Greenland

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Hey everyone! Now, here is a bit about our trip to Greenland.

We flew from Iceland's capital city, Reykjavik, to Greenland's capital city of Nuuk. The difference was striking. From Iceland's newly formed landscapes with young rock, to the Canadian shield, a mere 3.8 billion year old rock. There were no trees but mountainous fjords created a beautiful back drop. A mixture of Danish and Greenlandic people, most Greenlandic people (Inuit heritage) speak Greenlandic, Danish and English. Greenland had just received more autonomy from the Danish government and celebrations were being planned in the city of Nuuk about 2 days after we were due to leave. Even the Danish Royal Family were to attend.

Then we flew to Sisimiut where we were greeted by some local people that we stayed with for 2 nights. Mads (pronounced "Mes") and Trina were our Danish hosts. What a treat! We had a wonderful stay! We hiked up a very scenic mountain (Palasip Qaqqaa) overlooking the ocean the first day. On day 2 Mads took us for a boat ride down the fjord to an old settlement where the buildings are still used as student camps or a place for fisherman to stop and clean their fish.

Our third town to see was Kangerlussuaq where we took a tour around the area, saw Muskox and walked on the Greenland Ice sheet! What an amazing experience.

So, that concludes our 5 week trip to Iceland and Greenland. Stay tuned for more action on the tundra with Dave in Churchill!

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Photos

Nuuk, Greenland
The colour of the houses and buildings was so amazing against the back drop of mountains.

Sisimiut, Greenland
many houses were built on stilts on the Canadian shield (3.8 billion year old rock). What a big difference from Iceland, the country of 20 year old rock. We were amazed at the amount of wood stairs and balconies. All of it would have come from Denmark, we think.

Sisimiut
on a nice clear day.

sled dog puppies
There were quite a few sled dogs in the town of Sisimiut.

view from half way up
You can see the many fjords that we saw on our flight over. Absolutely breathtaking.

On the summit
The view from Palasip Qaqqaa.

old settlement
Mads and Dave chatting about...

our hosts
Trina, Mads, and us!

Taking a break
There were many pretty waterfalls on our hike up the mountain.

carving
at the Sisimiut Airport. Always expect delays in Greenland. The weather will determine your arrival time. The fog rolled it that day. 4 hours later we got on the plane

Kangerlussuaq
an old US army base.

mosquitos in the tent
in Kangerlussuaq.

our first Muscox sighting
ha ha!

our camping shelter
from the skeeters.

muskox
Very fascinating creatures! The head of a goat and a whole lot of wool!!! Their entire body shimmers as they run. The wool of Muskox is very expensive to buy. It is said it is 10 x warmer than sheep's wool.

muskox
They ran away quite fast, so these pics were the best we could get.

Glacier
from the Greenland Icesheet

Comments

[Sarah Giles]

Greenland
I've never seen pics of Greenland (or known anyone who went there!) Thanks for sharing your photos! S.

[mam]

greenland.
Just fabulous.

[nick]

webroyalty
Very Nice posting. I liked it webroyalty