Aug 13, 2011 - Day trip to Kulusuk Greenland

OK, so Greenland. I had no idea at all what to expect. Would you? I was up early for breakfast and decided to walk 45 min to the airport and take advantage of being able to see a bit more of the city. Flying out of Reyjkavik in daylight it was more apparent how stark some of the landscape is with the dark lava fields. Nearing Greenland we began to see small icebergs and huge ice fields (floes). Is Greenland green? Not so much. It's craggy & desolate with snow-covered mountains & glaciers (which are melting). Where Iceland has very few...

Sep 11, 2010 - Qaqortoq

Greenland and Iceland should have their names reversed. Thanks to the Humboldt Current, Iceland’s climate is quite mild for its latitude and the parts that are not covered with recent lava fields and glaciers are green and fertile. The Vikings that first came to Greenland named it so in an effort to attract their countrymen to come live there. Madison Avenue had nothing on these guys! To be fair there is considerable evidence that the climate in Greenland was much warmer 1,000 years ago. Corn used to be grown here then, but now 78% of the...

Sep 8, 2007 - Nuuk, Greeland

Today we arrived in Nuuk, Greenland. The day before arriving Nuuk had been experiencing hurrican force winds. When we arrived the winds have died down a lot, but the sea was still quite rough. The ship was not able to dock thus we used the ship's tenders to go ashore during the day. The missionary Hans Egede founded Nuuk in 1728 as the very first town in Greenland. Nuuk has a very rich and varied history and the oldest settlements date back 4,200 years. The Nuuk municipality has two remaining settlements apart from the main town of Nuuk....