Seabourn 2021 - 2022

DAY 8 | NARSAQ & TUGTUTOK Narsaq’s rare deep-water harbor was vital to the medieval Norse Eastern Settlement. Your archaeologist can explain the nearby ruins of Landnåm homestead from AD 1000 and the church of Dyrnaes. Narsaq’s red- and-white church and cemetery are favorite photo subjects and its museum exhibits include traditional kayak building. Tugtutoq Island’s wildlife includes a small herd of reindeer, arctic foxes and hares. Its other attractions are geologic and archaeological: intriguing eroded dykes in mixed igneous and sedimentary rock, and ancient Thule and Inuit archaeological sites. DAY 9 | BRATTAHLÍÐ & ITILLEQ Erik the Red founded Brattahlíð (Qarssiarsuk) in AD 985; and eventually his ‘Eastern Settlement’ was home to 5,000 Viking settlers. Recently unearthed graves here hold the remains of 144 Viking colonists. Less than 100 people live in Qassiarsuk today, farming sheep just as the Norse did. The oldest church in the Americas is a sod-roofed living history museum. People in Itilleq, on a small Davis Strait island with no freshwater source, depend on desalination. They proudly show women’s traditional beadwork and their purebred Greenland sled dogs, protected from crossbreeding by regulations banning other breeds north of the Arctic Circle. DAY 10 | PAAMIUT Tiny Paamiut is remote Greenland at its best. Seal meat and seal skins dry on racks under houses. People have lived here since 1500 BC. Once the Danes arrived, the community traded furs and whale products and earned worldwide fame for traditional soapstone carvings. Fredens Kirke has a multi-gabled façade capped by green roofs, red walls and neat white trim. Scan the skies for white-tailed eagles, known as Nattoralik in Greenlandic. They are plentiful here and local youths name their sports teams for them for good luck. DAY 11 | NUUK Traditions and modern influences combine to create Greenland’s capital Nuuk . Its University of Greenland has 650 students. The National Museum’s cultural displays include the astonishing 500-year-old mummies of Thule women and children discovered in a rock cave at Qilakitsoq. The Art Museum’s collection primarily features works by traveling European artists. Nuuk Kayak Museum is an impressive collection of traditional sealskin kayaks and indigenous hunting artifacts. DAY 12 | MANIITSOQ Maniitsoq means ‘uneven place,’ describing the rocky knolls and peaks that shape the town’s island. Townspeople predictably refer to the town, cut through by small natural canals, as the ‘Venice of Greenland.’ Their colorful houses, reflected in the calm water, are far from baroque palaces, but the mountain scenes, breaching humpback whales, smiling, friendly people and the occasional Greenlandic sled-dog provide plenty of photographic opportunities for visitors. DAY 13 | SISIMIUT Picturesque Sisimiut , on a tranquil fjord north of the Arctic Circle, is ‘rough, real and remote.’ The area around Greenland’s second-largest city has been inhabited for 4,500 years, first by Inuit Saqqaq peoples, then Dorset, and finally Thule people whose descendants form the majority of the current population. Two peaks, Nasaasaaq and Palasip Qaqaa, offer stunning views above brightly colored houses that stand out in contrast to a gray and white landscape. See the traditional Greenlandic peat house and the remains of an 18th-century kayak in the Sisimiut Museum. DAY 14 | KANGERLUSSUAQ & REYKJAVÍK Kangerlussuaq lies on a large alluvial plain deposited by the nearby glacial-outflow river. This perfectly flat environment is a rare commodity in Greenland. An airbase constructed here in 1941 served to refuel single-engine military aircraft being ferried to Britain. Disembark Seabourn Venture, cherishing indelible memories of Greenland’s unspoiled natural majesty, and transfer to the airport for your included flight back to Reykjavík and onward. NARSAQ, GREENLAND Included charter flight