Sunny Greenland
After our early departure from Iceland, we spent a day sailing straight for the fjords of Greenland. We took shelter in the calm waters of the fjords for two days instead of doing the two extra days in Iceland. We saw tons of icebergs, glaciers, mountains, and waterfalls as we sailed through these fjords. They were beautiful, especially with the sun shining so brightly in the sky.
After three at-sea days in a row with almost non-existent onboard activities, we were all pretty desperate to get off the ship and explore a bit more. Our first stop in Greenland was Qaqortoq. It was another bright, sunny day; perfect hiking weather!
We were off the ship in no time, as there was very little queue at 7:00 am to get off. We had tons of time here in port it felt like we mostly had the town to ourselves, while the boat and town slept on. We asked when we got off the boat about some things to do, but apparently, our boat’s arrival was not known to the locals ahead of time and they were unprepared to give advice, to say the least. I’m not sure how that’s possible, but alas. They did tell us about a hike we could do up to a scenic lookout spot, so that’s where we started to head!
We walked up to the lookout, which was only about 10-15 minutes from where we were docked. It was a pretty view out over the water and the town itself. And there was quite the cute little church we passed on the way up before we left the town. The girls had a great time jumping around the rocks up here and finding a new nesting place for Hedwig, Katia’s beloved stuffed owl who goes literally everywhere with her.
Eventually, we saw people making their way up to us and we decided to head down into town and see what we could find. We walked down a different way and over towards a café and ice house that we had found on Google Maps. Unfortunately, they were still closed, not opening until 11 a.m. But we had a lovely chat with the friendly owner. We saw an inland lake that the town sat on and asked if we could hike around it. She said we could, but it was about 12 km and would take hours! She also said the water in the lake was clean and you could drink straight from the lake with no problems.
We set off at 9:00 am to start this hike from the café and managed to get around the lake and back to the café by 12:15 pm. The hike was amazing! The lake was gorgeous and the terrain around the lake was varied and stunning. We did stop near the water to take a sip from it.
The first 1.25 hours of our hike were pretty easygoing for the terrain – a flat, easy walk on a nice path. What we didn’t realize was that once we got to this point, about 7 or 8 km around the lake, it turned to wet bog down along the lake. You could not pass it on foot. We needed to scrabble our way up and over rocks on the mountain slope, with some areas being quite steep and treacherous! The next 2 or 3 km of the path took another 1.25 hours to pass! The kids thought this was the most thrilling section to hike and loved it. Mom and Dad thought the impact on the knees and the difficulty of the climb to be a little less thrilling!
Once we cleared the difficult area, including a brief stop to see some more icebergs on the opposite side of the mountains (very brief view, as we have had our fill of icebergs by now!), we made it back to the edge of the lake and a gravel/paved path back into town to finish out our hike back to the café. While the one section of this hike was more challenging than we typically would go for, this was one of our favourite hikes we have ever done. The beauty, the varied terrain, the gorgeous sunshine, and the perfect temperature (about 15oC) were the perfect combination for a hike! We also love loop hikes that go around water, which this was.
When we got back to the café, we tried to stop in for a drink and lunch, but it was packed with tourists. We could barely get in the door, let alone up to order something. We decided to leave and go back to the ship to get some lunch instead.
After our stop for lunch, we knew we needed to get back out to Qaqortok to explore more. It was just such a beautiful town! We walked through the town, exploring some shops. We bought the girls some locally made candy treats, watched the locals perform some music in the square, found an amazing hand lotion I fell in love with and needed to buy made in part from local wild herbs and plants, and hiked around more streets.
We went to the seal tannery where we learned about how important seals are to the area. We loved seeing the workshop from inside the store where they were making various items almost as much as we loved looking at all the items and feeling just how soft they were! I was sooooo tempted to buy two throw pillow covers to bring home and put pillows into for our living room couch. And I have some serious regrets that I didn’t buy them. But at $100 per pillowcase, I just couldn’t justify it at the time! We did buy a beautiful heart-shaped metal magnet with seal fur in the middle, though. And we let the girls each pick out a small piece of seal fur to buy as something they could keep in their memory box at home.
We did make our way back to the café later in the afternoon once it slowed down. Jon and I got cappuccinos and we got the girls each a scoop of local small-batch ice cream. We sat outside in the sun and enjoyed the beautiful weather, stunning views next to us, and a well-earned rest for our legs! We sat here for quite some time, before getting up and going for a bit more of a walk. We ran into the owner again and thanked her profusely for her help earlier in the morning.
Qaqortoq was a truly amazing place to visit. We are so grateful we got such a long port day here. We would go back here in a heartbeat to enjoy more time here!
The next day we did our second Greenland port in Nanortalik, which literally translates to “place of the polar bears”. We learned that from the friendly museum employee when we asked for advice on where to hike in the area after we finished at the museum. He was incredibly helpful and pointed out a great mountain to hike up. Two, actually, but the other one was too long of a hike to make it back to the boat on time. Too bad, as it looked like the nicer hike of the two!
He made sure to let me know that Nanortalik gets lots of polar bears and that a mama and her cub had been spotted in the mountain area we would be hiking. He was pretty sure she had left with the shifting icebergs two weeks earlier, but couldn’t be sure. He told us to be on the lookout for polar bears and not get anywhere close to them. Not that we ever would, but I suppose not all tourists are bright enough to know to stay away from wild bears! God knows we saw that firsthand enough when we lived in Alberta with other dangerous wild animals and tourists.
The museum itself was fascinating! It was an open-air museum, meaning all the houses and buildings remained from the original settlement from the late 1700s and were repurposed to be a museum. There were ten buildings we could go into and explore. Some buildings remained as they had been before, such as the brewery and bakehouse. Other buildings were repurposed to show off their handmade boats and seal preservation equipment and techniques. As with Qaqortoq, seals have been integral to life and survival here in Nanortalik. In one building, we watched a video of the history of this settlement and how daily life is for the inhabitants.
After spending around two hours at this museum, we set off on the mountain hike that the man had recommended. We made our way up to the top and got some impressive views. However, this wasn’t one of our favourite hikes, and we had to kind of make up our trail a bit as we went as the trail seemed to appear and disappear at random. The man had warned me of this, so it wasn’t a complete surprise, but it made for a less pleasant hike than some others we have done.
Once back down, we walked through town a bit. However, there were no cafes or restaurants, and only one small tourist shop we found. It was a pretty empty little town with not a lot to see other than the museum and hiking out in nature. Not nearly as nice a spot to stop as Qaqortoq, but overall much nicer than Iceland.
We had been worried that Greenland might have bad weather after learning about how cold, rainy, and sometimes snowy Iceland was all summer long. Knowing we were much further north, we expected it to be quite cold. But it was significantly warmer, sunnier, and had far more stunning natural beauty than anything we saw in Iceland. It was a gorgeous spot to visit as a nature lover and hiking enthusiast. While it’s unlikely we will make it back up to Greenland in the future, if it were to happen we would be happy to visit here again. And if we do, I’m buying myself a couple of seal fur throw pillow covers for sure!