Greenland, Qoornguarsiaq Fjord, Thursday, 23 July 2026

We went to work out before breakfast in the fitness room, which was quite well equipped and made us feel very  virtuous. It was cloudy again, and rain was a possibility. After breakfast, Dan did an interesting lecture about some field work he did in an extremely remote island in the Russian Arctic, where they uncovered evidence of a group of people living there who subsisted entirely on female polar bears, the only bones found there. Hard to believe, but apparently polar bears (and other marine mammals) have a lot of Vitamin C so people in the Arctic do not get scurvy. Their conclusion was that the polar bear cubs were traded to get other items they needed, and possibly were traded on to become exotic and prestigious gifts, one had been discovered given as a gift to a leader in the Middle East.  The second lecture was on lichens and other ground lands, but I had to do some client work so was in the room doing email while listening to the lecture.

After lunch, it was time for a hike on a boggy area in Qoornguatsiaq Fjord. This is in the Sermersooq municipality, which at 205,368 square miles, is the largest municipality in the world. Vast areas of it are uninhabited of course - a municipality in Greenland is more like a state in the US, as there are only seven of them in this giant island. The hike was through a slightly melted area of permafrost so rather boggy, and several times we had to cross little creeks. It was warm so we shed a layer, and the mosquitos were vicious. I am so glad we got the mosquito nets, although they look rather ridiculous they are a lifesaver. I would have been eaten alive without the net. We saw two caribou skulls with antlers, and an Arctic Fox skull smaller than my hand. The focus of the hike was vegetation, and we saw many of the plants mentioned in the various talks over the past few days, including some bright and apparently somewhat poisonous mushrooms. This was by far the most strenuous hike we had, and I was very glad we both had our hiking sticks, we both fell only one time each.  As we were somewhat late getting back to the ship, I ran up to get Barney some cookies from the afternoon tea.  We were both quite sweaty from the hike and needed showers.  It was still quite warm outside, so we sat on the balcony, I finished my book and Barney read as well. Refreshed, we went to dinner and had a nice time, going up to the lounge afterwards for more wonderful conversation. Barney and I are discussing future trips, as this is as far as had planned anything. There are so many interesting places to go. 

Greenland, Bratthild Farm and Tunulliarflik Fjord, Wednesday, 22 July 2026

 We are up early and ready to go well before the 8:30 departure time. We find out this will be a et landing so a quick changed is needed. We hike with our group around the tiny village of about 80 people, up a steep hill to where there is a large statue of Leif Erickson. His father Erik the Red journeyed from Iceland in 982 CE and settled in this area with his family. It would have been welcoming, with large flat area under some hills, plenty of grass for grazing, and a good harbor. Although Erik the Red did not like Christianity, his mother did (Norway and Iceland were converting to Christianity) so he allowed her to build a small church in the settlement, and the remains of the church and multiple other buildings were all over the lower area of town. We also went into a replica longhouse, where 20-30 people would ahve lived; it had a central cooking and heating area, the walls would have been lined with elevated areas for sleeping, a weaving loom was set up at one end, and a small private room was perhaps for the newly married. A small room above was for maidens, who would pull up the ladder after the last one entered, and bring it town in the morning, as girls were married in their teens. Leif inherited the land from his father and was a chieftain for the area. he also famously journeyed to the New World, to an area he called Vinland, returned to Greenland, and died about 1025. Norse settlers remained in the area and left after about 400 years. The reasons why are not fully known, but probably have to do with the cooling of the climate in that period and the inability to feed themselves and their animals. We also went into a small house that had belonged to a man named Fredrickson who married an Inuit woman and had 7 children. The house was filled with family photos, some furniture, two parlor organs, some cooking equipment, and a display about the family. The sun came out during our hike and we stripped off our outer windproof jackets, it was probably at least 45 degrees but felt warmer due to the hiking. When we came in, the culinary team had made some adorable polar bear cookies.. 

