We had breakfast at 6 a.m. on Sunday, August 1, 2010, at our hotel, the Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel, in Oslo, Norway. The Svalbard group boarded busses to travel to the airport for our two hour flight to Longyearbyen. Here we were met by members of the Lindblad Expedition Staff and bussed to the Radisson Blu Hotel in Svalbard for lunch. Since our ship was not yet ready for boarding, the Lindblad staff took our group on a tour of Longyearbyen followed by a tour of the Art Museum, Galleri Svalbard. This museum houses the permanent art and cultural collections of Kåre Tveter, the Svalbard collection (maps, books and payment notes), and the Recherche collection (lithographs from the expedition in 1838-39). Arts and crafts are offered to the public through permanent and temporary exhibitions. We enjoyed a glass of champagne, the wonderful old maps, and local artisans at work. As we descended the museum's porch, Brad and I saw this Purple Sandpiper feeding in a nearby ditch. Temperatures were in the 40's with partly cloudy skies.