Our last day in Greenland was a day with snow and deep
hanging clouds. Even it was Sunday we started our landing in Ittoqqortoormiit
at 8:00am. Ittoqqortoormiit is a very isolated town at the mouth of the
Scoresbysund Fjord system. In former times – before the Greenlanders got their
self-government in 1979 – the settlement was called Scoresbysund. But after
1979 all towns and settlements in Greenland had to be renamed as Greenlandic
became the official language. That is wonderful for the Greenlanders but a
catastrophe for the rest of the world. We had to train the pronunciation again
and again and it is still difficult to say it in the right way, but at least we
tried.
The inhabitants of Ittoqqortoormiit offered us a special
program. We could visit the church, the museum, the tourist office, we joined a
dog feeding, we saw the start of a weather balloon, we tasted muskox meat and of
course we tried to get the best impression of the town when we walked along the
gravel roads. It was an interesting last landing in Greenland.
Back on board we were sailing for a while along the coast of
Greenland until the captain turned the ship westwards over the Denmark Strait
in the direction of Iceland. This passage can be very rough, but even it was
windy our lovely lady FRAM behaved wonderful in the waves. So we could listen
to another lecture series in the afternoon to be well prepared for Iceland.
In the evening we had a question and answer round with the
expedition team in the Observation Lounge; after only 15 minutes this round
came to a fast end when we heard the announcement: Aurora Borealis! Nordlys!
Nordlicht! Northern Light! That was what we were waiting for. And now we got it
and we got a nice and perfect one. Even it was cold we were standing for a long
time on the open decks to enjoy this amazing spectacle. It was a perfect end
for our Greenland season.
