Iceland, Friday, 31 July 2026

We had a good night’s sleep (finally)  and enjoyed the breakfast n the hotel. We saw a number of folks from the ship and said our goodbyes. They had some cod liver oil there to take tiny shots, so I got some for Barney so he could try it - I remember having this as a kid but he had never had it. Then back upstairs to finalize packing and check out. We walked to the marina area, about 20 minutes, to get our rental car. All that sent smoothly, and when e drove back to the hotel to pick up ou bags, we. Magically foods a parking space right on the square by the hotel. Checked out and loaded up, we headed out for our solo adventure in Iceland. 

Our very first stop was the Geothermal Exhibition, which Barney, being an amazing mechanical engineer, loved. It explained how geothermal power works, why this was done in that location, and how this now powers 99% of the power and hot water in Reykjavik as well as much of the rest of the country. Truly amazing, and the huge turbines and condensers were a marvel. It was quite windy out, so we ate our duck confit in the car with some fruit, and then headed off for our waterfall adventures. 

First was Urridafoss, a relatively small (18 meters) waterfall that drops into a crevasses and then flows into a narrow area of channel. It was a surprise to even find it there, as the area looked so flat. Then on to Hella, which was honesty a disappointment After driving around the tony town looking for a cafe where we could et some coffee, we finally had to go to the gas station + grocery + coffee place by the side of the road, got some coffee (and Kleenex for the car), used the bathroom, and off we went. Sadly we found no “I Hella Heart Hella” t-shirt for Madeleine, not a t-shirt or souvenir store in sight. 

We arrived at Seljalandsfoss, one of the huge waterfalls, raked and joined the large group of folks walking toward this enormous aterfall. This was the one where you can walk behind it. We got on our waterproof pants and jackets an headed for the waterfall. Very glad we had suited up, because some people were n short or jeans and t-shirts and got completely soaked by the spray. It was exhilarating to feel the force of the wind and water, knowing that we would not get wet, and we somehow managed to even take a few photos. It was crowded there, though, and we were glad to move on.

Our net stop was Skogafoss, near the living history Musem we will visit o the way back. An immense waterfall, we walked along the rocky paths and actually stood on the black basalt rocks in the middle of where the waterfall dumped again getting quite wet but e were prepared. Now I have a better understanding of what these huge waterfalls mean and why they are so popular.

We had along drive ahead of us to the hotel, so off we went, and took an interesting detour around a circular road that allowed us to get some good photos of a glacier and see some interesting guesthouses in the middle of a working farm. On the way we saw many white plastic wrapped bales of hay and silage for the animals - they are wrapped in plastic to protect them form spoiling in the rain and to slightly warm them so certain nutrients would grow. We also saw bales wrapped in black, green and blue plastic, but apparently white is preferred.  We saw sheep, horses, cows, and so much green that it looked like Ireland. It was very different than the rocky coastlines of Greenland with minimal greenery.

We arrived at the Hotel Kayla, checked into our room which had a nice view of the bay, enjoyed a dinner of lamb shanks and Arctic char, and headed to the room to do some planing for the next day. The trip to Hofn tomorrow should be fun,

Greenland to Iceland, Thursday, 30 July 2026

 The day to depart the ship has arrived. Up at 5:00am, finish packing the split bags, one we will take on your road trip, one we will leave at the hotel, breakfast, and then 8:00am head to Nuuk. we have the chance for a short drive through town on the bus, and then a walk to the National Museum, where I could have spent the day but we had only about 45 minutes.  The artifacts were amazing, and we saw only a small bit of the collection. After that back to the plus to head to the airport. Meanwhile, Reuben was wearing his “Greenland Is Not For Sale” t-shirt, and his bus guide happened to be the youngest member of Parliament in Greenland and she loved his short, took a photo and asked where he was from. We hope to see this on Instagram soon.

