Brattahlid and Narswarssuaq, Greenland

Last night we went to dine at Elements, the main dining room on the ship which specializes in Italian food. By chance we ran into Ilsa, the Sommelier, on the ship. We met her when we ate at the French restaurant. We were seated and the wine steward came up with the red and white selections for the meal. Ilsa came over and said that once we had ordered she would pick a wine selection for us. In the meantime, we could enjoy a glass of champagne that she recommended. Good to her word, she was back and she selected a bottle of Cote du Rhone Sainte Celeste Domaine Vincent Menard for us and left it on the table. The wine steward was very impressed when he saw the bottle - Wow, he said, so we presumed it was a good choice. It was delicious by the way as was the rest of our meal. Another triumph for the chefs in the kitchen. Tonight we have secured a seat at the small Teppanyaki dining room which only seats eight people and has its own chef.

This morning, we went on the Qooroq Ice Fjord Boat Trip and lucked out as we were assigned a small boat that only took 6 people and there were only 5 of us. Although it was cool - high of 8 degrees Celsius, wind chill -3 - the sun was out. There were seats at the back of the boat and 4 or us sat on those. Because the boat was so small, we got close enough to touch one of the icebergs and even enjoyed a taste of one. The boat driver chipped off pieces for us to try - cold and refreshing, We spent an hour admiring the various shapes, textures, and colours of these architectural masterpieces of Nature. Took lots of pictures. It was a wonderful excursion.

On our return we went for lunch to the Asian restaurant - the menu changed today and we had a Japanese-style bento box lunch.

Since the day was still young, we decided to head to the small town to see the Viking ruins of Brattahlio in the town of Qassiarsuk. This was the first Viking settlement in Greenland and therefore the first town in America founded by Europeans. There is a statue of Eric the Red here as he established his farm, Brattahlio, here. We waited for the tender and arrived at 2:15 only to learn that the last tender back was at 2:30 so we climbed back on board without seeing anything. Once back on board the Eclipse, we noticed that zodiacs are being sent back and forth so we could have stayed longer. Luckily, we met a passenger on the tender who showed us the ruins of a Viking church and the statue of Eric the Red. All we missed was the walk.

Ah, well, it has given me a chance to sit in the warm sun on our balcony and type this update to the blog.

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