Qassiarsuk is the spot that Erik the Red chose to settle. He named it “Brattahlid” which means steep slope.

We saw the ruins of his Viking house, the church built by his son, Leif Erikson ( who became a Christian but Erik the Red never did), and ruins of a traditional Inuit home as well as replicas of all three.

So I will orientate you on the map below. I landed in Narsarsuaq and slept in Qassiarsuk.

Here is what happened in between:

I exited the plane and passed through the rigorous Greenlandic passport control. (This is the first country I have ever visited in which there is no booth, desk, person, or anyone checking your passport.) I found my tour company, Tasermiut. Of course the Danish/German woman that I had been sitting next to on the plane ended up being part of this group of nine people: Berit (the aforementioned woman), a German dad and daughter duo, an Austrian woman traveling solo, a German (in addition to the aforementioned) traveling solo, and a Swiss dad and son and daughter trio. Here we all are plus one of our guides, Alessandro):

After some time in Narsarsuaq, we went to the wee harbor and boarded our first Zodiac boat for the fifteen minute journey across the fjord to Qassiarsuk. Once there, we organized ourselves into the hostel ( which was really the owner, Ramon’s house but just for one night) and then explored some ruins with Jara (our other guide) and Alessandro.

More about the ruins in my next post.

I am at a tiny cafe in Narsaq. I am heading to the glacier camp in a hour or so. I have 15 minutes to use the Internet so here come so pictures with the explanation to follow in a few days.

Day 1 in Greenland (or maybe Day 2 it is all a little vague right now):

Landed to what appeared would be a pretty rainy day. Took a taxi to my hotel and took a nap (sitting in the very last seat of the plane, right by the bathroom, with no leg room = no sleep).

I woke up to find the rain had stopped, the clouds parted, and the sun was out.

So I decided to walk to the human made geo thermal beach nearby. I purposely chose this hotel due to its proximity to the regional airport (not Keflavík) which I will fly out of tomorrow and due to its proximity to this beach.

Since coming in 2005, I have had the opportunity to see a lot of Iceland (particularly since my first time here, we accidentally drove around the whole island because we started off in the wrong direction on the ring road).

Knowing I would only have a bit of time today to get out and about in Reykjavik, I wanted to see something new.

Nautholsvik Geothermal beach was just the place.

I set off down the path from the hotel, and not too far in, I see trees!

No maybe you are thinking, “so what? Why is it exciting to see trees?”

Trees were very unexpected.

For years I have repeated the phrase, “if you are lost in an Icelandic forest, stand up”.

Now I am not saying what I strolled through today was a large enough forest to get lost in because I don’t think it was. But it was definitely a forest of full sized trees in Iceland!

Quite lovely!

And out of the forest lies the beach, which was an equally unique and lovely place.

Ahhh, Iceland! You never disappoint!

So I had originally planned this rather extensive trip to the west coast of Greenland, going through Disko Bay.  There was to be a pretty nice kayaking trip that held the promise of kayaking with whales – which is my dream.

But then I thought that maybe I would head to Kenya or thereabouts for a safari this summer; something I have also wanted to do for some time.  So I cancelled the Greenland trip.

However, inside I was unsettled.

I am unsettled because I am really concerned that the ice sheet is going to melt.  I think this, in part, because I read “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell and now believe that tipping points are not subtle things that creep up on you in the night, but they are all of a sudden holy crap here we are kinds of things.

I think that is what will happen with Greenland’s ice sheet.  I think we are all under some misguided notion that, before it is too late, we will stop the melt.

I am not sure how we plan to do that since we are not collectively doing anything much to prevent this.

And since I can’t stop it, I want to see it before it is just a tale to tell.

So I rebooked a trip to Greenland this summer (though my trip is a bit smaller than the original one and will be in the south of the country instead of the west – but that is okay – something is better than nothing).  The safari will keep until the spring.

And it looks like it really might truly be just in time.