After a nice lunch, we had an interesting lecture about how Viking ships were made of wood, which complemented the lecture we had on Monday about how Inuit kayaks are made of small amounts of wood and sealskin (kayak is an Inuit word). A lovely charcuterie afternoon tea was nice, and we came back to the room for a short rest. The evening included some wonderful scenery as we sailed out of Qassiaresuq Fjord. Before the evening recap, we spent some time in the Lounge with John and Reuben, and Reuben amazed us with his ability to do all sorts of interesting AI images with Olaf bears: a polar bar DJ, an Uber Eats driver, one in a hula skirt, one dressed like Elvis, and one next to a pyramid in Egypt. He is incredibly creative. After dinner, we watched a film made in about 1930 called the Wedding of Palo, about a young Greenlandic woman named Naravana, who is being courted by two men in East Greenland, one of whom is named Palo. She and her family and the others in their settlement live in the traditional way, in sealskin tents, hunting in kayaks, eating seals and whales and fish. The scene of the men bringing back some dead seals and her slicing it open and expertly trimming the blubber and eat from the skin was amazing. The man who made the film was half Inuit, half Danish, so he had insight into the culture. Quite something to realize how people were living here only 100 years ago.

Going to sleep to some gentle rocking, which was nice.

Greenland, Halsey Church and Qaqortoq town, Tuesday, 21 July 2026

This morning we went to Halsey Church, the oldest and best-preserved church in Greenland, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The church is made of local stone, with three doors and about six windows, plus a keystone arch over the main window over what would have been the altar. The rood was long gone, it was probably made of wood. It had a special feel to it, and I decided to sing “Nobilis, Humilis” there as it is a 12th century polyphonic piece about St. Magnus, a Norwegian saint. As we waited for the next group to leave the church, we spent some time looking out over the beautiful vista, seeing why this area was settled with farms and enough wealth to build a stone church, as it had plenty of green for herds to graze. Right before I sang, a mosquito flew into my mouth and I was choking on it, and somehow we had forgotten to bring our water bottle. I coughed a bit and tried to rehydrate, so the first time I sang was only so-so, and then I was able to get myself together for a better version the second time around, when no one was inside. I learned later that folks could hear me outside, softly. There were other ruins there, a longhouse and animal enclosures, all made of stone. I keep thinking about the people who sailed here, looking for a good spot to land with water and grazing and areas flat enough to build a house and farm. How brave they were.

Back to the ship, a nice lunch, and we had a briefing about cultural interactions with Greenlanders. In Greenland it is illegal to take a photo of a child without their parent’s permission, even in public places, and people in general don’t like being photographed. If someone squints, it means no, if they raise their eyebrows, it means yes, and because elders are highly respected, even if someone does not want their photo taken they might hesitate and appear to agree in order not to upset an elder.  In the afternoon we went to Qaqortoq, a town of about 2,000 people, the 6th largest in Greenland. We get off the Zodiacs near a large container port, and we see cranes and construction equipment all over. This is the arrest settlement we’ve seen since Iceland. There are brightly-colored homes and apartment buildings, and we visit a ceramics workshop, a wood-carving workshop, and another shop selling artwork and carvings. Barney selected a tiny polar bear carving made of animal horn which is legal, while anything made of seal, walrus, whale, Arctic Fox, and other animals are illegal to export and definitely illegal to import to the US. We walked around the town on our own, saw the red Lutheran church and a rock club, as well as some beautiful carvings in the granite that runs throughout the town along the roads. There are enormous staircases that run 8-10 slights up the hill, which I gather must be preferable to driving or walking up a longer winding road. We had some samples of dried cod and lamb and Greenland beer which were all good, and saw many wildflowers everywhere, as it seemed warmed than where we were earlier.

In the evening we had our invited dinner. I had made little place tags for everyone with a drawing of a whale on each, and Reuben and I collaborated on the seating so people would be next to interesting people to talk to. It was a lovely event and very successful, and folks liked the little name tags, I saw a couple of them on room doors as we went to our rooms later.

