Amazing Greenland

Late Summer reveals dramatic Mountains, glaciers running to the Sea and the tundra in Full Bloom.

- Bonnie Orr

I told my friends that I wanted to see Greenland before it melted. I was not prepared for the “WOW.”

I went to Greenland in late summer, which meant that I would miss most of the arctic birds that already had migrated south. Usually birding is a focus of my travel, so I did not know what to expect in east Greenland as the little cruise ship sailed along the coast and up the fjords.

Of course, the icebergs greeted us shortly offshore, and we could see the glaciers running to the sea as well as those glaciers that had receded landward for several miles.

I expected to see fabulous ice, but I did not expect to see the huge icebergs striated black, grey and white that had recorded the eruption of nearly every world volcano for hundreds of thousands of years.

The ice chunks breaking from the base of the glacier were clear because the air bubbles had all been pressed out. Some icebergs are blue above the water, but the part below the water glow teal green.