Ferry

Last night I saw the northern lights, so they exist! I didn't take any photos though, as I was standing waiting for the ferry to arrive, and then I went to bed, as I was exhausted, so I only saw the strands of white light you see when the area is brightly lit.

Watching the coast go by is great - we are currently passing the first part of the ice sheet that reaches the coast, although there have been a couple of glaciers. We are still in the area where things grow. The towns are all small. We have stopped at two since I boarded.

A Pleasant Day

Today I went to the ruins of Dyrnaes Church - which owned the farmland around it, and is mentioned in Viking histories. The ruins haven't been excavated, so all you see is a number of piles of rocks with cattle grazing amongst them. This is a fair walk from the other side of Narsaq to the Landnama farm.

The day was sunny and the scenery stunning. Tonight I catch the ferry up the coast.

Narsaq

Yesterday, after I came back from seeing Erik the Red, I went through the arboretum to Signal Hill, to see the glacier above the town. I also saw the ice cap above the other side of the fjord, and an impressive waterfall.

Today I took the boat to Narsaq, one of the major towns in south Greenland. Unfortunately it was snowing, and had been snowing all morning. There was a Danish group at the hotel, who were due to fly out, but weren't going anywhere. They were envious that I was. There was one other passenger on the boat - a municipal official who had caught the boat to go to Denmark for a meeting that morning. We were expecting others, but they obviously hadn't arrived.

I had a very interesting conversation with him, while it snowed all the way to Narsaq. The area has a rare earth mine, and its power is from a hydroelectric plant eight kilometres away across the fjord. We passed a number of isolated sheep farms between the cliffs. On our way, we overtook the boat with the sheep on it, bound for the slaughterhouse in Narsaq

There are Viking ruins here, as well. The farm is the earliest set of Viking ruins in Greenland, so they give a good idea about what the original settlers built. They haven't been extensively excavated, and part of the farm has disappeared as the coastline has eroded.

I also went to the museum which was open and has a very good collection of both Inuit and Viking objects, as well as the history of the town.

In case you couldn't see the ice on the fjord yesterday, I took another picture of ice on today's fjord.

Erik the Red

I'm beginning to wonder whether Eirik the Red was one person. He wasn't someone you would want to marry your daughter. He was banned from both Iceland and Norway - I think Norway came first. He built a longhouse in Iceland - I saw a replica of it, and it was a pretty small longhouse. He supposedly hid out on an island off Stykkisholmur (or so I was told during the boat ride). And then he comes to Greenland and builds another longhouse (somewhat bigger, but still on the small side), a replica of which I saw today, as well as the original Viking ruins. His wife was Irish, and he built her a church, which also has ruins and a replica. This was before the Icelanders became Christian (I think), so he was probably pagan, which is why the original church is a fair distance from the rest of the ruins.

Today I was taken directly across the fjord to Qassiarsuk. Everything seemed to be fenced off from the road I was walking along. It didn't take long to find out why, as a torrent of sheep came towards me. Fortunately I was at the school, which had several buildings and at the time I was slightly away from the running of the sheep!

After all this excitement, temporary fences were removed and I was allowed to saunter on and view the ruins and the replicas. The ruins were obviously from somewhat later on, when another church had been built quite close to the house, and the house had been expanded and cow byres, sheep folds and stables had been added to a very prosperous farm. The ruins of Lief’s farm is seven kms away, on the other side of the hills, so I didn't go there. Later I finally located the person with the key to the longhouse and actually saw inside it. However, it had been closed for the year, so nothing was set up.

There are also Inuit ruins - middens that have been dated to 1500 - 1000BC and some stone ruins dated to around 1500 and a stone igloo from the 1700s (I've put the stone igloo first).

AThere was still ice around from overnight when I went across to Qassiarsuk, and when I got back there was still a crust of ice in the boat harbour.

Bishop's See

I landed in Narsarsarq, and from here I will visit a few Viking ruins (one of many reasons that I chose this trip), the first being Garda, the archdiocese and religious capital of Viking Greenland.

I have gone crazy with photos today, but Greenland is very photogenic, and I saw more than I expected. Firstly, it snowed overnight, and I took a photo from the hotel of the Arboretum.

I was picked up and taken to Itilleq, and walked along the King’s path to Igakiku, where Garda is. It started to snow and by the time I got there it was snowing hard. The ruins are amazingly complete, considering the locals used some of the stone for building their houses, before they were told to stop. There was the bishop’s residence, the cathedral and other assorted buildings including cow barns for over 100 cattle! After I had lunch it stopped snowing and I could see the views around the town. We went back to the boat, and they gave me a cruise up the fjord to a glacier. As we arrived back for the day, I noticed two waterfalls high above us.

A truely amazing day!