Tomorrow we’ll be up hiking early so we went to bed fairly early (for us) and slept to the gentle rocking of the ship.

Greenland, Annikitsoq Fjord and Prins Christian Sund, Monday, 20 July 2026

 We woke up to heavy fog again this morning, but it lifted as we sailed into Annikitsoq Fjord. The morning plan was to land on a rocky beach and walk for a bit, then come back and kayak. The rocky beach rose steeply up the hill (we decided to skip the 5 mile very strenuous hike), with fresh water pouring down in a nearby small waterfall plus the somewhat flat land a bit above the beach, it was not hard to imagine that this might have been a good location for some of those first settlers. In fact, a collection of rocks we saw is an archaeological site, about which we’ll learn more tomorrow. For now, there is so much to learn about this place, the people, and the history. Eva will be doing a cultural lecture this afternoon, which should be interesting.

The hike featured our first encounter with a major “vampiric” level of mosquitos. When Lisle said “vampiric” he was not kidding. I have never seen so many mosquitos in my life. Luckily we had purchased head nets, which I first thought were a frill, and then I realized they were an absolute necessity. Without this on the walk I would have had at least a thousand mosquito bites, they were so thick. The net saved me. After the hike, we went back to the ship via Zodiac and turned right around to kayak for about an hour. I always enjoy kayaking, and each time I do it, it reminds me that  want to do more, and we can start by kayaking on Lake Merritt and in the estuary.

Also found out that the huge glacier we saw yesterday was called the Thrym Glacier. 

Reuben and I put together a list of the people we want to invite to a dinner at the big table for 14 and started talking to folks to invite them. It will be tomorrow evening, and should be fun.

Greenland, Timmiarmiit Fjord, Sunday, 19 July 2026

We awoke to a view with no horizon, the fog was so heavy and low we could not see the difference between sea and sky. Slowly it lifted, and there were plans for various hikes on land. However, the scouting party deemed it not possible - the heavy fog meant visibility was low for the Zodiac drivers and most importantly, for being able to spot approaching polar bears. So the morning was spent with a wonderful lecture with the staff archaeologist (retired from University of Alaska and former Chief Scientist of the National Park Service), who worked with a group that discovered the foot prints of people from 21,000-23,000 years ago in the White Sands National Park in New Mexico - almost 10,000 years earlier than what was originally thought to be the earliest date for human in the Western Hemisphere. The way they were able to date the various footprints of people, giant sloths, and mammoths, to figure out who came by first and who came later, was fascinating. While were at lunch, the expedition leader let us know that there were three polar bears, a mother and two cubs, up ahead of the ship.He warned everyone to be extremely quiet, no talking on deck, no loud sounds, no slamming doors. We saw the polar bears swimming across the fjord past a large iceberg, and then they went up on land and they were frolicking in the greenery, the cubs even rolling around on their backs. It was breathtaking - the first time I have ever seen polar bears!  We may see more later, but at least we saw some.  What a thrill.

After we resumed lunch, we realized that there would not be any off-ship excursions today, so we were marveling at the giant mountains and glaciers and icebergs all around us. The fog had lifted so the viewing was amazing. We went all the way to the end of the fjord, where we encountered a gigantic front end of a glacier, 1.5 miles wide, 45 meters above the water and 300 meters below the water, truly immense. By this time we had been oohing and aahing all afternoon at the scenery, and we sat in the observation area on the 8th deck for quite a while, reading and watching the incredible scenery. Then we had a lecture on polar bears which was so interesting … the live solitarily, not in groups, the females have 1-3 cubs every 4 years or so, the cubs are about one pound when they are born, and they can nurse for two years. Adult males can be over one ton, and the females about 2/3 of that. They are apex predators who mostly eat seals, but also will eat greens and berries and fish … pretty much anything during the fall, winter and spring when they bulk up, as the summer means almost no food due to the lack of sea ice, and they can go up to 8 months without eating.