We made it to the airport, only to wait an extra half hour for some reason, and then finally piled on the plane. Once we arrived in Reykjavik, we headed to yet another bus, and waited, and then the 45-minute drive to Reykjavik brought us back to the familiar Parliament HOtel. Instead for dinner in the restaurant, there was a box dinner (in a bag) which we took so we could have it for lunch the next day while on the road. I had made a reservation at Apotek for the five of us, which was fun, though a bit noisy. The portions were large (and expensive) and the shared duck platter for two could have fed three or four people, included duck burgers on waffles, a leg of duck confit, some duck pate, and some delicious duck breast sliced on marinated mushrooms. We took the leg of duck confit back to the hotel to save for lunch the next day. We said Farrell to John an Reuben and Jenny, who had to leave on the 7:00am bus for the airport.

We finally got to bed at a reasonable hour after some repacking, at 10:00pm, knowing we could sleep in a bit the next day.

Greenland, Nordre Isortoq Fjord, Wednesday, 29 July 2026

Feeling virtuous after attending the stretch class again this morning, I enjoyed a Croque Madame for breakfast, then off to get ready. Putting on our long underwear, waterproof pants, and muck boots for the last time, we went kayaking in the fjord, which was relaxing and so nice. A few times Barney and I stopped paddling and just talked, something it can be hard to do in our busy lives. We are both so grateful and keenly aware of how fortunate we are to have good health, a wonderful family, good friends, interesting work and volunteer communities, and especially the resources to be able to enjoy trips like this.  After the kayaking, we took a final Zodiac ride with Dan, seeing many guillemots and caribou antlers on the rocky coast, but no caribou. Caribou and Reindeer are the same species, reindeer being the domesticated version, caribou the wild version. The male caribou drop their antlers in the summer, but the females keep theirs into the winter, so Dan asked us if Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer was male or female, and it seemed clear that Rudolf was really Rudolfina!

Back for a nice lunch, and we sat with Eva and Boris and had some interesting discussions about new things we had learned on this trip, even though they have been here many times, they still learn new things. Then a briefing about the complex day tomorrow, when most of us leave but some folks stay on the ship to go to Nome via the Northwest Passage, and others continue on all the way to Japan, a journey that takes 69 days and costs a minimum of $108,000, truly an epic trip. After that, the dreaded task of packing. We are dividing our clothes into two suitcases, one for the four day road trip in Iceland, and one we will leave at the hotel while we are on the road. Barney attended a really good briefing by the captain about the planning and construction of this wonderful ship, which is unique among icebreaker extradition ships of this type. He downloaded some wonderful wildlife photos from the shared computers, did his packing, and then we went upstairs to our last cocktail hour and briefing, and dinner. It feels hard to say farewell to this trip, to the amazing places and people and wildlife we have seen, to being taken care of by a wonderful staff, to learning so much every day from the talented naturalist staff. I am so gad that we did this trip.

Greenland, Illulisat, Tuesday, 28 July 2026

 We sailed overnight and awoke once again to bright skies. After the morning stretch session and breakfast, we had some time before out group would leave for the town of Illulisat, population about 4,600 and 220 miles north of the Arctic Circle, the third largest city in Greenland after Nuuk and Sisimiut. We took the Zodiacs to a dock landing in town, near the ubiquitous port of containers and cranes and large construction company buildings. After a short bus ride, we got off at the UNESCO World Heritage site which includes miles of boardwalk over the tundra and the stunning Icefjord Center. The boardwalk went about 1.5 miles to hike out to a cliff, over terrain that in other places we have hiked on, but since this town gets a lot of tourism, they protected the terrain with a boardwalk. At the cliff, we learned that during times of no food, this is where elderly people were told to jump or might have to be pushed, to their deaths. If the elderly dying was not enough to protect the community during starvation times, sometimes the youngest babies were also sent to their deaths own the cliff. Life was hard here. 

In the distance from the cliff we saw the largest icebergs we have seen on this trip. Anne told us at breakfast that because of the Gulf Stream, iceberg would break off the gigantic the world’s most active glacier, Sermeq Kujalleq, float north, and then follow the Gulf Stream over to Canada, and this is likely how the huge iceberg which sank the Titanic reached the area off Newfoundland where the Titanic was sunk. It is not hard to believe, because the icebergs were 15-20 stories tall, so big that we could not even see the glacier behind them. As we walked back, we saw a boat, incredibly tiny next to the glacier, which gave some perspective to its size. The Icefjord Center was a large angular building swooping a bit like an iceberg, with steps that could take you to the top of the roof for an incredible view. Inside, there was a short film about how the process goes from precipitation to snowflakes to crystallization to precipitation to glacial formation to icebergs. A unique feature was how they presented some artifacts and explanatory materials. Each was encased in a clear resin shaped like a small iceberg, and instead of multi-lingual signage, there was a large multi-lingual book off to the side nearby which explained each item. There were also displayed ice core samples from the current time to 160,000 BCE. 

