Our first landing this glorious morning was at Hvalsey. This is where the best preserved ruins from the Norse times in Greenland can be seen. The largest building is the church which was constructed in the beginning of the 14th century, possibly by Norwegian masons since quite a similar church from the same time can be found in West Norway, not far from Bergen. The large house complex behind the church comprises the living quarters (a so called longhouse) and sheds for the animals. A banquet hall in the same building style as the church is just beyond the longhouse. All of this shows that Hvalsey must have been an important place.

This is indeed the place from which we have the last account of the Norse in Greenland. In 1408 a wedding took place in the church. The newlyweds were Icelanders who had been blown off course on their way from Norway to Iceland two years earlier and had to spend four years in Greenland before they, in 1410, could return to Norway and from there back to Iceland. After this there is absolutely no news of the Norse in Greenland, they disappear, vanish, die out—nobody knows why.

As we landed a white tailed eagle circled above our heads and ravens were around, too. Some of us were fortunate to see an Arctic fox as well. Sheep from a nearby farm had left signs of their presence all over the area, signs that we scraped and washed off our shoes before we boarded the Zodiacs again.

In the early afternoon we reached Qaqortoq, the second largest town in Greenland with about 3000 inhabitants. The beautiful setting of the hills around the harbor make it an idyllic place. Brightly painted houses, bustling life around the harbor, kids playing, cycling, and running everywhere.

Local guides took us around and showed us among other things the museum, the town square with the oldest fountain in Greenland, the local food market with cod and trout and seal, and the church. Later on we went to the hotel where we were invited to have a taste of traditional Greenlandic food: dried cod, whale blubber, lumpfish roe, dried seal meat, smoked Arctic trout, reindeer paté, to name just a few.

The fun was not over. After dinner we went out on the sundeck—weather still great—to watch a drum dancer from town perform his songs and dances, giving us an insight in the old Inuit traditions.

A great day had come to an end.