The evening recap featured talks on the undersea exploration, phytoplankton and water sampling, and a preview of tomorrow in another fjord where we hope and expect to be able to hike and/or kayak. After a nice dinner with some new folks, we chatted with Boris the naturalist, who gave us some very helpful information on visiting Svalbard, and also about Baja for whale watching. During the conversation, Reuben spotted a polar bear off the stern so we all ran out of course; the bear was only just visible next to a large iceberg, as seen through a photo taken with a telephoto lens. With my eyes only, I could not see it. Polar bears will likely be elusive here, as we have to keep quite a distance from them. 

Greenland, Skjoldungen Fjord, Saturday, 18 July 2026

In the early hours (the sun rises at 3am and sets at midnight) we were still in heavy fog, where no horizon could be distinguished. Later we awoke to a fairly smooth sail into this enormous fjord with towering, fog-shrouded mountains on either side. After a quick workout and a nice light breakfast, I did a lot of laundry, socks and underwear, as we are now 7 days into our trip. Thankfully we have an excellent travel clothesline of braided nylon with tiny little clothespins.

Lars did a wonderful introduction to Greenlandic culture, taking us through the history of the Independent, Dorset, Viking, and Thule immigrations over the past 5,000 years. There were periods we]hen no expel lived here for a few hundred years, as when the weather cooled people moved away, when it warmed, they came over from Canada and Alaska. Almost 90% of the people in Greenland are Inuit, descended from the Thule people (including Lars), the rest are mostly Danish and some other Europeans.For a few thousand years, the early inhabitants were hunter-gatherers, living in sod and ice houses, with everything made from the animals they hunted. Metal tools came to them much later, as did the somewhat forced Christian conversion during Danish rule. Lars himself is part Inuit, part European, and he noted that he endured some teasing because of this. He also highlighted to delicate tattoos that women had, which symbolized various milestones such as starting to menstruate, being married, and having a child, and how these were coming back.

The scenery outside had become quite stunning, glaciers, waterfalls, enormous icebergs, and mountains. The scale is enormous, and as we went up the fjord, the mountains got taller and the icebergs even bigger. An afternoon Zodiac ride took us closer to several waterfalls, an area with Iceland gulls and Eider ducks, some caves, a small rocky beach, and gave us views of an enormous, 100-foot-tall face of the glacier. It was brisk out, about 42º, and during the ride we were met by another Zodiac with some of the culinary staff in it who had hot chocolate and various liqueurs. Yesterday and the day before we returned from Zodiacs to cute little sugar cookies decorated as terns or seals, very creative and appropriate.

Boris did a wonderful lecture on cetaceans, whales of all types, including his imitations of whale sounds. Next was the polar plunge, jumping into the freezing water here, just above the Arctic Circle. Barney convinced me to do this, as he had done it in Antarctica while I took photos. I told him I would do it but only if he held my hand so I would not chicken out. We saw the crew setting up the Zodiacs with the underwater platform between them, which we would climb onto after jumping into the water. It looked a bit intimidating to me, but I was committed. We got our bathing suits on, wrapped up in the white fuzzy robes, and went down to BaseCamp. There were already a number of folks shivering in the cold, standing in line ready to go, while the ship’s doctor stood by, defibrillator in hand. I realized there was no way out, so we got in line, I watched the people in front of us, and when it came time for our turn, I grabbed Barney’s hand and we jumped together. I screamed, it was astonishingly cold and I felt so disoriented I did not know which was was up, but somehow found my way up to the platform where helping hands got me up out of the water, sat me down to catch my breath, and then I saw Barney and knew we were OK. We dried off with towels and the ship staff had brandy and other shots available for revival. We decided to go up to the hot tub up on deck 8, where the warm water brought us back to normal temperature. After that, the dry Nordic sauna completed our temperature reset, and we took showers to rinse off the salt water and got into dry clothes. 

