Hvalsey, Greenland

In the afternoon the ship repositioned a short way to Hvalsey where we went ashore to visit the ruins of a Viking settlement an church.

Continuing Christian's log:

The distance to our next stop, the Norse ruins at Hvalsey, was not that far and we were able to go scouting at 4:00 p.m., with guests following us ashore at 4:30 p.m. Hvalsey had been selected by Thorkel Farserk, a cousin to Erik the Red, during the original Norse colonizing expedition, and the area chosen was quite pleasant. Although we did not see any horses or cows, the sheep droppings left behind very clearly indicated that this was an excellent pasture. 

The church – Greenland’s biggest and best-preserved ruin from the Viking period - had impressive dimensions (16x8 m), but the south wall seemed to be bulging and even in danger of collapsing. Well, this was also the erroneous view of several earlier visitors, but it was found out to be less dramatic than believed. In 1999 a restoration project actually propped up the wall, and the rest was still as seen some 600 years ago. The last known recorded events at the church date back to 1407 where two Icelanders were married. 

Both Peter and I took groups of about 25-30 guests each on a walk to the ruins of the church, the main dwelling, and partly restored great hall complex. Juan positioned himself on the cliff above the ruins, ready to explain the geology of the site, and Aiello and Uli were on the beach pointing out different things to be seen at low tide. The 90 minutes allocated to each group seemed to fly, and as soon as we knew it we were back onboard for dinner.

A quick moment to socialize in the Panorama Lounge and then the final touches to today’s log. An eventful day to remember, thanks to Captain Maggie’s and Robin’s decision to postpone our departure and be part of a colorful local event.