Nanortalik, Greenland

September 1, 2016

Nanortalik is the southernmost town in Greenland with a population of 1,300.  Nanortalik means “place of bears” as polar bears are occasional guests in the area in late spring and early sinner as they arrive on ice flows.  Several have been shot in recent years.  Founded in 1797, 50 people lived here in 1805, by 1850 there were 165 residents.  The local wooden church (1916) was the entertainment for today with the Greenlandic choir performing songs in the native Inuit language.  

We visited the open air museum with several buildings including a sod house and buildings housing long boats and kayaks used in harvesting fish, seals and whales.  Today these foods are supplemented with sheep and cattle kept indoors in the winter and in grass fields in the summer.  This would have been a good day to be inside.as the temperature was 43 F but fortunately very little wind.  Our stay was from dropping anchor at 7 AM with departure at 1 PM.  This provided plenty of time to see Nanortalik.

The town symbol is three polar bears.

Kids turned out from school to see the funny cruise passengers.

We arrived back at the ship in time for lunch in the crowded Lido as everyone had to back on board by 12:30 PM.  Nap in the afternoon, Iris woke thinking she was getting a cold, to dinner in the Lido.  Iris stayed in, Bob went to the show, girl singer with Broadway tunes, to bed.