8/14-16 /25: Even More of Nuuk & Goodbye Greenland!

8/14: It was hard for Steven and me not to be disappointed when our flight to northern Canada from the Greenland capital of Nuuk was turned back the previous night due to a heating element issue. We were, however, extremely fortunate that Air Greenland put us up again in a suite at a very decent hotel and provided extraordinarily generous meal vouchers at almost any restaurant in town. We also lucked out meeting Rab and Jessica, math teachers at the same high school outside Hamilton, Ontario, while we'd waited hours for the flight. It was an unusually dreary day in Nuuk, so Steven and I just hunkered down in the hotel all day. But our newfound friends joined us for drinks and cheese in our suite for a few hours, regaling us with stories of their travel adventures. 

Lucky us, Rab and Jessica had already scoped out the food scene in Nuuk and asked us to join them for dinner at Cafe Esmeralda that night.

At 46, Rab has visited 148 countries and territories, and Jessica, a later convert to travel, wasn't far behind! Unlike us, however, they only head out on the road for a maximum of three weeks at a time. They then head home to be with their pets for a week or so, before going back on the road again for another far-flung adventure!

If you've been following our adventures in Greenland over the last month or so, you likely recall the weather issues we've had, which have resulted in cancellations and delays. However, we counted our lucky stars as our mishaps were minor compared to Rab and Jessica's. I've forgotten the exact details now, but I think they were stranded in Ilulissat for 10 days, unable to move on, because weather conditions prevented plane or ferry travel. As they were in the same boat as hundreds of other travelers, their lodging included the local school's gym, since available hotel rooms were nonexistent!

They had also spent far longer than they wanted or planned in Nuuk because of other travel misadventures! As a result, Steven and I gladly gave our "guaranteed" Nuuk Fjord whale-watching tickets to them, hoping they might be more successful in finding whales than we had a couple of days earlier.

Jessica and I feasted on mouthwatering lamb chops, sauteed mushrooms, and divine potatoes - all of it was a taste treat, accompanied by a glass of Spanish red wine, courtesy of Air Greenland! I couldn't have imagined a more sublime meal anywhere - plus the company was great!

Steven devoured his shrimp pasta, but I can't remember what Rab enjoyed, except I recall he had enough of the voucher left to bring back slices of apple pie.

Another unusual bathroom sign to add to my collection!

Walking back to the hotel we all shared was more of an adventure as we battled some fierce winds! 

8/15: Once again, you may recall from our first stop in Nuuk, while on the Sarfak Ittuk ferry trip from Qaqortoq in southern Greenland to Aasiaat on the south tip of Disko Bay, that we had stopped at Dooit Design, a fabulous glass shop. There, I was immediately taken by a stunning piece Dorit Olsen, the store's owner and artist, had created of an umiak, a boat used by Greenlandic women when moving among settlements. Steven persuaded me it didn't make "sense" to buy it because it was very fragile, and we still had a long way to travel in Greenland and then in Canada before heading home.

 

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After regretting that choice a few days later, I emailed Olsen to purchase it and have her put it aside until our return in 10 days. Much to my dismay, however, the umiak had been sold. When we returned to Nuuk from Ilulissat, I told Steven I wanted to return to the shop. There was a much larger, significantly more expensive umiak that Olsen had also crafted that we'd also admired on our initial stop. I loved it, but the price seemed out of reach. 

But when our flight to Iqaluit, in northern Canada, was canceled, one of the first things I said to Steven was that if the larger umiak were still available, I would buy it. I figured that we had "saved" so much money from our canceled flights, meals, and accommodation in Canada, we could afford the umiak, and it was meant to be! I was so relieved to find it was still available when I called the day before and purchased it immediately over the phone. Sweet Christa, whom I had gotten to know from my multiple visits, wrapped up the precious cargo to ensure it would make it home to Denver in one piece.

Here it is at home, surrounded by nine tupilaks we purchased in Qaqortok, Aasiaat, and Ilulissat! The beautiful 15" wide x 6" high umiak was perhaps the best thing to come out of our canceled flight.

On our two previous visits to Nuuk, Steven and I had already toured and seen everything that we'd wanted to see and explore. As a result, left with two more days there, the pickings were slim! An invigorating walk sounded appealing, especially if we could catch a glimpse of a massive sphere I'd spotted days ago. From our recent visit to the Nuuk Local Museum, we'd learned that there was an antenna park in the capital city, so the sphere was likely part of it.

