- Welcome to Iceland and Greenland on another of the World's Greatest Cruises.

(lively cheerful music) I'm Lynn Elmhirst, a travel journalist with a deep passion for sailing the high seas.

Navigating timeless routes on a world that's 70% water, cruising may be the most authentic way to travel.

Not to mention its spectacular scenery, fascinating ships, maritime traditions, and local people and cultures.

Join me on the World's Greatest Cruises.

"World's Greatest Cruises" is made possible in part by the JERNE community of travel advisors: local business owners with experience cruising and planning cruises.

More information at JERNE.COM/CRUISE Today on World's Greatest Cruises, we're discovering the natural wonders of Iceland and Greenland.

Two side-by-side islands with equally awe-inspiring, but very different Arctic sea and landscapes.

Iceland is the land of fire and ice, with active volcanoes and geysers, glaciers and waterfalls.

Greenland is much less traveled than Iceland.

It's the world's largest island that isn't a continent and almost completely covered in a dense ice cap.

So like the locals do, we're sailing between Greenland's remote communities.

From north of the Arctic Circle to its capital city, and south through dramatic fjords, to its east coast, before crossing back to Iceland.

We're sailing aboard the Seabourne Venture, a polar class, small expedition cruise ship, designed to sail through icy fjords and bays, and remote waters that other ships have to avoid.

All on our quest to see natural wonders beyond the reach of most travelers.

The ship isn't just a vessel for its 260 guests to journey from point A to point B.

It's part of our journey.

Aboard, every suite has its own private veranda access to the outdoors.

And with this much public space on the ship devoted to a life alfresco, we always feel connected to the sea and the sites beyond the rail.

Among the 120 member crew, are two dozen expedition team members.

They share their expertise in natural sciences like marine biology, history, and more in the onboard enrichment sessions.

And they're the team putting our expedition crews into action, deploying kayaks, zodiacs, and even a submarine.

We even join expedition team members using high-tech equipment to map uncharted waters.

As the crew of the Seabourn Venture helps create a spirit of shared adventure on board, including continuing an Arctic maritime tradition.

- Mwah, ooh, I felt his teeth (laughs).

Our arctic voyage has a focus on sustainability.

We get a behind the scenes look at how the Seabourn Venture helps keep the environments we're exploring green.

Visit an agriculture station that's trying to put more green into Greenland, and get a rare tour inside a disappearing glacier.

(lively music) (ship horn blowing) Our late summer journey begins with a pre-cruise tour of Iceland's capital.

A walk about Reykjavik reveals its many sides.

The atmosphere of a historic Nordic town and North Atlantic coastal fishing community.

But it's the contemporary landmarks and lifestyle that have Reykjavik punching above its architectural and cultural weight.

Like the tallest building in Reykjavik, a church built in the 1980s that mimics Icelandic rock formations.

And the concert hall bridging land and sea with crystal-shaped panels inspired by the Northern Lights that reflect the harbor and the sky both day and night.

Another modern marble of Reykjavik's, less visible, the geothermal system that provides the heat and electricity for the city through the underground water that's part of Iceland's extraordinary environment.

Over 10% of this island is covered by glaciers.

There are also over 130 volcanoes.

Together, the glaciers and volcanoes have shaped a dramatic landscape.

You expect snow and ice in Arctic and Nordic destinations, but Iceland alone is a volcanic powerhouse.

Literally, it's one of the most geologically-active places on the planet.

And some of Iceland's most active volcanoes are just 20 miles outside of Reykjavik, heating underground water too, until the pressure needs to be released.

On World's Greatest Cruises, we talk a lot about water, but not very often about the water that's under the ground beneath your feet.

Well, the geysers in Iceland, like that one, have a way of grabbing your attention.

Not to mention the smell.

If I'm making a funny face, it's because they also smell like sulfur.

Good thing they look so beautiful.

This is the home of Iceland's Geyser, the vertical shooting hot spring from which all other geysers around the world get their name.

The original Great Geyser isn't very active these days, but the slightly smaller one just next to it blows off steam, literally, every five to 10 minutes, shooting nearly-boiling hot water nearly a hundred feet into the air.

