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| At the northern tip of the peninsula of Newfoundland, is the village of L'Anse aux Meadows. The historical park traces its origins to the first European presence in the Americas, the ruins of a Norse settlement from the 11th century, with wooden and earth houses similar to those found in Norway. According to the Sagas, in 985-6 Bjarni Herjolfsson was blown off course from his trip to Greenland and spotted Newfoundland. In 995-996, Lief Eriksson went looking for this land and described Vinland. |
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| Recreated buildings are made of sod with walls 5 to 6 feet thick. Most have sod completely enveloping the building, but some do use wooden ends. |
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| Fishing huts and upturned boats near shore. |
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| Last bit of land as we head out to cross the Labrador Sea to Greenland |
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| Crossing the Labrador Sea in the fog. While the seas appear calm, there were heavy swells. |
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| . . . hitting a swell . . . |
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| After a day spent at sea, we make an early morning arrival into Qaqortoq, Greenland. Here we are passing one of many icebergs . . . for more on icebergs . . . please go to the special section of Travel Images entitled Greenland. |
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| The Navigator anchored in the harbor of Qaqortoq, Greenland with fog hanging as a back drop. |
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| Charles Miller Jr. getting set for a flight-seeing adventure to see fjords, fields, icebergs and historic ruins. |
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| Landing on the hillside to see the ruins at Hvalsey. |
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| The ruins of the church at Hvalsey. The last recorded written record of the Norse was here in 1408 for a wedding ceremony. |
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| Yes, Greenland does have agriculture even though the season is short. Field make for wonderful patterns with the white wrapped bails of hay. |
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| Ice floating in a fjord . . . they may look small from this perspective . . . but as will be seen in other photos, they are amazingly large and complex. |
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| Now over the fjord and a closer look at how big some of the specks of ice really are. |
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| View of the Navigator and the town of Qaqortoq just before landing. |
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| Historic church on the creek in the center of Qaqortoq. |
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| Beautiful green moss covers rocks in the creek. |
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| A traditional house recreated at the historical museum shows sod covered walls with openings for windows (near) and the door (futher back). |
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| Out to sea again and heading for Cape Farewell - the most southern tip of Greenland - where we encountered so much floating ice and icebergs that the ship had to turn back twice not to become fully surrounded. Ultimately because of all the ice and having to go so slow, we fell behind by 6-hours in our schedule. TO SEE THE FULL RUN OF ICEBERG PHOTOS, check out the special show link at the end of this section of photos. |
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| Amazing sky and an iceberg in the distance. |
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| Amazingly flat, calm seas as we cross the Denmark Straits between Greenland and Iceland. |
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| Incredible that the any part of the ocean can be so calm and just a gentle ripple is made by such a huge object as a cruise ship. |
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| While the golden yellow sea looks like a painted backdrop, it is a real view on our last night at sea. |
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