Nuuk, Greenland - City Walk & Kaffemik

 Aug 13 – Nuuk – City Walk with National Museum & Kaffeemik

With 16,000 inhabitants Nuuk is both the capital and the biggest city of Greenland. It combines Arctic traditions with European urbanity.

Here we could dock so no Zodiacs were needed. All tours met on shore as we could get off when we wanted and join the tour at the designated time. We could go ashore at 8:30 and our city walk started at 10:00. Unfortunately, we were there on an early Sunday morning and really nothing was open. We walked around and had already seen just about everything that we saw on our city walk, but it was nice to get the background. On our own we visited 2 of the malls and went into the grocery stores. No other stores were open. They did open later, but we had another tour in the afternoon, so we missed those. I had not bought my toke Greenland magnet yet and had high hopes of finding one in Nuuk.

sailing into port

Tupiak Tours

stopped at the store (like a Walmart) that was in the mall

walked by a coffee shop

some of the apartments where they moved the Inuit to "help" them 

meat market

we climbed to the top to see the statue and the views

they asked to have their photos taken

beached iceberg

kayaks

kayak skeleton on the front

Greenland National Museum

the 6 month old

walking back to the bus stop

the church was open now - it was closed for a baptism earlier

The walking tour ended at the National Museum which exhibits the famous mummies of Qilakitsoq. Seeing the mummies was the highlight of the day. They were hauntingly amazing.

Here is the story of the mummies:

Two brothers were out hunting for grouse one morning in 1972, when they came across the site. As the pair combed the landscape for game, they came across the abandoned Inuit settlement of Qilakitsoq, and soon uncovered eight frozen mummies that had been buried under a large pile of stones. The corpses they found were not intended to be mummified at the time of their burial, but thanks to Greenland’s ice-cold climate, the natural elements had kept the bodies in an exceptionally well-preserved state.

Using x-ray and other methods to ensure the site remained as intact as possible, scientists were able to date the mummies—which totaled six women, a young boy, and an extremely young baby—to somewhere around 1475.

Along with the mummies, most of which were heavily tattooed on their foreheads, eyebrows, and chins, researchers uncovered 78 pieces of clothing that were made from reindeer, seal, and other skins. But the most interesting, or perhaps shocking, discovery was that the small infant mummy appeared to have been buried alive.

Inuit tradition at the time dictated that if a mother passed away, her smaller children must be buried with her, even if they were completely healthy. The reasoning for such a ghastly act is sad but seems practical for the time, with local cultural norms dictating that absent their mother, children had no one to care for them and must travel together with their maternal guardian to safely reach the land of the dead. 

We had a quick lunch on the ship and then headed out to the Kaffemik where you go to a local's home, and they serve baked goods and coffee or tea. The woman was recently widowed, and she talked about her life and life in general in Nuuk. Very interesting visit and she was very open and invited people to ask questions. Our guide said if anyone wanted to leave early to catch the drum dance on the ship they could. We took off and headed back to town in hopes of finding a magnet. The shop we saw earlier was closed again. There was a Visitor’s center, so we went in there and I grabbed a couple of those weird rubber ones just in case I didn’t find any others.

the home was the kaffemik was hosted

her kitchen

the host

her assistant

it was tight in her living / dining room and we were in the back

she showed us many items from her culture

Narwhal tooth (tusk)

walking back to town

We caught the bus back to the ship and attended the lecture on Arctic Birds by Hermann. After the Tea and the Cocktail hour we went to the port talk on Sisimiut and a recap of the day. After that was a video presentation by Dietmar & Hermann that they were working on to commemorate the cruise. Hermann had never done one for Iceland Pro before and when it was finished at the end of the cruise he was selling a link to download it after you returned home. It was very well done.

After dinner was a “Crossover Show” by Arndis. We had dinner with her mother and her husband, and they were very interesting to talk to. They live in Iceland and spoke English.

Nuuk, Greenland https://photos.app.goo.gl/RdFL5AMNTECk5gu77