Then there's the ice in Iceland.

See that massive field of white that occupies the entire horizon?

It's Iceland's second largest glacier.

And we're going inside of it from the opposite side, towards the end of our voyage.

But on this side of the glacier, like many other places in Iceland, runoff from melting ice has carved the landscape.

In this case, creating Iceland's famous Golden Waterfall.

Iceland's extreme elements have created one of the most unforgettable natural spaces in the world.

(lively music) (ship horn blowing) From the land of fire and ice, we're off to Greenland to meet our ship.

Getting there is part of the adventure.

Meeting up with all our fellow guests in Reykjavik, where we board a plane the cruise line's chartered to fly us all together to one of the only two airfield in Greenland that can take big planes.

Then we're transferred to the West Coast, above the Arctic Circle where the Seabourn Venture is wading offshore.

Our first full day on board, and we already have a milestone to celebrate.

And Seabourn ships have a tradition to help us commemorate it.

This voyage takes us across the Arctic Circle.

And there's a maritime tradition when you cross the Arctic Circle, you must be inducted as a member of the Order of the Blue Nose.

- [Group] I pledge to embrace the spirit of exploration and adventure, I promise to respect and protect a fragile Arctic environment.

- [Speaker 1] You have now completed the Blue Nose Pledge.

May it serve as a reminder of your commitment to preserve this wonderful Arctic.

- So step one.

Thank you.

This part scares me more than kissing the fish.

One, and now the moment we've all been waiting for.

Oh, mwah, ooh, I felt his teeth.

(Lynn laughing) Oh (laughs).

There we go.

(lively music) (ship horn blowing) Greenland is the world's largest island, but the least densely populated landmass on the planet.

Fewer than 60,000 people live in an island five times the size of California.

And a third of Greenland's population lives in its capital just 150 miles south of the Arctic Circle.

The area around Nuuk at the foot of one of the world's largest fjord systems has been inhabited for 4,000 years.

But it was Scandinavian missionaries in the early 1700s who set up what is now the modern town of Nuuk.

The scenes of its old colonial harbor are a reminder of its past as a small North Atlantic fishing village, and that today it's the world's most northern capitol.

I bet this is not what washes up on your local beach.

Imagine being this close to an iceberg you can actually reach out and touch it, and see that intense blue glow.

And all the kids are around trying to break this down.

I bet I could take a piece right here.

Ow (laughs).

It looked really ready to come off.

No, it really isn't coming off.

See, all it took was a little rock and a bit of elbow grease.

Other scenes in Nuuk point to its roll as Greenland's main city.

Modern architecture like this cultural center designed with curves and imitation of the Northern Lights and public art installations that reflect Greenland's history and indigenous culture.

The one that I think speaks to me the most is the statue of the Inuit goddess of the sea in Nuuks old harbor, where art meets mythology, meets the rhythm of the sea.

Because at low tide, the Statue of Sedna is revealed in all her glory.

But at high tide, the statue, like the human turned goddess of the myth, will disappear into the waves where she rules over the sea creatures.

Hunters would pray to her to release the animals from the depths of the ocean to ensure a good hunt and survival.

Hunting remains a vital way of life and provides food for many people today in Greenland.

And that gives us more food for thought about the role of the Arctic waters where we're sailing, as well as the culinary experiences of our shipboard life.

Even in some of the most remote and rarely-sailed waters of the world, we have the choice to dine at multiple restaurants, serving dishes that reflect the abundance and culinary globalization we take for granted in our lives in more populated places.

It also makes me even more interested to go behind the scenes on the Seabourn Venture to learn how the cruise lines ensuring our passage has the least impact on the precious environments where we sail.

Max, this isn't a very large ship, but this is actually, for the size of the ship, a very large room entirely devoted to recycling.

How much do we create in terms of things that come on the ship and have to go off the ship?

- We calculate about three-tons worth of stores are used up on board.

And that is everything from bottles of wine to beef burgers.

- And we've been responsible for a couple of those bottles.

- Yeah, I've noticed you've been doing your bit for the recycling.

- I have been, yes.

- So what we do is we minimize it the best way we possibly can, and we do it in the cleanest way we can.