After a ride back to the ship, we had a very quick lunch and prepared to board the small local boats which would take us into the ice field. There were only seven guests on our boat, with a captain named Nik, who drove us through the ice fields and through a maze of enormous icebergs. Somehow I had neglected to charge my phone before we left, so I had to really look and remember, and of course Barney took photos. It reminded me of how much phones and cameras can get in the way of really seeing. It was quite cold, like being in a refrigerator, and breathtaking, coming up close to the giant icebergs we had seen from the coast a few hours before. They were every shape and size: smooth and glossy like soft meringue, sharp and pointed like new mountains, tabular as we had seen so often in Antarctica, dimpled as if it had recently rained, finely grained like powdered sugar, or with giant lines on them which looked lie ski trails. One of the largest icebergs we saw had three “waterfall” of snow coming off the side into the waters with such force that they came far out from the wall of ice. We crunched through the ice, often quite a bit of it, in the distance we saw a seal, and there were many birds flying over the boat. There was a small calving incident but not near us, though it made me think how if a large piece came off one of the huge icebergs it would definitely swamp the boat and yet  somehow the captain knew it was safe to go there. Nevertheless we all arrived back safely, hardly able to describe what we saw. It was certainly something I will never forget.

This evening featured a Filipino gourmet dinner, with many excellent dishes to try, my favorites being the chicken adobo and the flan. This was followed by a performance by the crew, which was really fun, and we managed to get a lot of folks clapping. There were several karaoke pieces, some dance and singing pieces with moves that reminded me so much of the students who practice in Lower Sproul Plaza, a lovely traditional dance featuring the Filipina staff, a funny multi-song routine by the bar staff who call themselves the Cocktail Shakers, and then a band from among the crew set up. They played a variety of pieces, and Reuben started dancing, then John, then Barney and I joined in, and pretty soon about 25 people were dancing in the Lounge. They played “YNCA” which really got people up and dancing, and then naturalist Anne sang “It’s Raining Men” and “I Will Survive” which were real hits. Finally the band played some head banging music, and the captain had come down in casual clothes, and he and Reuben and one of the other naturalists started bouncing off each other which was kind of wild. After the last song and so much dancing we were all pretty tired and sweaty, so we went out onto the ack of deck 6 and watched the amazing late evening light and sat by the fire pit. What an evening. This will be over far too soon.

Greenland, Uumannaq and Qilakitsoq, 27 July 2026

We woke up to beautiful, almost blinding sunshine, instead of fog. After breakfast, we landed on a pontoon dock, and walked right to the center of town of Uumannaq, dominated by two huge mountains and with icebergs all over the small bay. First we visited the musuem, which was fairly small, two rooms, featuring quite a collection of traditional clothing, tools both pre-and-post colonization, and lots of historic phots. Life here was still fairly traditional at least until the 1940s, based on the photos. We visited a turf house in the center of town, the “blubber house” where vast quantities of whale blubber would have been stored, now turned into an art gallery and museum of skulls, skeletons, and taxidermy. There was a small bench made of some whale vertebra and walrus tusks, as well as toys, games, and many tools. We went into the stone Lutheran church, which was cut from the grey and white marble that had been mined nearby for decades, though the mine is now closed. Here agin we saw a menorah on the altar, which seemed puzzling because Greenland has almost no Jewish population. Later I looked this up (there is only one permanent resident in all of Greenland who is Jewish), and learned that what I thought was a menorah was a traditional Scandinavian Lutheran church feature. It evokes the light of heaven, and is based on the description of the seven-branched lamp described in Exodus, in the Temple of Jerusalem.  We also stopped briefly into the main grocery store, which had quite a wide selection of food including a large section of various gummies (given the proximity to Scandinavia I guess) and all sorts of snacks and even things like cup o’soup, as well as frozen chicken hot wings and many kinds of yogurt. We then walked up several ills to the Dog Town area, again almost outside of town. There was a dog trainer who had some adult dogs and some pups that we could see a bit closer than the ones wandering through that area of town. It was nap time, so the pups and adults were mostly sleeping, and all these were of various shades of tan rather than the creamy off-site color we saw  in Sisimuit. Back to the center of town, where there were two clearly Instagram photo spots, one a giant red and white sleigh, the other a 15-foot tall Santa post box, where apparently people from all over the world write letters to Santa here, which are often answered by local children. Reuben asked us to get photos of ourselves on both to he could add his AI polar bear, so we did that, and walked leisurely back to town to catch a Zodiac back to the ship.

