On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Elma
My second big adventure for the summer of 2024 (Iceland was the first) was a 22 day transatlantic cruise. Royal Caribbean offered the Ultimate World Cruise on the Serenade of the Seas from December 2023 to September 2024. For those who couldn’t do the full 9 months (there were 600+ who had) you could join the ship for segments, i.e. South America, Africa, or Antarctica. My segment was the final leg, heading home. That fact made some parts of the cruise a little strange, like crashing someone else’s farewell party; and I may do a post about that at another time. But these two OTRs are about a place I never would have considered going to but for it being part of this cruise, Greenland.
We boarded the ship in Amsterdam, sailed up around the north coast of Scotland and out into a very rough North Atlantic to Iceland for a two day stop. We were to have spent four days in and around Greenland, but weather conditions made the Captain decide to change our itinerary. So we missed a day of sailing along the west coast of Greenland and a day in Nuuk, the capitol city. But we did get two beautiful days, first a leisurely sail through Prince Christian Sound and then a day in the village of Qaqortoq.
The Prince Christian Sound separates the mainland from the islands of the Cape Farewell Archipelago near the southernmost tip of Greenland. The long fjord system is mostly surrounded by steep mountains and glaciers that go straight into its waters where they calve icebergs. First icebergs encountered as we are sailing into the Sound from the eastern end.
The securely stowed deck chairs didn’t get much use that day. People were well bundled up to watch from deck 12 forward as we entered the Sound.
The eastern entrance to the Sound. We saw many different types of glaciers and some very ancient rocks.
Alpine glacier, I think. I was a bit unclear on the distinction between the alpine and hanging glaciers, even though there had been an illustrated lecture the afternoon before about what we would be seeing. In any event, this was one of the small glaciers.
Hanging glacier with a waterfall. I keep hearing Sir David Attenborough saying it in British.
A BIG glacier
A tidal glacier. There was sufficient space in front of this one for the ship to do a full 360, in place, the better for photo ops. We did that again, in the Hudson River, abreast of the Statue of Liberty, but that is a story for another day.
The water in the Sound was extremely calm, so the fresh water melt from the glaciers did not immediately mix with the salt water.
We saw only one other vessel during the entire 60 mile trip from east to west.
There is only one settlement along this sound, Aappilattoq, near the western end of the sound. I, as did many other cruisers, stayed out in the cold so as not to miss this picture as we were leaving the Sound. After that the bars on board filled with people trying to drink themselves warm again
J.
Very cool! Nice photos.
Ole phat Stu
Dagaetch
Extremely cool. Thanks for sharing!
Winter Wren
What an adventure! Great photos.
Dorothy A. Winsor
The pic of the fresh water floating on the salt water was fascinating.
JML
Awesome.
arrieve
Greenland is still on my bucket list, so these pictures were a treat. I love northern climes–I wouldn’t want to live anywhere that’s really cold, but love Canada, Scandinavia, Scotland. And I’m going back to Antarctica if all goes well this winter.
Torrey
Great pictures and interesting commentary. Thank you!
frosty
Greenland! Not on my bucket list, and probably not getting added, but what an interesting trip you had. Thanks for the pictures.
MelissaM
I love the stillness of the water and just the total beauty of it all. Lovely.
A Good Woman
I did a Holland America roundtrip – Boston to Rotterdam and back, via Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Scotland, Ireland, in July/August 2023. It was great! Mostly decent weather except on the E bound leg as we came up to Greenland.
We cruised through Prince Christian Sound in both directions. On the E bound leg, lots of fog and the mountaintops, when you could see them, looked like they were painted on the sky. W bound leg was totally clear. We didn’t have Nuuk on our itinerary, we did do other stops including Qaqortoq, Nanortalik and Paaimut. So many of the cruisers were repeaters!!
Best part was getting an Inside cabin for the cost of taxes and port fees! My travel buddy and I signed up for additional stuff and we never spent much time in the cabin so we didn’t miss having a window.
I have to admit, I sometimes wonder about doing that one again, even if only for the sea days. Love your pics (yeah icebergs everywhere in Greenland) and the memories they brought back for me.
Elma
@A Good Woman: I always do an inside cabin. There is so much to do and so many places to hang out on a big ship that I am never in the cabin except to sleep or change clothes.
KatKapCC
Getting chilly just looking at that water ;P Lovely photos!
Redshift
Very cool. After flying over Greenland going to and from Iceland last year, Ms. Redshift really wants to go. We may do an eclipse cruise there next summer.
Paul in Jacksonville
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Not only fascinating, but somewhat grim. How many glaciers in the world are also melting so fast that the fresh water floats?
Mary
Thank you so much for your post and these amazing pictures. What a beautiful place.
RaflW
Greenland is very much on my list. Sadly the BF is a nope, so I occasionally look for sailings that have reduced single supplement. The far north itineraries are rare enough that it’s not easy to find.
Thanks for the photos and info!
KSinMA
Thanks for the photos and the report. What a beautiful place!
way2blue
Elma. First. How many passengers on your ship? If there were 600+ who were aboard the full 9 months… Did it feel crowded? Just wondering.
Cruising past Greenland seems quite exotic to me—would love to round the north end of Scotland sometime. Looks to be a fairly stark landscape of rock & ice. The few dwellings of Aappilattoq have me wondering how people (Danish?) subsist there.
Love the photo showing the fresh water cap extending away from the glacier in Prince Christian Sound. Very cool. And thanks for sharing!
Dan B
I’ve flown over Greenland a half dozen times and it was clear every time. The central and North of Central section seems to be nearly vertical mountains on each coast backed by the massive ice sheet. I was impressed by how huge the coastal mountains appeared. I’d love to go but we haven’t even gotten to the Inside Passage just to the north of Washington, although my partner did go from the northern tip of Vancouver Island to Nanaimo. Some of it, the beginning, was by canoe. Most of it was by fishing boat that decided to prevent them from drowning. Despite being “inside” it can be very rough. I know from being on a 25 foot boat in 15 foot waves in the passage between the San Juan Islands, at night, with waves crashing over the bow and completely over the boat, fortunately just the crests of the waves.