The equipment on this ship is second to none.

- [Lynn] So we're not just separating cans and glass.

- [Max] So all our cardboard, it comes in, it goes into a big machine, we squash it all the way down into little pellets, and then we can incinerate it with our special incinerator there.

It uses the heat from the waste to heat itself, and then it also cleans the exhaust as well.

- [Lynn] So what happens to food?

- It comes down to here and then the recycling team down here, they'll sort it all out, and then they'll treat it.

So we can have six buckets of waste come out like that.

And we'll end up with just one bucket of dehydrated, almost like coffee grounds.

- So what makes you the most proud of your work on the ship, Max?

- Everyone can say they try and do their bit for the environment, but when you're here you can actually see that they're doing the best they can do.

- I mean, one of the reasons we sail is to see these wonderful new horizons and these new destinations, but we want to leave them- - [Max] As clean as we can for the next person to come and see it.

And they definitely do that on board here.

(cheerful music) - That theme of environmental and food sustainability continues during one of our shore excursions to a town on Greenland's south coast, where we board out rib for a trip through a dramatic seascape to an even more remote outpost where they're changing the future of food in Greenland.

Kim, why is there an agricultural research station here in Southern Greenland?

- This is because Greenland want to produce more food instead of import from Denmark and Iceland.

- We were in Nuuk the other day.

- Yeah.

- And we were talking to someone who said that they heard a report that you had, was it turnips available?

And they had arrived in Nuuk.

- Yeah, you could taste if you want.

- Fresh out of the garden.

And the dirt makes it taste even better.

It's really sweet.

- Yeah, yeah.

- And then what about in the greenhouse?

What do we see in the greenhouse?

- [Kim] I have trees there and strawberry.

- Oh.

- Yeah.

- So do you think that Greenland could grow its own strawberries?

Is that the idea?

Is that your vision, your dream?

- [Kim] Yeah, they can, I think they can grow in open land also.

- [Lynn] So what is the vision for this project?

- [Kim] My dream is to have maybe 10 growers down here in the south to deliver to Nuuk and Narsaq, and so.

- [Lynn] Right, do you think your dream is achievable?

- [Kim] Yes, but it maybe take some years.

- [Lynn] Ah.

(lively music) (ship horn sounding) The thing about expedition cruising is that you have to be ready for adventure at a moment's notice.

Even after a long evening of socializing.

This was worth the early morning wake up call for the crew from the bridge.

When you think of fjords, you may think of Scandinavia, but Greenland has some of the world's largest and least-traveled fjords.

Prince Christian Sound at the southern-most tip of Greenland is about 60 miles long.

And, in places, only about 1600 feet wide.

Just as dawn was trying to break over the mountaintops, we got to board a zodiac with the expedition team members to film our passage.

And even looking back at the ship against the sheer cliffs, it was still hard to imagine the scale of our surroundings.

It was a scenic sailing past the feet of silent giants with some of the tallest peaks reaching over 7,000 feet into the heavens.

That's twice the height of the highest peak in Yosemite.

As the sun rose over the great rock walls, it highlighted the other-worldly tones of glaciers creeping off Greenland's ice cap to meet the sea.

Along with the sheer joy of being out in these waters in the crisp morning air among icebergs, calving off glaciers and experiencing the remote, pristine and epic scenery so few people will ever be privileged to see.

(upbeat music) That's a feeling we experienced over and over during the voyage and the crew of the Seabourn Venture helped us to commemorate it.

With the ship positioned next to a breathtaking tidewater glacier at the end of yet another day of expedition achievements, they created an occasion on board for all of us to remember.

Have I mentioned how much I love sail-away parties.

The ceremony of bidding a destination farewell and greeting a new adventure.

Like here when we're departing from a glacier in Greenland, it's just spectacular.

And we didn't even know there was a sail-away party happening with caviar and champagne.

And all of our new friends on board here celebrating the moment.

(lively music) It's no surprise that some of our most powerful images and memories of a voyage around Greenland are of ice.

I just had to point out this iceberg with the arch.

It looks like mother nature is a master architect.

