Qaqtortoq, Greenland

September 8, 2024

This morning we arrived at our first stop in Greenland. We were due to drop anchor around 9am so we headed up the Explorer’s Lounge, 7 deck forward, as it’s a great place to look for wildlife and icebergs and generally watch the approach to Qaqtortoq. Colorful houses are a thing up here - in Iceland and Norway too!

Bonus: You can also get breakfast in the Explorer’s Lounge at a place called Mamsen’s. They offer traditional Norwegian breakfast fare including items such as Kringle (sweet roll with almond paste), or Kanelbolle (cinnamon roll), and, our favorite, Vafler waffles served with berries and vanilla whipped cream, maple syrup and brunost cheese (which is a brown cheese - we’ve had it before on our Norway cruise).

Whoa - this is what winter feels like - at this hour it was in the mid-30’s out on the bow of the ship and the wind was blowing!! We did get to see a whale - mainly swimming along the surface and showing his fin occasionally and then finally diving and we got to see the tail go up.  Also spotted some icebergs on the way in - just hanging out in the bay. Fact: they are called icebergs if they measure more than 16 ft across. Smaller ones are known as ‘growlers’ or ‘bergy bits’.

Following this we took in the morning lecture - “Greenland - European or North American?” While Greenland is located in the North American plate, it is part of Denmark; however, they have their own rule as of fairly recent years. Interesting that during WWII, since Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany, the United States took over the protection of Greenland until after the war. For obvious reasons, Greenland is a very strategic place and the US does maintain a military base in the north called Pituffick Space Base, which is part of the Space Force. However this is controversial among some Greenlanders.

While they may refer to themselves as Eskimos, outsiders should not call them that - Inuit is the proper term to use.

The gentlemen giving the lecture, while very knowledgeable, had that typical professor voice that sort of ‘droned on’ - even I wanted to nod off at times - oops 😬 

Next up - another time change. We jumped ahead another hour so we are 3 hours ahead of EDT.

We were due to get off the boat around noontime - catch the tender to shore, which was a very quick ride. Although this small town had many cars/taxis running here and there, there are not roads connecting other towns in Greenland. You either get there by boat or kayak or helicopter. 

The weather has warmed up and the wind has died down, although we still had our coats on and several layers.

We went to a talk at one of their churches. The resident giving the talk - her name was ‘Etta” - which means wise woman or old woman, told us that she was both old and wise. She spun quite the story about how Greenland was founded. You had to take some of her facts with a grain of salt - but she was fun to listen to. Although born in Iceland, she has lived in Greenland most of her life, raising 2 children and now has 5 grandchildren and she told us that she has had an amazing life. She was wearing a fairly traditional Viking dress.

Back to the Viking tale: Erik the Red’s father ended up being banished from Norway due to some murders he had committed and the family fled to Iceland. Later on, Erik the Red, obviously taking after his father, got himself into some trouble in Iceland (with more killing of neighbors) and he was banished - that’s when he ended up on Greenland. Naming it such so that others would come there too. Of course Inuits were already there and it is unknown as to the contact between the Inuits and the Vikings. That’s the shortened version.

After walking around the town a bit looking at the harbor, the local grocery store (the blue building in the picture), and, of course, visiting the gift shop (red building with the welcome sign) we headed back to the ship. Had a light, late lunch and relaxed by the pool, reading, playing scrabble on my phone, and writing this blog. I do plan to walk at least a mile or two on the deck before dinner.

Dinner tonight for us in the in the specialty Italian restaurant - no extra charge - just have to have a reservation. Can’t believe I’m talking about eating again - the day goes by fast, especially when we change the clocks ahead one hour.

We haven’t taken a picture with the 2 of us since NYC. No picture of me until this morning when I suggested that maybe I ought to document that I was here too 😬 - this one is taken from our balcony as we approached Qaqtortoq.

Tomorrow we have an excursion on a RIB to get up close and personal with icebergs.

Until then,

Betsy