The plants themselves look unremarkable and it was a strange sensation making the visit under such stringent conditions.

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Spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan said the visit was "very strange", reports the Associated Press.

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They visit in an effort to grasp how this strange, harsh place, where unruly blizzards and -50C temperatures are the norm, can sustain a vital ecosystem.

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His time as a prisoner-of-war, from 1942 onwards, was diverting to him not only because it led him to his future wife (a tall, blonde, determined Slovenian girl who came to visit him when he was transferred to an outside hospital) but also because he could observe those strange creatures, the English upper classes, up close.

ECONOMIST: Eric Newby