Amid Glaciers and Whales
It appears that we have Erik the Red to thank for naming this gigantic island "green land", despite the fact it is actually barren and icy rather than covered with fields.
A thousand years ago, the first Europeans – Icelandic settlers – believed the Norman leader’s promises and followed him to start settling on Greenland’s coasts. The Inuit people arrived from North America about two hundred years later, adapting much better to its extreme climate than the first settlers.
Denmark only took possession of this territory officially in the 18th century, and today the country has its own form of self-government. An MSC cruise will take you to the small village of Ilulissat, which overlooks the bay of Baffin; Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, situated on the west coast, boasting just under twenty thousand inhabitants and the beautiful Katuaq cultural centre; Qaqortoq, situated on the southern tip of the island in front of the beautiful Lake Tasersuaq. During your MSC cruise, you can take an excursion in search of whales or get up close to the faces of the ice-mountains that jut into the sea.
