We landed at the airport in Narsarsuak. It was built by the US as a secret airbase during World War II. In all of Greenland no place was more important to the success of the Allied Forces than that base. Here's an interestings website created by John Stott, an American who served there: Narsarssuak Air Base (Bluie West One). He told me he was stationed there in 1959-1951.

Greenlandic weather reports also played an important part in World War II. Here is the story of the Coast Guard and the Greenland Patrol by John Tilley.

But I was far more captivated by the earlier age of the Norsemen. After boarding two speedboats we began a two-hour trip down the Tunuliarfik fjord to Narsaq. There are no roads between the towns in Greenland. The fjord is also called Erik's fjord because it was settled by Erik the Red, Leif Erikson's father. Directly across the fjord from the airport is the location of the main Norse settlement. As part of my trip preparations I had watched several Hollywood Viking movies and was really looking forward to experiencing an actual fjord where the long ships had explored a thousand years before. I even went so far as to bring along some old Norse-style items of clothing including a replica of an 11th century Icelandic Thor's hammer pendant to wear when we were out exploring (click on images below). Maybe those items would somehow bring good weather luck. And after all, we were going "Viking" or at least I was!