Saturday, July 4, 2015
Before I leave Longyearbyen, I should talk about portholes.
We had a porthole on Nordstjernen. We were happy to have it! But, when we were
in rough seas, seawater came in! The first time we didn’t hear it and were
surprised to find water filling the well of the porthole. The next time it
happened I heard it slosh in and splash. It was a little alarming and messy,
considering there was no housekeeping going on.
We were on the SAS flight to Stockholm through Oslo that
departed at 4:40am. The hotel said they would have breakfast at 2am. It was
basically bread with butter and jam or cucumbers and cold cuts and cheese.
There was water, milk, juice and coffee. It wasn’t like we were really hungry
at 2am! The bus was supposed to leave at either 2:30am or 2:45am. We were told
both. We were early and the bus came and left at 2:15am. I have to assume there
were later buses as we saw at least 3 as we drove around Longyearbyen making
stops.
We had some low skies and overcast and even some rain, but
blue skies came back yesterday. There were still brilliant blue skies at 2am
this morning! In the beginning as we were still on Marina and the summer season
progressed and we traveled further north, we noticed it never really got fully
dark. But here now, it is fully light. There is no sign of dusk or dawn. The
temperature doesn’t vary between day and night because the sun doesn’t set.
We got our bags checked and through security with no
problems and had plenty of seating and room to wait with another flight on
Norwegian air from the single gate. We walked across the tarmac again to board.
The flight was over 2 hours long. Somehow coming from Tromso we weren’t
expecting that.
In Oslo, things kind of fell apart. On the airplane, they announced
that all arriving passengers in Oslo had to claim their luggage and go through
customs and immigration even if the bags were checked through. The problem was
that this was not true. Unfortunately, we had already stood in a passport
control line for over a half-hour and only had an hour or so between flights.
They eventually let the Americans go through the empty Europeans’ lines but
that was when we hit the snag about not picking up luggage and had to be lead
back. In any event, we rejoined others from our cruise and our flight that were
still in the security line where we rejoined them. I don’t understand how we
were not already secure as we had been herded from the plane (where we were
already inside security) through passport control and back to security
screening. Clay was randomly selected for a weapons search. That slowed us down
some more and we wound up boarding with only 5 to 10 minutes to spare.
We got to Stockholm and picked up our luggage and walked
right out with no passport control. Sweden may be in Schengen, but they aren’t
checking any passports in our experience. We come here by sea, by air and left
by air and nothing. We’ll see what happens when we leave by sea, but I don’t
expect any changes.
We found our way to Arlanda Express and waited 7 minutes to
board and 5 to leave. Twenty minutes later we were in Central Stockholm.
Another 5 minutes and we were in Freys Hotel, where they claimed they did not
have our reservations and were full up. I produced a printout of our
reservations and problem solved. We asked about our held luggage. They had it,
but the bad news was that they did not have a room ready for us. We added our
luggage to the other luggage and went in search of lunch. We were already exhausted
from being up since before 2am and the 2 flights, but the bigger problem was
the heat! We had dressed for 10C in Longyearbyen and it was about 85F here. The
sun was bright and the streets were packed. It turns out there is a Jehovah’s
Witnesses convention in Stockholm now. The hotels and restaurants are packed.
We picked the Kebab House down the street. Clay had expressed interest in it
last time. For about $10 each we had about a 1 pound plate of shaved beef and French
fries. It was a lot of food! They had fountain Cokes, so we each ordered a Coke
Zero and got a plastic glassful with no ice!
We walked over to the mall where Clay got gelato before and
we each had a cone sitting in the sun. We walked a ways down a shopping street,
through an air conditioned mall and out to a busy main street one block off the
waterfront. I couldn’t take anymore and started back to Freys. Clay asked what
my plan was and I said to use the restroom and sit in their lobby until the room
was ready. The guy recognized us when we walked back in and without asking
names again, checked to see it they had a room ready for us. They did! We
hauled luggage up and sort of reorganized and then put on a fan and laid down
on top of the bed and passed out. Clay woke me up and insisted we dress and go
out for dinner. I agreed if it was pizza. We had each seen a Pizza Hut in
different places. We went to Clay’s because there was a 7-Eleven next door.
There is an ice machine on the 1st floor and he has big plans. I
will be happy to have some cold water.
We each ordered a small thin crust pepperoni pizza. We
should have shared! Clay had a big beer and I had a glass of water with some
ice cubes in it, unfortunately it also had lemon in it. Clay put the lemon in
his beer. Our waiter was a character. He was grilling all the people around us
and us too. He knew the battleship USS North Carolina. Clay gave him and NC
flag patch. We went to 7-Eleven and Clay got his Coke Zeros. We came back and split
up. He went to the ATM and I came up with his drinks and went for ice. The ice machine
was dry and not cold. I went downstairs to report it and the girl at the desk
jumped down my throat about the machines overuse. I backed up and said I just
wanted to make sure she knew it wasn’t working. I had expected to be offered
ice from the bar/restaurant instead. No she said the janitor was off until
Monday and after the machine had rested it would probably work again or get
fixed by the janitor. Clay was livid. He felt for $250 a night we should have
ice. I agreed. I told him to go down and tell her that. I had been so taken
about by her verbal assault like I was the hundredth person in minutes to ask
about ice. Clay pointed out that I probably was and that they should have
solved the problem before I got there. I agreed and told him he was better
prepared than I had been and to go down and demand ice. He did. She told him to
go to the bar and ask for ice. They told him no. He just came back upstairs. I
told him he needs to ask to speak to management then. I expect this will just
end with him angry and iceless. He says he’ll rant on Trip Advisor. Of course,
they will probably reply that it was a big convention weekend and he didn’t
speak to management to give them a chance to resolve it. We’ll see.
