Greenland

When we first heard about this cruise it was the chance to see Greenland that appealed to me most. I've always wondered what that big white blob at the top of the globe was really like. And here was a chance to find out in relative safety and comfort.

Usually we've found that it's dangerous to have high expectations for a place. Some of our best experiences have been in places we expected to hate - Warsaw, for instance. But not this time.

We got to Greenland after two bumpy days crossing the North Atlantic. Nosing into the shelter of Prince Christian Sound at the southern tip of Greenland, our ship suddenly found itself in calm, smooth water. For nearly six hours we drifted at canoe pace between high rocky walls, past noses of glaciers that spilled down from the main ice sheet, avoiding small icebergs calved just days before. The only green was moss that had found a foothold on the scoured rock. The rest: rock and water and intense blue sky. Until we actually entered the Sound we had no idea if we'd be able to do it - the last ship that had tried to make the passage had encountered fog and ice that made it turn back. But we had great weather and were able to see this landscape that is beyond incredible.

When we left the Sound we sailed right into a dense fog bank that stayed with us until the next day, when we reached the small settlement of Qaqertoq. But as we entered its harbour we sailed into a bright sunny day and a view of cheerful little houses scattered over the rocks. The ship had to anchor and send us to the small dock in the lifeboats. And for a couple of hours the patient Greenlanders endured (with great cheerfulness) an invasion of mostly friendly tourists. We saw a nice little museum, a pretty old church, and Greenland's only fountain. I was most impressed with the colourful and skillful beadwork. The traditional Greenland Inuit woman's outfit includes a huge bead collar that drapes down around the shoulders. There were several for sale by women who'd made them, but I managed to resist - they're heavy.

Back into the fog again as we moved further up the coast to Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. And again we came out of the fog bank as we entered the harbour and had another radiantly sunny day. This was a somewhat bigger town that's been growing fast since Greenland got home rule. It had the apartment blocks to show it. Our ship circled around in the bay for awhile, and I could see and hear the captain on the flying bridge: "But we confirmed that we were coming two weeks ago!" he was saying on the telephone. Finally the pilot boat showed up and we backed through a narrow entrance to dock in the inner harbour. Pretty impressive!

The town's buses were commandeered to take our small horde into the pretty part of town and we wandered around a bit, browsing through the tourist shops (expensive!) and the museum (very good, complete with mummies and many other interesting things). I finally found some qiviut (musk ox wool), and thereby hangs a story.

I'd seen some spun qiviut in Qaqertoq, but it was more expensive and not as nice as what's available in Banff. So I was pleased to see a cardboard box of unspun stuff in a funny little tourist shop packed with interesting junk. It was even what I thought was a reasonable price - 1.5 kroner for a gram, which is a fair chunk of this light stuff. So I got a small plastic bag full. But after we left the shop (I also got a musk ox horn and a labradorite pebble) there was a woman with a musk ox hide spread out on the grass, selling a few little things she'd made. To pass the time she was working over some musk ox fur, removing the guard hairs to get the undercoat that's qiviut. We got to talking, and I told her how much I'd paid for the stuff I bought. She was shocked and ashamed that I'd be charged so much, so she took a big bagful of the fur she had and gave it to me. Free. So now I have lots, and lots of work to do to clean it, too.

We sailed out into a fog bank again, but this morning dawned clear and lovely. Sailing down the coast we passed by quite a number of icebergs and realized what our captain and navigator had been dealing with in the fog the day before. We got quite close to one lovely berg - circumnavigated it, even - that obligingly shed bits of itself into the water as the assembled multitude of tourists filled their camera memory cards. What a show!

So now we're back into rough water heading for Iceland again - we'll spend Saturday in Reykjavik - completely satisfied with our Greenland experience. I don't know if we'll ever go back - probably not - but it was an experience I'd recommend to anyone.