After lunch, we went with Dan to Qilakitsoq, an area outside of town on an inlet which is an historic and current burial ground. We needed to be very careful to follow Dan and not step on any graves, which here are formed of piles of rocks. We walked amongst the now-familiar tundra vegetation of willows and crowberries, and saw several 500-6– year-old turf houses, one with three separate units (each with its own entrance) probably for an extended family, and one larger one that came later and was communal. Dan told us that the native Greenlanders were very conflict-averse, as the health and welfare of the community depended on everyone doing their jobs. Rather than fight with weapons over a dispute, such as angry words or competing for female attentions, men would have something like a humor face-off in which the community would decide the winner by clapping or shouting, to avoid people attacking each other with weapons which might mean losing a valued hunter from the community. If a man died, his wife might marry another relative (even in the other man already had a wife) so that she and her children could still be provided for and contribute in their own way. They did not have an official marriage ceremony, but more a community confirmation of the relationship. There was sometimes gender-fluidity, where if a man had four daughters, two of them might be designated to be hunters like boys would be, and take on that role instead of the childcare, cooking, sewing of hides, and rendering of hunted animals and birds that were the women’s typical role. He explained that everyone had a role, even children, and if roles were missing it could be devastating for the community. Near this area were found in the 1970s eight mummies, six women and two children, perfectly preserved by the cold, dry air, the subject of a major National Geographic article. They were buried with a umber of articles of clothing, tools, and amulets, and Hildreth were placed on top of the women, whose bodies were also stacked. Scientists were even able to distinguish the characteristic tattooing on their faces, which significance various life events such as the onset of menses, marriage, childbirth, and widowhood.  A group doing the strenuous hike went all the way up to where the mummies had been required, but we stayed in the lower gravesite area.  It had been a quiet and introspective experience, being in a graveyard. We hiked back to the beach where we took the Zodiacs back to the ship.

Before dinner at the recap we heard about plans for the next day, and for dinner the next evening which would have a Filipino theme - almost all the waters, culinary, housekeeping, and maintenance staff are Filipino - as well as something of a talent show by the crew and staff, which we are looking forward to.  On the summary for this day, the notes said “sunrise: none, sunset: none,” meaning that the sun never went below the horizon, only dipping to the bottom of the parabola of its course, thrust the land of the midnight sun. BY the time we went to bed, around 11:00pm, it was still quite bright outside.

Greenland, Disko Island Sunday, 26 July 2026

 There was massive fog again when we woke up, and it was definitely colder, high today is expected to be about 42 degrees. We are definitely much farther north. This area is called Iceberg Alley, as there are literally hundreds of icebergs small and large which have separated from various glaciers and floated to this area were they tend to stay until the melt.

This morning we had an astonishing Zodiac ride with Lars, viewing the basalt rock formations and water falls of Disko Island, the second largest island in Greenland. While I am not always the most enthusiastic about geology, the crazy angles and appearances these rocks was amazing. First we went through a cool arch, and then along the coast to see the rocks up closer, the caves, and even went behind a waterfall. It looked like a giant jenga puzzle with pieces of rock going every which way, some spread like a fan, others as spires going toward the sky, others bent where volcanic forces intervened. I will post some photos later. As we were in the Zodiac, we saw the small town where Lars lives with his family, a collection of houses similar to others we have seen, perched all over a rocky hillside with areas of green.

