On Monday, September 2, we flew from Oslo to Longyearbyen, the largest city on the island of Spitzbergen. Spitzbergen is the largest of a group of islands North of the Norwegian mainland that is known collectively as Svalbard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard).

Svalbard is governed by Norwegian law, but the Svalbard Treaty of 1920 grants the forty countries that signed the treaty special commercial and access rights. As a result, flying from Oslo to Longyearbyen involves passing through a customs check!

Homes in Longyearbyen are uniformly painted in earth tones, apparently due to the local zoning ordinances.