Arctic Cruise V: Qaqortoq, Greenland (8.17.25)

Each time we docked in Greenland, we chose a shore excursion that would take us into the fjords around the port.  In Qaqortoq, on August 17, 2025, we booked a tour to an agricultural research facility run by the Greenland government.  To get there, we squeezed into expedition suits and rode, in an open speedboat, up the fjord.

It was foggy that morning, and the trip along the gray sea with gray sky overhead felt otherworldly.

We passed our ship, partly hidden in the fog.

Qaqortoq is at the southern tip of Greenland, several hundred miles south of the Arctic Circle.  Nevertheless, there were a few of last winter's icebergs still floating in the fjord. 

We finally arrived at the agricultural research station and were very relieved to take off our bulky expedition suits and leave them by the beach.

There was a little iceberg by the pier, slowly melting.

I enjoyed having a combination of Inuit and European guides, to explain all sides of such issues as whether Greenland can afford independence.  Our guide this morning, Lars, lived in Denmark, but his mother lived and worked in Greenland.  Lars explained that Denmark finances 80% of the government budget for Greenland.  Without that subsidy, it would be hard for Greenland to survive.  Lars also said that mining is now underway in Greenland, which may help to finance independence.

The agricultural research station is being moved to a location in another fjord which has a warmer climate than this one.  There were few people around, although we could still wander through the fields and greenhouse.

Our guide explained that turnips and potatoes now grow in southern Greenland, Scientists are experimenting, in greenhouses, to see which varieties of lettuce, squash, and other vegetables will grow best in Greenland's harsh climate.  Food is now mostly imported, but the government would like the island to be self-sufficient.

Qaqortoq has a population of only 3,000, but it is a regional capital and also an artsy city.  Several years ago, the city sponsored a sculpture carving contest.  Now, there are carvings in stone throughout the town.

We visited the house where the master of the port used to live.  He once described himself as "drunk as the pope," so he was called "the pope" the rest of his life, his sons were called "the cardinals," and the road leading up to his house from the pier was named "the Vatican."

As in Paamiut, the noteworthy tourist sites included the local bar, newest hotel, and grocery store.

We visited a beautiful old Lutheran church with a picture of Christ next to a boat on the lake of Galilee over the altar.  That seemed fitting, since the focus of Greenland is so heavily on fishing and the sea.

Our tour concluded at the port, where fishing boats deposited their catch.  Our guide was spending his "gap year" between high school and his Danish university in Greenland.  He and his roommate made a goal of cooking and eating every creature that was sold at the fish market, from whale to octopus to cod.  The fish market seemed to be a local meeting place.

Arctic Cruise IV: Paamiut, Greenland (8.16.25)

Greenland is the next big thing in cruises, but the country is struggling to develop infrastructure for all the ships that want to dock there--cities to visit, restaurants, places to see, guides.  On August 16, 2025, we docked at Paamiut, a town of 1000 people in Southern Greenland.  Our guide was 17 years old and was still in high school.  She described the town bridge to us by saying, "I used to play under it."  We spent ten minutes, each, at two souvenir stores and the town grocery store, but we didn't stop at the grass-covered house museum which showed how the Inuit lived in the "old days." Actually, our guide was very charming, and it was fun to see Paamiut as a teenager who lived there saw it! 

All of the towns we visited in Greenland had bright-colored houses.  Many years ago, each color identified a different type of building--store, house, government building, church--so that boats at sea could easily identify a town's facilities.  Now, residents can use any of the colors.

The highlight of our walking tour was visiting the town church.  Greenlanders who live in cities are mostly Lutheran, like the Danes who colonized Greenland.  The towns we visited had Danish names during the early days of colonization, such as Fredrikshavn.  Greenland now has a certain degree of self-rule, although it is still a Danish protectorate.  Greenland's towns now all have Inuit names.

An elderly man and woman were, apparently, the church caretakers.

As remote as Greenland seems, even this elderly woman had her cell phone!

A Westerner on our tour sang "Amazing Grace" in English, as we visited the church, and this Inuit woman responded by singing "Amazing Grace" in an Inuit language.

In Paamiut, as in Nuuk, there was a government-sponsored workshop where local artists fashion sculptures from caribou bone and stone.

Reindeer spring rolls were on the menu at the local cafe.

Dave and I never tired of Greenland's cliffs, waterfalls, and icebergs.  We climbed into bulky expedition suits and rode an open boat into the fjord.

 

Arctic Cruise III: Nuuk, Greenland (8.15.25)

We docked at Nuuk, capital of Greenland, on August 15, 2025.  Dave and I agreed that it wasn't what we expected.  Greenland has some 56,000 people, 25,000 of whom live in Nuuk.  

Nuuk has government buildings, a shopping mall, and even some high rise buildings--six or eight stories.  On the late summer day when we visited, it was chilly enough for a light parka, but not bitter cold.

Our morning shore excursion was titled, "Artists of Nuuk."  We visited the National Museum, where the museum director showed us around the exhibit of works created by Inuit artists during the last year.

The director told us that President Trump's recent pronouncement that he planned to buy Greenland created both confusion and terror among Greenland's people. Many of the works in the exhibition reflected that turbulence.

The most memorable work, for me, was a depiction of the U.S. stars and stripes flag, made into a beaded necklace.

An accompanying piece showed the beaded necklace worn by a model in different ways.  The museum director said that the work depicted all the possibilities of a U.S./Greenland relationship, from Greenland proudly displaying its affiliation, as a decoration, to Greenland being strangled by it.

Another work showed Greenlanders gathered together in an arena.  On the sidelines, a shadowy man was taking notes on his phone.  The director said the gathering represented Greenlanders, as a community.  The man taking notes, she thought, was an outsider like President Trump, using the community for his own purposes.

Another work showed the artist (or her country) struggling to keep her (or its) head above the ice.

Art works by non-Inuits, whether traveling from Europe or as colonists in Greenland, were shown in a separate room of the museum from Inuit art work.  It was interesting to see the perspectives of Europeans on Greenland.  One painting showed the gigantic ice sheet that covers central Greenland, with crevasses running through it, and a few, small explorers.  Another painting shows an Inuit guide leading a European explorer.

The next artists we visited rented space in a government-owned workshop.  They made souvenirs out of soapstone and caribou antlers.

 

I'm sure some Greenland crafts are beautiful, like the paintings in the National Museum, but most of what we saw in the workshops and souvenir stores was not to my taste.

Our next stop, on the artists' tour, was to a government-funded workshop where artists made the intricately embroidered national costumes worn for funerals, baby blessings, marriages, and national holidays.  We watched a woman use the Inuit curved knife, an ulu, to scrape the skin of a seal, before sewing it into a costume.  Most Greenlanders identify with Denmark, rather than with the nearby Inuit communities in Canada, but I bought an ulu in Alaska during our last trip there.  The Inuit culture extends across the whole North American arctic region.  The workshop only makes two or three costumes per year and rents them to local Greenlanders to wear for special events. 

In the afternoon, we took a boat tour into the fjord to look at waterfalls and icebergs. It was a foggy day, so we couldn't see the steep cliffs along the fjord.  The waterfalls and icebergs, though, were beautiful.