Recently I was flying back from Europe and we passed over the southern tip of Greenland. This is the area with some amount of rock as well as the deep glaciated fields of ice. This photo I took in black and white.
The sky was amazingly blue and the colors were vivid. It looked very good out the airplane window and I managed to get none of the window frame in the shot and the glass didn’t seem to interfere with it too much.
Since I figured that it is unlikely that I’ll ever physically touch down in Greenland this would likely be as close as I’d get.
Oh, Greenland is a dreadful place
A land that’s never ever green
Where there’s ice and snow, and the whalefishes blow
And daylight’s seldom seen, brave boys,
And daylight’s seldom seen.
Greenland Whale Fisheries — Trad.
I was stationed there for a year… it was interesting. I wrote about it originally for The Daily Brief, but wound up reposting them with pictures here, at Open Salon. (Yes, I am doing outreach)
Part One – http://open.salon.com/blog/sgt_mom/2009/01/23/greenland
Part Two – http://open.salon.com/blog/sgt_mom/2009/01/24/greenland_not_the_end_of_the_world_but_you_can_see_it_from
And Part Three – http://open.salon.com/blog/sgt_mom/2009/01/25/greenland_the_unbearability_of_constant_daylight
Sgt. Mom, I have printed those off, they will make great reading on a flight I have coming up. Thanks for sharing.
My pleasure, Dan – it was a very interesting year; thirty miles north of the Arctic circle, in a very isolated, inward-turning little world.
It’s called Greenland because the Vikings, having pitched up there, found it green and welcoming. They stayed to establish homesteads with animals and all.
This was in the days before global warming. All was lush.
Since the Vikings establishment of settlements there, Greenland has ceased being green and productive and become impossibly cold.
I am hoping Al Gore did not lie to me.