The fog was so dense that it was challenging to spot anything in the distance. We didn't give up, however, and kept walking up and up Nuuk's hilly streets above the town, hoping that one of them might lead us to the sphere.

We hadn't known that there was a music school in Nuuk before! In Greenlandic, it was called Sermersuumi Nepilersornermik Ilinniarfik.

Our long walk also took us past the contemporary Nuuk High School for the first time. One of only four high schools in Greenland, it was a three-year grammar school, with the education consisting of half a year of basic training and two and a half years of specialized classes. 

The far more traditionally designed building was Ilinniarfissuaq, or Greenland's Teaching Seminary. It was established in 1845 to educate teachers and catechists for Greenland. 

Its roofline made me think of the prow of a Viking ship.

Nearby was the former secondary school, known as Eskimolottet or Eskimo Castle. It was odd to see the word Eskimo on the building, because I grew up understanding that the politically correct term was Inuit.

Nuuk's Colonial Harbor or the old part of the city:

Aha - once the fog cleared, the sphere was finally visible, peaking behind more buildings belonging to the seminary.

Steven and I had enjoyed one of our best meals anywhere at Cafe Esmeralda the night before, so it was a no-brainer to return there for our last dinner in Greenland! And yes, our meals were just as perfect as they had been with Rab and Jessica.

Later that night, we successfully (hooray!) flew from Nuuk to Reykjavik, Iceland, where we'd started our summer vacation five plus weeks earlier, arriving at a hotel in Grindavík, the closest hotel to the airport that had a room, at 2am! It was the first leg of our journey back to my hometown of Ottawa, where my family and I were burying my brother Paul's ashes in a few days. 

8/16: After just a few hours' sleep, we were on our way back to the airport near Reykjavik to catch a flight to Dulles Airport in DC and then on to Ottawa after a long layover. Our taxi driver told us that after a volcanic eruption in November 2023, the Icelandic fishing town of Grindavík, home to 3,700 people, was evacuated overnight. Shortly after the earthquakes began shaking the town, great fissures opened just outside Grindavík, and lava began flowing from a nearby volcano. Houses were destroyed, and the streets shifted as the ground heaved up and down. 

The highway we were on was covered by lava three times. She told us that the government relocated and bought the homes of everyone who wanted to move. Fortunately, there was no loss of life, and it wasn't much worse than it was, according to our driver. Though it was declared a "ghost town," Grindavík was coming back to life, our taxi driver said. 

However, I remember receiving emails from friends in Denver who were concerned about us when the town was evacuated again, and we were in the area! It was a tad spooky, only being able to find a room in the exact location that we'd been warned to stay away from so recently.

As you may recall from some of my posts on Iceland, the Icelandic people are big believers in trolls and other fanciful lore. Our driver promised to send me pictures of the trolls that she insisted lived in this terrain, but sadly, I never got any!

Homeward bound at long last, after a thrilling time exploring a vast chunk of exciting Greenland:

Next post: Greenland Impressions.

Posted on November 20th, 2025, from Denver, where our smile for the day was that a winter weather advisory was issued as snow fell on Hawaii's Mauna Kea summit before any had fallen in Denver! Even so, Steven's been shopping for a snowblower, as it's just a matter of time before we see the white stuff. As always, make sure to take care of yourself and your loved ones.

8/13/25: Nuuk's City Sights, Blok P, & Almost Flight to Iqaluit!

Since Steven and I were due to fly out from Nuuk, Greenland's capital city, that afternoon for northern Canada, we wanted to tick off the remaining sights on our list that we'd purposely delayed until then. I was disappointed when the approximately three-hour flight was rescheduled to depart five hours earlier than planned, cutting short what we had planned to visit in Nuuk. It wasn't as if we had many choices, however, as the flight to Iqaluit only departed on Wednesday nights. 

On all our walks into town, we'd passed this building numerous times, but were no closer to figuring out what it was! 

Nor did we have a clue why "nuuk 0 m" was painted on the sidewalk.

As I've mentioned previously, some of Nuuk's architecture was interesting, if not necessarily award-winning, in my humble opinion. I couldn't understand why the animal designs on the facade were so dark, however. On that dreary day, they were tricky to spot. 

I found the drab concrete-block design of Nuuk City Hall, however, less attractive than the Scandinavian-style buildings we'd just seen across the street.

