Already as children we took every opportunity to imagine life in Greenland, including snowball fights, eating chocolate to get energy and looking out for polar bears.
We never had a dog so we had to drag the sledges ourselves.

As for polar bears we got ours recently.

One day we found Greenland on a globe, not exactly where we thought it was, but at least now we knew which way to travel.

As we would be there in the winter and the weather forecast said -42 C, we knew we needed a lot of warm clothes, and plenty of chocolate, and a great deal of humour .

Being very organized we covered the metal parts of our glasses with tape to prevent them freezing to the skin.
Maybe that was not really necessary as no one else seemed to have problems with their glasses, or looked as stupid as we did.

 Nothing could stop us now ….

and we were the first to get of the plane in Kangerlussuaq Friday morning.

After unpacking we put on all our clothes and went on a sightseeing trip around the town and in the area.

Kangerlussuaq area is home to Greenland’s most diverse terrestrial fauna, including muskoxen, caribou, and gyrfalcons.

The settlement’s economy and population  is almost entirely reliant on the airport and tourist industry.
The airport dates from American settlement during and after World War II, when the site was known as Bluie West-8 and then Sondrestrom Air Base.

Kangerlussuaq is a rather small town with the airport right at the centre, and a few other buildings, including a pizzeria serving musk ox–pizza, though we never got round to tasting that

The northern lights are a fascinating phenomenon caused by collisions between the sun’s electrically charged particles and molecules and atoms in the Earth’s atmosphere.

The spectacular show takes place in the upper atmosphere at a height of approximately 100 kilometres and can best be compared to candles flickering in the wind at night.

A well-known legend relates that when the northern lights dance in the night sky,it means that the dead are playing football with a walrus skull.

Today certain tribes think that children will be particularly intelligent if they are born in the magical glow of the northern lights

Saturday was dog sleighing day. We got dressed for the occasion, which meant putting on an extra layer of sealskin trousers and anorak on top of our own clothes.

This made moving about very difficult, but since the dogs and the driver were doing all the work, we managed to sit on the sledge.

Off we went…………..
Enjoying the sound of the dogs, the frozen ice and the view of the frozen fjord, the blue sky and the strong sun shining down on us. It was a great experience.

Sunday a specially built off-road truck with chains on all 8 wheels took us to Inland Ice – at point 660. The road was built by the VW-factory which had a test centre out on the ice to test new cars under extreme conditions, far away from reporters and photographers.

The road went 40 km through the beautiful breathtaking landscape.

There we were on the edge of the enormous ice desert and starting to actually walk to the icecap.
The ice cap – up to three kilometers thick – covers an area 14 times the size of England.

Every night we drove out to restaurant Roklubben at Lake Ferguson, the lake that supplies Kangerlussuaq with fresh water.
They serve excellent food and Sunday they made a huge buffet with all kind of dishes using local produce from Greenland; we had the chance to taste many different kinds of fish, shellfish, seal, reindeer, whales and musk ox. Most of it tasted very good – and at least we tried it all.

They showed how to make Greenland coffee with whipped cream and different kinds of alcohol, set to fire to simulate the northern lights

Later on Monday we went on Safari.

We were lucky to see reindeers, huge ravens and musk oxen.

On the last night we were luckily to get to see the northern lights again, a great way to say good bye.
We had a great time and an unforgettable experience in this fantastic place. It has an impressive landscape with the ice and snow and the light creating a beauty like nowhere else.