Ireland, Greenland, Iceland and Norwegian Fjords 30th June 2008 - 18th July 2008
Home Page
7th July Nuuk (Greenland) Godthab, now called by the Greenlandic name of Nuuk (the promontory), is the capital and largest city in Greenland with a population of 15,000. The city lies on the Davis Straight near the mouth of a complex network if attractive fjords and is backed by high mountains. The Arctic Circle is 155 miles to the north and the town of Qaqortoq is 300 miles to the south.

Photo Gallery:

It was 7am when I took this picture, and although it was still only a couple of degrees above freezing, it looked like we were in for perfect conditions for our day in Greenland's capital city of Nuuk (Godthab).

Before we got of the ship I could see that the city seemed to have quite a few areas of higher rocky ground around its edges. So, ever being the explorers we decided to walk there and have a look. And considering Nuuk is the capital city, it took us no time at all to walk from the harbour to the outskirts where we spent a brilliant couple of hours walking from one outcrop to another, almost doing a circuit of the city in the process.

Hans Egede, who arrived in Greenland in 1721 with his wife, Gertrude Rask. Seven years later he founded Godthab (meaning Good Hope). Egede was born in 1686 and did a degree in theology before deciding to become a missionary in Greenland.

Life in those days was hard and an outbreak of smallpox in 1736 killed most of the Inuit and Hans Egede's wife. Shortly after this tragedy, the 'Apostle of Greenland' returned to Norway and his sons continued his work.

We'd headed back to the harbour now where it was time for a sit down and to decide what we'd like to see next. I really wanted to visit the museum to see the mummies, but as this was right beside the pickup point we thought it best to go there last thing. One area we hadn't been to was the "modern" part of the city, so off we went again.

Once you've walked away from the more traditional area near the harbour the city begins to take on a more modern look. Some of the other visitors were saying how this "spoiled the place" and it wasn't really what they'd expected to find here. What you must remember is that Nuuk is in fact the capital city of a huge country, and as you'd expect in any other capital city, it plays host to a university, the national library, the national museum and parliament. Aside from this, it is also a busy fishing port and is now developing into a centre for tourism.

As I said earlier Nuuk is a busy fishing port, and although 90% of Greenland's exports are fish or fish products, some of the catch is still sold in their local fish markets.
One thing we may find hard to accept is that Seal skin & meat is still widely used in Greenland.
Those who are a bit squeamish needn't look at the next picture.

Barbaric, cruel, well no more than us actually. Having this on display is simply the normal way of life up here. The only difference between this and our Lamb chops or roast beef is that we see cows and sheep in the fields and we see them wrapped in a little plastic tray with a bar code across the front. What we seem to forget is that the animals we eat still need to be killed and prepared for us to buy; which is more or less what we have here.

In the centre of the older part of the city is the National Museum of Greenland. Undoubtedly the biggest attraction is the 500 year old Qilakitsog Mummies, discovered in northern Greenland in 1972.

The Gronvold brothers from Uummannaq were hunting Ptarmigan at Qilakitsog when they chanced upon two graves containing mummified bodies in fir clothing.

The mummified bodies dating from about 1475 were discovered in 1972. In 1978, exhumation was decided in order to preserve the mummies for posterity.

A combination of the natural drain, the dry air and the low temperature have caused the dead bodies to freeze-dry.

The graves held six adults and two children, some loose garments and a number of skins.

I didn't notice this at the time, but this picture shows that only one of the propellers was working. Shortly after leaving Nuuk an announcement was made telling everyone that their was in fact a problem with one of the ships propulsion motors. This would result in us reaching Reykjavik 12 hours behind schedule, and that representatives from the manufacturers would meet us there to assess the situation.

It didn't take a genius to work out that this would have a knock on effect for the rest of the holiday. The worst case was that we would have to return to Southampton.