Many Feathers Become Wings was the name of one of the sculptures at City Hall. It was composed of 150 wooden feathers, decorated by children and young people under the direction of Cheeky, the artist. The theme of each feather was, "What makes you happy?"

If I'm going to eat crow, the building's artistic elements, including the bench designs, did make it more appealing!

I think this colorful mural on the capital's main street was part of Nuuk's Art Walk.

Steven and I had also passed the Central Library of Greenland on the same street umpteen times before, but had never known what it was.

Across from it was probably Nuuk's, if not Greenland's, tallest building!

A few feet away, we again admired the sculpture known as the Stone Seals Statue, which stood in front of the Greenland Police Headquarters.

Centrally located between public buildings and shops in Nuuk was the country's Cultural Center, Katuaq. Meaning drumstick in Greenlandic, the building opened in early 1997. If you have a vivid imagination, you might think that from the outside, Katuaq looked like a grand piano or even an iceberg, thanks to its slightly wavy facade of wood and glass. Inspiration for its design came from the wavy northern lights and from the play of light on ice and snow.

Steven and I had more time to explore the cultural center's art space that morning, instead of the quick glimpse we had taken previously. We didn't see it, but Nuuk's only movie theater was inside the center.

Paintings by Miki Jacobsen: 

These two sculptures, also part of Nuuk's Art Walk, were located in front of Katuaq.

Behind the fun piece was another building we'd walked past innumerable times: Inatsisartut, Greenland's legislative body, which housed the self-governing Parliament. The building was considered a prominent symbol of Greenland's autonomy and its path toward potential future independence from the Kingdom of Denmark. 

Behind the cultural center and Inatsisartut, was Kalaaliaraq, Nuuk's fish and meat market, which could have been a scene from centuries ago. This wasn't your local butcher's, however, but freshly caught fish and meat from sea mammals, including seals and walrus. If we'd been there in the spring, we would've seen lumpfish roe arriving to much excitement. Greenlanders freeze it then for use throughout the year. 

At the far end of Nuuk's quay in the Colonial Harbor was the Nuuk Local Museum, which was housed in the old colonial boatyard building. It recorded the town's history from the arrival of its founder, Hans Egede, to the present day.

Cute tags in the museum's shop coyly asked, "Do you hunt your own food? We do!"

A reproduction of a home in Nuuk, circa 1956:

One room focused on local arts and crafts and included artefacts donated by local families.

The museum noted the importance of the Nuuk Airport, which just opened its extended runway and new terminal building last year. As a result, the city could receive larger planes from Europe and elsewhere.

We learned about Samuel Petrus Kleinschmidt (1814-1866), a German Herrnhut missionary, teacher, and linguist, who published a book that formed the background for Greenlandic orthography. He also compiled the Greenlandic-German dictionary in 1871. We noted the location of a pole and a commemorative plaque on the spot where he used to hang his lantern on his way home from the College of Education School to the seminary.

I've mentioned in several posts about Greenlandic color codes for housing, but this was the first time I'd seen anything quasi-official about them. With the establishment in 1776 of the Royal Greenlandic Trade, known in Danish as KGH, color codes were introduced for Greenlandic buildings to distinguish their functions. Greenland's Technical Organization (GTO) continued the tradition when it was established in 1970. As I've written before, though the use of these color codes is no longer in effect, a considerable number of buildings can still be identified by their distinct colors throughout Greenland. The use of colors on building facades and colorful wooden houses has become characteristic of Greenland. 

When Hans Egede founded Godthaab, Nuuk's original Danish name, several Inuit graves and burial grounds were found in the area. The first Christian burial ground in the city was established around 1733-34, during the deadly smallpox epidemic. The baptised, many of whom died of smallpox, were buried by the former doctor's residence. The unbaptised were buried on the other side of the river in what are called the heathen's graves.  

The Moravian Brethren arrived in 1733 to assist Egede in his missionary work and establish their own missionary station. The first Greenlander converted to their congregation in 1738. Qatanngutingiinniat, the name of their church and station, was built in 1747 as a gift from Dutch followers. They left in 1900, with their own burial ground located on the headland by their mission station. The church building became the office of Greenland's County Council Ombudsman.

None of the travel literature I'd read about Greenland mentioned Nuuk's Antenna Park, established in 2021 with 21 satellite dishes. It was one of 30 similar places around the world. 

