Thursday 22 July 2010

Can Rugged Explorers Have Heated Tiles In The Bathroom?

You are probably bored with our incessant bragging about perfect weather.  Well.  We had clouds all day long today and a bit of rain.  Feel better?  But rugged explorers like us laugh in the face of clouds and a little water falling from the sky.  True to say that we are rugged explorers that have luxurious heated tiles in our bathrooms.

 The entrance to Paamiut is very beautiful.   Fram had to thread her way through a narrow passage, skirting several small islands.  The harbour itself is small but deep.  There seemed barely enough room to come about but Fram's powerful thrusters allowed her to turn on her own length and then slip into the key moving sideways.  Slick. If only my car had bow and stern thrusters!

At approximately 09:00 the gangway was lowered and dozens of rugged blue jacketed explorers eagerly set off to investigate the attractions of Paamiut.

At 11:00 we were treated to a special performance by the local choir in the small and very quaint church.  I think just about everyone attended as there wasn't an empty seat to be found.  The church itself was very pretty.  It was built in 1909 in a very distinctive Norwegian style.

The town is easy to explore.  There is a very good small museum.  A ten minute walk takes you to a scenic lookout from which you can see most of the town.

Like Qaqortoq, Paamiut is very green.  Several houses had attractive flower gardens.

Just a few minutes after exiting the harbour we encountered three humpback whales.  The navigation officers were able to position the ship close enough where we had excellent views of the whales and at the same time not interfere with what seemed to be foraging behaviour.

All in all, another really good day!