Vacation

Vacation !

View from the summer house

It's 1420 km (882 miles) to drive from where I live to this place you can see above.

Webcamera

Polar bear chased from airport

A large, male polar bear came a bit too close for comfort at the main airport on Svalbard.

The polar bear found lounging next to the fenced-in airport was chased off with smoke bombs, part of an effort to keep the ever-present polar bears on Svalbard away from human settlements.
The polar bear, probably weighing around 400 kilos, didn't appear aggressive and was initially spotted by a local resident. The bear was lying just outside the airport's fence at the end of the runway Monday afternoon.
The polar bear must have been comfortable where he was, "because it was a bit difficult to get him up on his feet."
The polar bear finally got up and strolled away from the airport and the nearby town of Longyearbyen. It headed for the local fjord, jumped into the chilly waters and swam off.

Whale shot in front of tourists

Eager Norwegian whalers didn't do much to boost the image of their country's tourism industry this week, when they gunned down a whale before the eyes of tourists out on a whale-watching expedition.

Norway's whaling industry has sparked international protest over the years. This week, the protests came from the whalers' own hunting grounds.
Around 80 tourists had paid to go out on a whale-watching boat from Andenes, in northern Norway. Called "whale safaris" locally, the whale-watching has become an increasingly popular tourist attraction in recent years.
While the tourists were admiring one of the great mammals of the sea, however, a Norwegian whaling boat approached and shot the whale in front of their eyes.
Leontien Dieleman from the Netherlands was among those who was shocked by the slaughter they suddenly and unexpectedly witnessed.
"This really wasn't what we came to see," Dieleman told.