At dinner a major topic of conversation was the polar plunge - only 27 of the 110 people on board did it. The captain himself dove into the water and swam around a bit, because he is that kind of man. We had a delicious dinner, and went out in the still-bright sunshine to sit around the fire pit and take photos of the stunning scenery. Tomorrow we go to a new fjord where we expect to do more hiking and perhaps see some wildlife. 

Greenland, Similiiaq Fjord, Friday, 17 July 2026

Overnight we sailed to Greenland, and we awoke to brilliant sunshine, mountains, and truly immense icebergs. The captain promised it would be as spectacular as Antarctica, and he was right. The bizarre and unearthly shapes of the huge icebergs captivated us, I can’t even remember how many photos I took as these icebergs looks different from different angles due to how they weather and shift in the water.

We headed up Simiilaq fjord, again surrounded by mountains and glaciers and very little greenery. One breathtaking columnar iceberg looked like an immense penis (which was noticed by everyone), and the captain made sure everyone had a chance to photograph it. We landed in the Zodiacs on a deserted rocky beach, where we could walk fairly freely. We had to stay inside a perimeter defined by the staff, who carry firearms as there is a very small but real risk of polar bears. We walked from one end to the other, observing some interesting animal poops (which we later learned were from geese) and where a large pool of water perfectly reflected a large peak. After we returned to the ship, we kept our gear on, as we went out soon on a zodiac cruise. Since we were the last in line and only 10 people can go in a zodiac, we were all by ourselves with Boris the wonderful naturalist we met in Antarctica. This was a real thrill. We went to a rocky cliff where Iceland Gulls were nesting, and the Glaucus Gulls were flying around, ready to steal eggs; they are predators, somewhat larger than the Iceland Gulls. We went by a large iceberg which had a loud popping noice going on, as the air bubbles came to the surface. We also saw a rather unique iceberg which had rolled over, so part of it was the blue that is usually beneath the water and part was the typical white. Another iceberg had two huge holes in it, water had poured through the first hole and then created a second hole. It was such fun to have a truly knowledgeable person guiding us, and he told us about some of his (and Eva’s) other expeditions they’ve done in Arctic and Antarctic area, Alaska, and also Baja, and he said they might also do some wildlife trips in Africa; they are based in Colorado.

In the evening, we attended the Cook’s Nook Zero Waste dinner, a 7 course special dinner that everyone is invited to once on the trip. It was designed to showcase parts of food that are sometimes thrown away, as a model of zero-waste cooking. We started with tiny canapées featuring such unusual ingredients as potato glass (frozen then dried water that potatoes have been cooked in), leftover bits of mushroom made into confit, and kale and potato croquette. Then we had the trim ends of Albacore tuna, with artichoke three ways, crispy, confit, and mousse with Leon ponzu foam.  Then a tomato asparagus broth with tomato caviar, which the soups-chef explained they make by combining chopped tomato with agar-agar and cold oil, then pressed and shaped into tiny pearls that look like caviar and burst when you put them in your mouth. Something the chef was very proud of was the cauliflower 8 ways: caviar, grilled steak, tempura, pickled, puréed, foam, remoulade and a “scallop” made from the base of the leaves, all of which were quite good. A berry sorbet was the palate refresher. Then we had a black cod filet with a quinoa chip, carrots with hazelnut dukkha, then my favorite, duck breast with a Demi glaze on beetroot carpaccio, confit duck ravioli (delicious) with a burnt apple purée. Dessert was an apple “rock” a shell made of hardened apple Joyce filled with apple cremeux, with apple caviar, apple chips, an apple biscuit, and Pink Lady sorbet. 

We ended the evening in the lounge as usual, meeting up with our friends and joined by some new folks who were delightful. Tonight we sail a but farther Dow the east coast of Greenland.