Greenland Is Not For Sale!!!!!!

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Greenland is not for sale no matter what Trump thinks. The Danes got a good laugh out of that one.

This morning our ship arrived in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland.

From Wikipedia:

Nuuk (Greenlandic pronunciation: , Danish: ; Danish: Godthåb) is the capital and largest city of Greenland. It is the seat of government and the country's largest cultural and economic centre. The major cities closest to the capital are Iqaluit and St. John's in Canada and Reykjavík in Iceland. Nuuk contains almost a third of Greenland's population and its tallest building. Nuuk is also the seat of government for the Sermersooq municipality. In January 2019, it had a population of 17,984.

The city was founded in 1728 by the Dano-Norwegian governor Claus Paarss when he relocated Hans Egede's earlier Hope Colony (Haabets Koloni) to the mainland, and was named Godthåb ("Good Hope"). The city officially adopted its current name in 1979, although the name "Godthåb" remained in use in Danish. "Nuuk" is the Kalaallisut word for "cape" (Danish: næs). It is so named because of its position at the end of the Nuup Kangerlua fjord on the eastern shore of the Labrador Sea. Its latitude, at 64°10' N, makes it the world's northernmost capital, only a few kilometres farther north than the Icelandic capital Reykjavík.

We left our luggage at the hotel (too early to check in), had breakfast, walked through the fish market (they were cutting up whale, reindeer, mush ox, and blubber) and went to the Greenland National Museum:

Greenland National Museum is in Nuuk and was one of the first museums established in Greenland, inaugurated in the mid-1960s. The museum has many artifacts and exhibits related to Greenland's archaeology, history, art, and handicrafts, and contains the Qilakitsoq mummies.

This is an impressive museum. I'm fascinated that cultures have occupied Greenland on and off since about 2200 B.C. At Nuuk:

The site has a long history of habitation. The area around Nuuk was first occupied by the ancient pre-Inuit, Paleo-Eskimo people of the Saqqaq culture as far back as 2200 BC when they lived in the area around the now abandoned settlement of Qoornoq. For a long time, it was occupied by the Dorset culture around the former settlement of Kangeq but they disappeared from the Nuuk district before AD 1000. The Nuuk area was later inhabited by Viking explorers in the 10th century (Western Settlement), and shortly thereafter by Inuit peoples. Inuit and Norsemen both lived with little interaction in this area from about 1000 until the disappearance of the Norse settlement for uncertain reasons during the 15th century.

After the museum we were on our own to discover town. I walked to a few statues near the harbor and checked out the stores. Since this is the largest city in Greenland there are plenty of stores. We finally checked into our rooms and met for dinner at 18:30. We had trout appetizer, musk ox main course and panacotta for dessert. The meal was so rich that I needed to walk after dinner. I went back to the old harbor and took some sunset photos. The sun sets here about 17:40, and twilight lasts over an hour. I'm not sure when sunrise is. We have been hoping to see Aurora and we put an Aurora forecast app on the phone. Turns out the Aurora was predicted over Iceland but only 7%!p(MISSING)robability we would see it. Then it got cloudy, so no chance.

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Photos

Umiak
This is a woman's boat. When they move camp locations they load up everything in these boats and the women paddle. These are made from driftwood and lashed together ingeniously.

Comments

[Lisa VIOLA]

Awesome
Keep the blogging coming...just love your adventures.