This is Longyearbyen, the largest settlement in Svalbard.
Technically we stayed in Nybyen, the suburb of Longyearbyen, because we are cheapskates.
But it is close enough to town that you can walk around without a “polar bear kit” including a rifle. You don’t need that until you go past these signs.
Longyearbyen is on a huge fjord at the end of a long valley.
It was settled for whaling and coal.
So there are a lot of coal mines.
And tramways for transporting coal from them to the port.
Now it has a lot of tourism and husky farms.
The huskies get very excited when people come to their farms.
A plane crashed near Longyearbyen once.
It was never cleaned up.
Longyearbyen has a little church.
They also have a big famous icebreaker boat.
How do the polar bears know not to go past the signs?
People with flare guns let them know.