Back to Nuuk

We were not expecting to be back in Greenland's capital, Nuuk, quite so soon! Our plan "A" was to sail down the fiord towards Kangerlussuaq where there is Greenland's major international airport. Our guests were then to fly out to destinations in Europe and Iceland. However, Nature played a trick on us. The Danish Meteorological Service recently pronounced that May was the coldest on record in Greenland. This has caused more ice than normal to hang around into the spring, which has resulted in some tricky navigations for us. The Kangerlussuaq fiord is blocked with ice from the bottom to half way to the sea, which made it impossible for us to sail there and drop our guests off for flights home. Instead we have come back to Nuuk where there is another airport and flights have been arranged from here to Kangerlussuaq, then onwards as planned. We arrived to some fog in Nuuk but the flights went out and came in, and the fog burned off eventually to a beautiful sunny day.

Of course our incoming guests had to fly from Kangerlussuaq to Nuuk too. Plane by plane passenger groups arrived through the late morning, afternoon and evening. Those guests that arrived early enough used their time to learn Nuuk, Greenland's very modern capital.

On our first evening on board we just got a quite busy program already. Safety drill, followed by our captains welcome cocktail, followed by a first information briefing done by our expedition leader. But there was time too when we could enjoy our first nice dinner buffet on board.

As everybody had a long travelling day to reach the largest island of the world most passengers went to bed early, looking forward and dreaming of a spectacular trip along the still icy coast of Greenland.

Here is a montage of images from Chelsea our ship photographer.

The old Lutheren Church in Nuuk

Reindeer antlers

Cutting wild meat at the local market

Seal meat available at the local market

... also whale meat

An nicely decorated apartment block

Hans Egede overlooking Nuuk

Jasmine serving a welcome champagne

Luggage!

The harbour in Nuuk

Overlooking the mountains around Nuuk