Our long planned trip to Iceland and Greenland was perfectly laid out to our wishes by the Great Canadian Travel Group. We had a week in each country with excursions almost every day. The lava tube exploring and glacier hiking in Iceland was exhilarating, and seeing the beautiful waterfalls in the green, green countryside so lovely, plus riding Iceland horses, etc. – all so well planned and fit our days perfectly with plenty of time to explore Reykjavik on our own.
The only drawback was that we never saw the sun in Iceland. This summer being the worst in many years, clouds hung low every day with some misty rain at times, but it never stopped us from enjoying our time there.
Flying on to Ilulissat, Greenland the sun came out and we had the most glorious arrival flying in over the iceberg covered fjord. Staying at the Hotel Arctic could not have been better, with views of town and Disko Bay and icebergs as far as the eye could see. A midnight cruise among the bergs, hitting some at times with the triple decked hull of the 8 passenger boat, was a great adventure. The colors of the ice and the sky, which never got dark, hard to describe, it was all just magical!
Other fjord trips to small settlements and hiking along a coast met by water and ice, with fellow travelers who just happened to be on the same excursion that day, was always fun and interesting. As was the 2-day ferry trip along Greenland’s west coast to the capital Nuuk, with a few stops along the way where we walked through and explored other small towns.
In Nuuk, the Hans Egede Hotel was also great, with an abundance of delicious food at the breakfasts. A beautiful fjord trip with fishing along the way, and exploring the old Danish part of town, kid’s kayak races at the harbor, museums, etc., all kept us busy for 3 days. The highlight in Nuuk though, was visiting a small church where guests were arriving for a christening, many of them dressed in the traditional national costumes, the men in pure white cotton anoraks and the women with colorful beaded tops over their sealskin trousers, and wearing decorated sealskin boots.
It was a dream come true for me to experience all this in Greenland and my husband, who was a bit skeptical about this whole adventure, was just as delighted about our whole trip. It was Shauna Cook at Great Canadian Travel who set up the schedule and the excursion companies for us, and we could not have been happier!