk­ta swim­ming club. Always nice to meet the locals 🙂

Ymer­buk­ta swim­ming club.

Many will pro­ba­b­ly agree that Barents­burg is not more beau­tiful, not in a clas­si­cal sen­se. But dif­fe­rent. Very dif­fe­rent! It is his­to­ri­cal and poli­ti­cal. We did have a clo­se look at all of this. If you have missed this, than you have not ful­ly unders­tood what Spits­ber­gen is all about today. Lenin would agree.

Lenin in Barents­burg.

Loo­king back at the last cou­ple of days, we had ple­nty of good reasons to rai­se the glas­ses to a won­derful trip. So we did in the evening. A skål to Cap­tain Mario and chef Piet! And of cour­se to the who­le crew, but cap­tain and chef are key posi­ti­ons as ever­y­bo­dy knows who has tra­vel­led on a ship. A word for all of you who have tra­vel­led on Anti­gua in recent years and who are curious how things are going here now: of cour­se I was also curious how it would be after our for­mer Cap­tain Joa­chim and chef Sascha had set cour­se for new adven­tures. Big shoes to fill, as all of our fel­low tra­vel­lers will con­firm. So I am more than hap­py to tell you know that I am loo­king for­ward to many more trips to come with Anti­gua! We have had a gre­at jour­ney now (and still not finis­hed yet)!

Thumbs up for the Anti­gua-chef Piet!

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