3rd CRUISE STOP: QAQORTOQ, GREENLAND
Trip Start
Unknown
1
5
24
Trip End
Ongoing
Qaqortoq, Kujalleq, Greenland
Monday, August 1, 2011
Qoqortoq is on the southern tip of Greenland many miles from Europe and North America. How do you pronounce this three Q-containing name? It is about like "Kork-or-tock".
This is a town of 3,500 people. Only about 57,000 persons live in all of Greenland which is the world's largest island. The small numbers of people are spread around the edges of Greenland which in total contains a land area about equal to 20% of the continental United States. Most of the interior of Greenland is covered with a deep permanent ice cap that is the source of many icebergs. The exposed fringe of Greenland is mountainous and virtually all the seaside slopes are solid rock. The mountains in the southern edge of the country are some of the world's most rugged peaks.
Our entrance into this port town was a mixture of seeing a colorful small community ahead, and looking to the starboard side (right side) where we saw a large iceberg that looked like a whale. See the photo below for the sculpture-like iceberg. The houses in the town were the most colorful that we have seen to date. Blues, reds, yellows and greens were the main colors we noted.
Again we had to take the tenders into shore since the main pier could not handle a ship of our size (it is 720 feet long). It was a short ride and I was able to satisfy my flag search here, finding one in the port where we landed. The Greenland flag has the colors of the Danish flag (the protector of Greenland), but instead of the cross that is common to the other Nordic nations, it has circles.
We toured the local museum. It previously was a private home and Charles Lindberg and his wife stayed for a few days in the house back in 1930. I have included a photo of some of the national costumes of the people. The museum also had a replica of a sod house used by the early settlers. Throughout the town there are a series of stone sculptures that are part of a program to carve images into rocks and stones around town. I have included a picture of one of the carvings in the rocks that face the port area.
Diana and I toured the town on foot and walked through a small shipyard. There we saw two ships that caught our attention. One was stored amongst barrels and old equipment, and the other was undergoing re-facing of the hull. Diana thinks that Popeye left the small white one here. The main square of the town contains the only outdoor fountain in Greenland. It’s cold up here and fountains would freeze up in the more northern portions of the country. This one only functions about 6 months during the year.
We have been blessed with unseasonably good weather. Bright sunshine and warm weather for Newfoundland and Greenland (60 degrees) have blessed our visits. The next day after Qaqortoq was supposed to be a cruise through Prince Christian Sound. I’ll report on the situation we encountered there in the next Post #6.
Every evening we go to the nightclub show in the ship’s main theater. We have had shows by the ship’s on-board Holland America entertainers and band, and by a visiting pianist and a comedian. On the night we left Qaqortoq the show was an Olympic gymnast. We wondered how entertaining he would be and were pleasantly surprised with his show. Lance Ringwald was in the 1988 and 1992 Olympics in gymnastics. He has clever humor, showed off his juggling skills, demonstrated his gymnastic balance and strength, and even serenaded us on the piano. I have included a photo of part of his act.
After leaving Qaqortoq we had 2 days of sailing to reach our next port of call, stop No. 4: Reykjavik, Iceland.
CLICK ON EACH PHOTO OR RUN THE SLIDE SHOW TO VIEW THE CAPTIONS
(Note that due to having a slow or sporadic internet signal on the ship, some of these individual blogs may be delayed and end up being sent on the same day to catch up with where we are on the trip)
Comments
Enjoyed your pics. Glad they are keeping you busy. forgot to mention how handsome you look in a Tux! Hope the good weather stays with you. Diana you are so busy , any time to play your uke? Luv ya!
Kathleen
I have enjoyed traveling with you through all of the great photos. Thanks so much for sharing. You both looked fabulous on formal nite and looks like you are having a trip to match. Keep the joy!!! p.s. I particularly love the idea of the "Mummers" nite in Dec., sounds fun & fattening!
Fantastic!