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.