Narsarsuaq, Greenland

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I'll start off my blog with this story about Greenland.

The first stop was Narsarsuaq, the gateway to Southern Greenland. This town of roughly 200 people serves as one of two main international gateways to Greenland, and has flights to Denmark in full season. However, the easiest (yet not cheapest) way to reach Greenland was to arrive from Iceland, seeing as how one of us was flying in from Europe, and one from North America. Luckily, Air Iceland serves Narsarsuaq from Reykjavik.

You might ask, what's there to do in Narsarsuaq. The answer to that is "not much"... However, it's also the wrong question to ask. The point is that you shouldn't go to Greenland for the cities (or, rather, towns). There are plenty of hiking trails around Narsarsuaq: the most famous of which are the climb to "Signal Hill", or Signalhøjen, the walk along "the Ridge", as well as the climb to the glacier. For other activities, you can take a boat to other settlements nearby, like Qassiarsuk.

Well, I'll let the pictures do the talking for the most part... First, a few views of the town itself, the local tourist info office (Blue Ice Explorer), the Hotel Narsarsuaq (where we stayed), then of the hike to Signal Hill, of the Arboretum (trees and plants from throughout mainly Southern Greenland), then of the hike on the Ridge, and then back to the hotel. That took up the rest of the day of our arrival in Greenland.

The funny thing is that the hotel charged us only 795 DKK for a double room with a bath, even though the price listed on their website was 1495 DKK. As far as food goes, there is a cafeteria and a restaurant in the Hotel Narsarsuaq... Of course, you're in Greenland, so you can't really be very picky, although they do have a variety of cafeteria foods, or local specialities when the restaurant is open (a few evenings a week). Keep in mind fruits and vegetables are particularly expensive in Greenland, though you can find stuff like apples and bananas in the hotel lobby as well. You can also get light meals at the Tourist Information Office, and possibly at the airport. Other than that, no real options... Not that that's needed for the number of inhabitants here.

I'd like to point out the opening hours of the local supermarket: Monday 09:00-17:30, Tuesday-Friday: 10:00-17:30, Saturday: 09:00-13:00 and Sunday 11:00-13:00. I've also added a map of the town to my photos.

Anyway, I'd recommend a visit to Narsarsuaq for those interested in Greenland. Why? Well, first off, if you're going to Southern Greenland you're gonna find your way here anyway. The scenery is quite something, and, unless you visit this "Banana Coast", you won't understand that the term Greenland wasn't really an exaggeration, especially during the Medieval Warm Period. There's nature, there are icebergs, there's the glacier, and there are Viking settlements (but more on that in the next post, hopefully)... Furthermore, there's a plan to replace the international airport at Narsarsuaq with another, slightly smaller one, nearer to Qaqortoq. If this materializes, it will become much harder to see the area around Narsarsuaq. And it is a special place.

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Photos

Blue Ice Explorer
Local Tourist Info Office