Day 17 Nuuk, Greenland

Don't be fooled by the name.  Greenland is not green. Having said that, its rugged beauty is dramatic. Nuuk is the capital of Greenland with a population of 20,000. The area around Nuuk boasts over 4,000 years of habitation, firstly by the vikings. The modern city was established in 1728 by a Danish-Norwegian missionary who introduced christianity to the Inuit.

Our tour was a short walking tour and a visit to a local home.  It sounded intriguing.  Our group met at the dock and the guides took us straight to the shuttle bus that would transfer us to the downtown area.  Our guides are young but their English was impeccable.  Our guide told us that they have to learn four languages - English, Greenlandic, Danish & German, and I read in a google search that English is increasingly being taught and is gaining prominence as the first foreign language choice.

When we reached the drop-off point our guide, who is just 14 years old, walked us a few blocks to the home we would be visiting.  Most homes are apartment blocks that range in size shape and colour from the very new to the old.  One thing they all have in common is central heating!

We stop at one of the apartment blocks and are lead up stairs to the fourth floor.  There we are met and welcomed by our host who invites us to be seated.  In front of us are homemade cakes, tea  coffee.  Our host informed us in broken English that this is the first time she has hosted a tour group and I must say that she did an excellent job.  She showed us photos of her family and placed some interesting books on the table for us to peruse.  Our tour guide translated for her when she become lost for words and the whole hour was very enjoyable.

Our young tour guide and our home host

After the home visit we had a choice of either returning to the ship or wandering around Nuuk by ourselves and return by shuttle bus at our leisure.  We chose the latter.  I wanted to find the Red Lutheran Cathedral that was actually very easy as the spire stood well above the surrounding houses. Beside it, on top of a granite hill is the statue of Hans Egede - the missionary who introduced christianity to Greenland.  Philip just had to climb to the top of that hill!

The houses surrounding the bay paint a beautiful picture with their colourful exteriors and everywhere I look I see another statue.

The airport runway is quite the masterpiece.  As there is very little, if any, flat land around Nuuk, and certainly not enough for a runway,  they had to come up with an idea. So they brought in millions of tonnes of soil and just kept going higher and higher until they had a long flat surface.  It's not a great photo, but I hope you can see the plane almost landed on the dirt runway and see just how much dirt they had to move!

Remember I was telling you about the window on the ships 5th deck being blown out in the storm, well here they are busy at work repairing it today at Nuuk.  Well done lads!