Construction in Nuuk of Blok P, the country's first concrete apartment building and a controversial housing block, began in 1965 as a direct consequence of the Danish government’s Greenland Commission of 1960. The idea was to depopulate some coastal settlements and concentrate Greenland's hunting and fishing communities in larger cities. Blok P was a Danish civil servant solution and, in many ways, an "export of Welfare Denmark" to create modern, centralized conditions in Greenland along the Danish model. 

Was its laudable goal to provide better housing conditions, equal educational opportunities for Greenlandic children, and access to modern conveniences such as running water, sanitation, and shops? If yes, the effect, however, was a significant upheaval in the lives of the communities of fishermen and everyone in the settlements. Blok P, and subsequent apartment blocks like it elsewhere in Greenland, were a form of housing that arose from a very different social structure than the traditional hunter and fishing communities the Inuit were familiar with. As I wrote previously, there were profound personal and social costs in the forced adaptation to the new way of living. Blok P contained many stories on forced modernization, ghetto life, and social decay. However, there were also stories about people who were given new opportunities, a large social community, and a safer upbringing. 

The big question that was left unanswered for me: Did Blok P make life better for people from the Greenlandic settlements, or was its sinister goal, in fact, to make Greenlandic sanitation and education challenges easier for the Danes? Was Blok P ultimately just an extension of Denmark's colonial influence and power in Greenland?

Steps away from the thought-provoking museum was the Nuuk Boardwalk, an excellent excuse for a stunning walk, but also the fastest way to reach the Moravian Brethren's former church.

Though the notorious Blok P had been torn down years ago, its partially boarded-up replacements overlooking the walkway didn't look any more appealing or welcoming.

Qatanngutingiinniat, or the House of the Moravian Brethren, and the surrounding area we'd just walked through had been designated Protected Areas by Nuuk Municipality and the Greenland National Museum and Archives. 

The outline of the bear represented the building's new role as the Ombudsman's Office.

Considering the protected area was just a short walk from the center of Nuuk, it was sublimely peaceful and serene.

The church's cemetery was also considered a protected area.

There were almost exclusively wooden crosses to remember those who had gone before.

As we walked toward our hotel, we passed these newer apartment buildings minutes from the cemetery. They were simply lovely - what a drastic improvement they were over the ugly, huge, impersonal ones by the boardwalk and those near the Knud Rasmussen Museum in Ilulissat and elsewhere throughout Greenland. I hope these styles are the wave of the future for multi-family units.

Our "final" tourist sight in Nuuk was to pay homage at the spot where Kleinschmidt, the German missionary and educator, hung his lantern on his way back to the seminary.

After almost three fantastic weeks in Greenland, Steven and I were looking forward to flying from Nuuk to Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, in northern Canada, as we'd never explored any of my homeland's northern territories before. 

An unusual and fun bathroom sign at the airport!

Steven and I didn't think much of it at first when the plane seemed to take all the passengers on what looked like an especially scenic helicopter ride around Nuuk!

However, 40 minutes into the flight, the pilot announced that the plane had too much fuel to climb over the mountains, and furthermore, there was an issue with the heating element, so he couldn't fly above the clouds! The result was that he had to burn off fuel before returning to the airport.

The good news was that the views were simply jaw-dropping, the longer we continued to burn off fuel. We also knew we'd receive hassle-free, automatic compensation from Air Greenland, based on our previous experiences with the airline and the country's standard policy of providing free accommodation, meals, and taxi fares when flights or ferries are disrupted. Now, too, we'd have the time to see anything else we wanted in Nuuk!

The bad news was that our dream of touring Iqaluit and anywhere else in Nunavut went out the window, likely forever. That was a bitter pill to swallow, but it came with the territory of traveling. 

Even though you would think that the Nuuk airport would be accustomed to weather and other emergencies canceling flights, we returned to find a single security agent on staff to process all the passengers' passports, and just one Air Greenland ticketing agent to arrange hotel, meal, and taxi vouchers for the days ahead! We were extremely lucky to get another large suite at the Hotel Nordbo, where we'd stayed previously, and very generous meal vouchers at a selection of restaurants in Nuuk. We didn't realize then that we'd soon enjoy some of the best meals we've ever had, courtesy of Air Greenland!

Next post: Divine meals, great company, long-awaited shopping, and some esoteric sights!

Posted on November 17th, 2025, from Denver, where our city's football fans are giddy now that the Denver Broncos are somehow 9-2, and have even beaten both teams that competed in last year's Super Bowl! Make sure to take care of yourself and your loved ones.