Planet's largest island offers scenery, Viking ruins, adventure

SISIMIUT, Greenland -- Two huge whale bones form an arched portal outside the blue wooden church in this picturesque town surrounded by mountains in the Arctic Circle. Dogs bark impatiently as they wait to pull sleds out into the wilderness.

Down by the nearby harbor, a freshly peeled seal skin lies in the grass, waiting to be reclaimed by the hunter who killed it. The raw seal meat, especially the liver, is considered a delicacy.

Greenland offers both grandiose beauty and plain rawness. But don't expect polar bears roaming the streets. That's a myth.

Tourist officials say some 80 percent of Greenland's 55,000 habitants have never seen a real polar bear, although the animals can be found in the more inaccessible northern parts of the world's largest island.

The Arctic island has increasingly become a popular destination for lovers of the outdoors, but traveling to and within Greenland remains expensive because of its remote location and huge distances involved. It stretches 1,655 miles from the southern to the northern tip, although 85 percent of the area is covered by an ice cap.

One-time visitors

No roads connect the towns so transportation is limited to planes, helicopters or boats, and the tourist friendly infrastructure is modest.

"The problem with tourism here is that it tends to be a once-in-a-life-time trip because it is so expensive," says Jesper Kunuk Egede of the state-sponsored Greenland Tourism agency.

Roundtrips from the Danish capital of Copenhagen vary from $500 for an eight-day journey in southern Greenland to $2,260 for 11 days to Illulissat on the east coast with a boat trip and excursions, including one to the ice cap.

Hence, visitors get an experience in an unspoiled environment and avoid mass tourism.

Get on a helicopter excursion to view the 11,000-foot-thick thick ice cap, or hop onto a boat for a whale and seal safari and cruise among icebergs. Travel by dogsled, horseback or mountain bikes for a glimpse of extraordinary wildlife or enormous blocks of ice breaking off and splashing into the sea.

Go for a walk on the ice cap, which has been frozen for up to 100,000 years, and savor the silence and the pure air.

Or just look up as the sky offers great spectacles from the midnight sun that doesn't set during the short spring-summer season, or to the Northern Lights on dark and clear autumn and winter nights.

Greenland also has specialized in extreme adventures with long-distance runs and extreme triathlons.

Pick the annual Polar Circle Marathon on the Arctic Circle, or the tougher five-day Greenland Adventure Race -- kayaking 25 miles, mountain biking for 30 miles, and then running 60 miles.

The island also has three golf courses, including one which is made of ice and melts when the weather gets warmer.

Tourists have 14 museums to choose from, including Greenland's National Museum in the capital of Nuuk, 186 miles south of here, displaying local history, well-preserved mummies, kayaks and other artifacts. The tiny museum in Sisimiut, behind the church, takes an archaeological approach to the Inuits, who arrived here from Siberia 4,000 years ago.

Well-preserved ruins

The symbols of the ancient Inuit culture are still alive, even in the larger towns. Many people build and use their own kayaks. The old drum dance is performed by a growing number of artists.

In southern Greenland, ruins from the Viking settlers 1,000 years ago are well-preserved, including the ruins of the first Christian churches on the North American continent.

Also in southern Greenland, in Narsarsuaq, what once was the headquarters of U.S. Air Force Base Bluie West One, used during the Korean War, now houses a permanent exhibition on the American presence there and a cafe.