Being able to board a zodiac off the side of the Seabourn Venture and get a different perspective gives us a new appreciation for the many mysteries of frozen water.

- Ice within the Arctic regions ends up drifting at a rate of about 0.7 kilometers per hour.

So it just shows kind of how dynamic the non-living elements of the Arctic can be.

Like the ice pieces, right now, the ice piece we're looking at in front of us.

- [Lynn] The blue is really outstanding.

I think a lot of people think the blue is from filters when they see photos.

- And you're seeing a process of reflection and also refraction.

So water we know is clear.

But because of the reflections that we see, it appears blue to us because blue is not naturally occurring- - [Lynn] In nature, right.

- [Sierra] You can actually tell how old an iceberg is.

Isn't that amazing?

- It is.

- Yeah.

- [Lynn] How can you tell?

Is it like a tree?

Right, like you can tell how old trees are from the rings.

- [Sierra] Yes, exactly, you'll know in the winter months.

You'll have these rings of oxygen.

- [Lynn] What I love about icebergs is that they're like snowflakes.

There's this sort of sense of mother nature's infinite design.

- Yes.

I love that.

- The scenery and the scale of it takes your breath away.

(stirring music) Not all the zodiacs are out here with guests to admire the ice field.

In one zodiac, they're looking down, way down.

I think a lot of people would think there are no uncharted waters left in the world.

But here we are.

- Yeah, this coast of Greenland, especially the east side, is really not very well charted.

Most ships can't come into the most incredible bays here because there's no maps and there's no charts.

We have this incredible machine, it's the wide angle sonar sea floor profiler.

And it helps us- - The WASP, for short.

- The WASP.

- Yeah.

- And it maps in real time, the sea floor beneath us.

So sonar beam sends the beam down to the sea floor and how fast that beam comes back up to the machine will tell us the depth.

And then that is what gets mapped.

And then it can be fed live up to the bridge so our officers can see it there as well.

- [Lynn] Right.

Captain, so tell us what we're looking at here.

- [Captain] So all of this mapping is being- - Has happened this morning.

- In the last hour.

And with a zodiac going up and down with this wide multi-beam, and we can see we've got deep water ahead of us.

- [Lynn] So the darker the color, the dark the blue is, the darkest depth.

- Exactly.

- The deepest depth.

- As you've been maneuvering with the zodiac closer to shore, we have shallower depths all the way down to 65, 50 meters, which we would expect closer to shore as well.

So this has enabled us in theory to now maneuver the ship closer to the shoreline if we would like to.

- But this is actual real data collection happening.

And it has a real-world, real-life and very immediate purpose for us.

- Absolutely, for two options.

One is it enables us on the day to offer expedition experience to our guests.

So if I want to stop the ship or maneuver the ship closer to a fjord for a better environment for our guests to be on the zodiacs, we're able to do that ahead of time, and the ship can follow the data, and we can reposition.

And the second side of it is being able to share that data as a reliable source for other vessels to follow.

(lively music) (ship horn blowing) (mellow music) - Of all the expedition toys onboard the Seaboard Venture, I think the one that excites people the most are the submarines.

The opportunity to go beneath the surface of these beautiful waters and see what's going on down there.

So here we go.

After our safety briefing, we learned about one piece of equipment on board I never expected to find on a cruise ship submarine.

- So there's also champagne just behind your seat there.

- Oh, of course there is.

There we go, and can I open that?

- You have permission to open that.

- Luckily I'm happy to do so.

Here we go.

Something more to celebrate.

It's all fun and games till the cork pings off the roof.

And, don't worry, I have some expertise in this matter.

I won't let that happen.

- Right.

- Exactly.

(cork popping) There we go, best sound in the world.

Who knew we'd be cheers-ing inside a submarine.

To the bubbles in our glass and the bubbles of air above us.

Cheers.

- Cheers.

- The only possible downside of having champagne in the sub is if a narwhal or something sails by, do I have enough free hands to get a photo and still drink the champagne.

It's a problem I'll be happy to solve.

So my glass is empty, but cheers to you.

Thank you so much.

- Yeah.

(mellow cheerful music) - Crossing from Greenland to Iceland takes us to a port on the opposite side of that massive glacier we saw from the Golden Waterfalls.

