Nanortalik, Greenland

Greenland is not a place I thought I would ever visit. I don’t ever remember learning anything about it in school. It appears to be a flat piece of ice on the world map. The fact that people actually live here is a surprise to me. I mean people with houses and cars and not people who live in caves or igloo’s.

The topography is different and more interesting than Iceland. Huge mountains of granite surround many of the fiords. Lots of fog here but that did clear up later in the day.

Greenland is the world’s largest island and is about a quarter of the size of the continental US. Nanortalik translates to the “place of polar bears”. The settlement dates back to the late 18th century when Norse people first set foot on the land. Later, the Inuit arrived from the far north. The main industries today are crab fishing, seal hunting, fishing and gold mining.

The tenders were ready to take us ashore at about 8 am. We waited for it to get a bit warmer and left after 9. It was in the 40s but there was little wind. A good day for some walking.

Pictures show the many icebergs in the fiord. We also tried to capture what we saw on land. It reminded me of places back home. The places where you might see a refrigerator on the front porch or a car parked on the front lawn. Nothing is ever thrown out, it is just moved to a place out of the way.

These surprised me. Disc golf in the middle of an old lava field.

The roads we were on had street lights so we knew there was electricity. There was some construction activity. An apartment building was being built and some sewer and water lines being replaced/repaired/installed. I imagine the construction season to be very short here.

We spent an hour or two here. We walked through the town and locals were trying to make a buck selling crafts. Some of the children were selling pages from a coloring book or other items. I don’t carry cash while traveling anymore and I’m sorry I didn’t have any on me.

We had lunch on the Lido and it was crowded. Many in this age group do not get off of the ship anymore. Many have been here before or lack the mobility to visit the rough terrain. In some ways the view from the ship was nicer than what we saw in the town. It is rough living here but I did see a few baby strollers, bicycles, trampolines and kids toys. About 1000 people live in this town.

We listened to the piano trio after dinner and I couldn’t stop shaking my head. They are obviously sight reading the music they perform every night and they aren’t good readers to begin with. They did one of the Bach Brandenburg Concertos and it was terrible. The violinist is a complete BS er when he speaks and when he plays. The biggest accomplishment of the evening, announced by the cellist, was when they finished a piece at the same time. Now if they could start at the same time they could improve even more.

I think this general attitude was caused by all of the lockdown’s during the pandemic and for that I feel sorry for people in this age group (20s). They really do not know the world that before the pandemic lockdowns. For them, anything seems to be acceptable. I think that generation will carry the damage of the lockdowns with them their entire life.

The evening entertainment was Noah Roak. Great show of juggling, sword swallowing, and other silly stuff. Very entertaining. I gave him a 10.

The Lido was full of carnival games after the show. Ring toss, cornhole, cotton candy, popcorn. We stopped in for a few minutes. It was fun!