Greenland

August 30, 2016

At sea

Today promises to be a big day.  After leaving our coats to save seats at 4:44AM, by 8 AM we were in the Crow’s Nest as the ship entered the Prins Christian Sund Fjord of Greenland, this is in the southern end of Greenland consisting of many large and small islands with a complex network of narrow channels and fjords.  Cape Farewell is at the tip of Greenland and contains the weather station.  Sailing through this remote wonderland of steep granite mountains, glaciers, waterfalls and icebergs gives a view of this rugged landscape formed by carving glaciers during the ice age.  The sound is 36 miles long and at the narrowest point only 350 meters wide.  The water depth ranges from 600-900 meters.  We passed the village of Aappilattoq, home to 130 hardy souls whose only transport is small fishing boat or helicopter and whose food is mostly fish and seals.  Houses, the little store and the church were all prefabricated in Denmark and shipped to this location and reassembled.  Residents can only walk 1.2 miles in any direction from the village.  The steep vertical 900 meter mountain blocks the village from anywhere except the sea.

We had sandwiches for lunch in order to retain our good location in the Crow’s Nest but about 3 PM we had enough so we made our way back to the room for a little lie-down.  Then the usual drinks in the Ocean Bar and supper in the Lido.  Tonight the entertainment was a young pianist - nice.

Can’t say enough about the beauty of the scenery we encountered today, glaciers, waterfalls, mountains, fjords.  It was truly amazing or as the kids used to say “awesome”.

August 31, 2016

Qaqortoq, Greenland

Qaqortoq means “white” for the white colored granite cliffs.  Our ship anchored just off the village, founded in 1775 by the Norwegian trader, Anders Olsen, and we used the life boats for moving everyone from the ship to the village.  About a 10 minute ride.  Arriving at the pier we found a map of the town, 3,500 inhabitants, with a couple of variety stores with lots of stuff from China to sell the tourists.  

One interesting store had a bakery and sold rifles and ammo.

The town square (it’s round) contains the village fountain (1927).

One point of interest was the old church (1832) but there is also a new church.

We had intended to have lunch at the local hotel but the knats were so bad we decided to go back to the Zuiderdam for our lunch.

Also of interest are the stone sculptures carved by various artists in to the local cliffs.  Fish, ram’s head and faces of locals are featured.

This village is Greenland’s main trading post.  There is no road connecting to Qaqortoq and no airport.   Helicopters and ferries are used for public transport.  Interestingly no two towns in Greenland are connected by road.

Had a nice Indonesian lunch in the Lido followed by a nice nap in the room.

Entertainment tonight was Carlos Bonell playing classical Spanish guitar.   Very entertaining and claimed to have the distinction of recording with Paul McCartney on the only album that was a flop.  Nice evening.