Dubbed the Long Glacier, it's nearly 375 square miles of ice cap, in places, 1900-feet thick.

That's seven trillion cubic feet of ice.

Having seen so much ice at this point in our cruise from the outside, this shore excursion takes via very specialized ice vehicles onto and then even into the glacier itself.

So we had a very dramatic ride here and the landscape tremendously.

- This is the foot of Langjokull Glacier.

And the reason it looks so barren as it does now is that our glacier has receded a lot in the last hundred years.

- I see.

- So it's special in Iceland because this is a glacial bed.

And then as we progress, it becomes more and more volcanic.

- [Lynn] We're going inside a glacier.

That seems extremely unusual.

I've walked on top of glaciers.

I don't think I've ever gone inside.

- [Eva] Ah, it's a completely unique experience.

There's no place in the world where you can go inside a glacier like this.

We've built the tunnels ourselves.

- [Lynn] So why dig tunnels inside a glacier rather than just walking around on top, like you often do if you visit a glacier?

- [Eva] It's a completely different experience being inside the glacier.

It's something unique that we can offer to our guests, but it also offers amazing opportunity to teach people about the formation of the glacier.

So we can see lines in the glacier where we've had volcanic eruptions.

And ash lines have formed within our layers.

We have sort of summer lines where dirt is accumulated.

And we can teach people about how we learn about the environment and the local people, how they've lived here.

If we drilled all the way down to the bottom of the glacier, each summer line would be countable.

We'd get about 3000.

'Cause that's how old our glacier is.

- [Lynn] 3000 year-old glacier.

- [Eva] The drinking water for 75% of the country originates from this glacier.

- From this glacier?

- Yeah.

- Must be great-tasting water.

- It's delicious.

It's really, really nice.

- What is your favorite part?

You come here every day, you see this incredibly dramatic landscape and the glacier every day.

- We have a room that's our chapel space.

It's 40 meters below the surface.

But I think my absolute favorite bit to guide for others is when we're in our deepest part of the tunnel.

And I can tell people the truth about the expectations we have for the glacier.

- Right.

- How we don't think the glacier will exist within 50 and a hundred years.

200 years from now, there will be no glaciers left in Iceland.

- No glaciers left in Iceland.

Is that climate change or is that a natural process?

- It's natural to have the receding.

But it's absolutely exceptional, the circumstances we've had.

We've had receding now that is faster than we've ever seen before.

Between 1940 and 1960, we lost about 300 meters.

And we're now losing 150 meters every single year.

- So what we're seeing here is very special because it's disappearing.

- Yeah, it's disappearing really quickly.

The valley itself has a mountain called Ork.

And that lost its glacier in 2014.

So the first glacier in the world to be declared extinct with its cause of death to directly be climate change.

- So there are people potentially who are being born or alive today who will know an Iceland with no ice.

- Yeah.

Yeah, at least my children will never be able to see the inside of a glacier.

- It's all the more special for us to be able to experience it.

- Exactly, exactly.

(lively music) (ship horn blowing) - [Lynn] All too soon, we're returning to Reykjavík.

This time arriving by sea and docking in the heart of Iceland's capital.

We gather for drinks.

And one last enrichment session in the Discovery Center with the expedition team.

This time joined also by the entire crew and the captain to say goodbye.

- A safe travel, and thank you for your hard work you've done.

You've done me proud, thank you very much.

(crowd applauding) - Until next time on World's Greatest Cruises, wishing you fair winds and following seas.

More information about World's Greatest Cruises and the ship and ports of call featured in today's program on our website at www.WorldsGreatestCruises.com.

"World's Greatest Cruises" is made possible in part by the JERNE community of travel advisors: local business owners with experience cruising and planning cruises.

More information at JERNE.COM/CRUISE Next time on World's Greatest Cruises, we're discovering the flavors of the Rhine River as we cruise through the heart of Switzerland, France, and Germany.

Our river cruise takes us to the doorsteps of famous wine regions and storied cellars.

We bust some myths about Schnapps and get fondue wrist.

On board, we try spirited local coffee and get into the spirit of October Fest.

Prost.