My knee was a bit sore from kneeling in the morning stretch class, so I chose to go on the short walk on another part of the island. It was lovely, about a mile, and we stopped at a small promontory where we had a nice coast view. Our guide Dan said that he like to take a pause on the short walks, have folks sit or even lay down, and be quiet for 15 minutes. It was brisk but sunny, so I sat down and then laid down on the tundra vegetation. It was so beautiful, quiet (although one guy did start snoring), and I could hear things I had not heard before, and even smell the vegetation. Then we picked some blueberries and crowberries and ate them - a bit tart - and headed back to the ship. I’m very glad I did the short walk, as the moderate walk Barney did turned out to be quite a slog with some serious bushwhacking, long diversions through paths going up and down and up and down, a lot of elevation change, holds in the tundra and channels of really soft area. The particular guide for his group, Rob, did not seem to have a good sense of the best path, the other group’s experience was much better. Afterwards he and John and Reuben went to the hot tub to soak, which helped a lot.

The evening was our second dinner with our second group, which went well. I redid the place tags, this time with a whale that had fins, which everyone liked. There was a good chemistry at the table and folks enjoyed themselves. I really enjoy bringing people together like this. We hung out in the lounge for quite a while afterwards, and as we went to bed, it was still bright out at 11:30pm!

Greenland, Sisimiut, Saturday, 25 July 2026

We awoke to the largish town of Sisimiut, one of the largest in Greenland, and we were getting off at an official dock. This morning, of the three options, we chose the archaeological hike to Sallinnguit (Tele Island). It was about three hours of serious hiking, clambering up rocks and stepping up and down two or three feet on rocks. Fortunately, Barney was always there to give me a hand, as I’ve found that going down a steep rock on my “bad” knee is OK, going up on my good knee is harder as I cannot bend back as far as I used to. We covered a loot of territory, and saw a number of remains of turf houses from the 16th century and onward, as well as graves and fox traps made of stones. The graves all had a view of the waters which was considered essential in the Greenlandic culture. we saw the dog island, where owners let their dogs roam free for the summer, so they don’t become too domesticated, and establish hierarchy which helps with sledding. After a long and quite strenuous hike, we enjoyed a nice lunch and heard about the morning town tour which visited a place called Dog Town. We’ll go there later.

In the afternoon, we boarded a shuttle bus that went between the ship, the Sisimuit Museum, the large grocery store, and the edge of town where the Arctic Circle Trail starts and where Dog Town is. First we headed into town to see the Sisimuit Museum is. It was made up of eight old wooden buildings. The Old Shop, built in 1825, held the ticket office, a small gift shop, and some historic photographs.  Behind it in a open area was the most interesting part of the museum: a series of dog sleds made in different parts of Greenland, and a tent of the type used in the summer, with a below-grade entrance to the large skin tent, with an elevated platform for sleeping and a lower area for cooking, which we could go inside. Thinking about how few materials possessions these folks had, as they migrated with various game and the seasons, made us realize how little people really need to survive. The Museum also included an old Lutheran church which had been restored, a turf house replica from the 1990s, which included the two sleeping platforms, one for each family, separated by a skin curtain, the Colonial Manager’s Residence from 1865 which had a schoolroom and historical photos, and the Old House built in 1756 with an extensive exhibit in Saqqaq culture and artifacts. 

We then caught the shuttle bus to the edge of town, to go to Dog Town. As we walked down the paved and then gravel road, we wondered, where is the facility? We were expecting some sort of large kennel with Greenlandic Sled Dogs, but all we saw were dogs hanging out on various small rises, some laying in the sun, some nursing their puppies, others playing. We realized that this was Dog Town, and when I looked it up, we found that this whole area was designated for the dogs to live most of the year. They specifically do not want the dogs to be too domesticated, and we had been told not to approach or try to pet the dogs. So for a while we simply admired them from the road, and a few times a curious puppy approached us, only to be herded back by a watchful mother dog. One mother dog even followed us up the street a bit to make sure we were moving on. And then it happened: one dog started to howl, and then others joined in, until the whole little valley of dogs was howling, for well over a minute. It was magical. And then suddenly, it was over. we walked back up to the bus stop, and headed back to the ship. We went to the cocktail our and recap, then dinner, and chatted with our friends a bit about future National Geographic Expeditions - we are considering going to Svalbard - and  headed to bed.