Qaqortoq, Greenland
This town is the 4th largest in Greenland consisting of 3500 people. The hillsides are covered with colourful houses painted in bright primary shades. The Danish government provides the paint - the labour is the job of the homeowner. Before we had a chance to go ashore, there was an announcement that humpback whales were spotted. We went to the observation deck and managed to catch the sightings. We could track them as they blew water out of their blowholes. We caught them breaching and tail slapping. We managed to get them in the scope provided - a real scope unlike the ones on the NW Passage cruise we took. We both got good sightings. We were told that they were most likely a mother and her calf as one was considerable smaller.
At the town, we needed to walk off some calories and headed up the hill stopping a a church - not terribly old - built in 1932. At the top of one of the hills, we encountered an overgrown cemetery and then another newer one. The wild flowers were abundant. At the new cemetery, I got a glimpse of what I think was a gyrfalcon - a lifer for me. We saw two other species - a Northern Wheatear and a Lapland Longspur foraging in the wild grasses. We finished our tour with a visit to the local museum which was in a house built by Rolf ??? A famous explorer whose last name neither of us can remember. The third floor was reached by an extremely steep staircase - we had to descend it backwards, The second floor had another bedroom and a living area. There was a bird book there which I took advantage of while Norma looked through a book with some pictures of the town in winter. How they would get up the steep hills is a mystery. The bottom floor had some intricate carvings of mysterious creatures - half man and half animal, bird, or insect. The other room was filled with the work of a local artist who had the most wonderful prints of fantastic creatures made up of whales, seals, birds, and fish, decorated antlers, and some wildly colourful paintings.
We are back on board and think we will have a room-service lunch so are waiting for hunger pangs to kick in.
We both had brain farts yesterday. We thought we were going to be eating at the tiny Japanese restaurant only to find out that that experience is tonight. We lazed around the room all afternoon until there was a knock at our door. It was our stewardess, Camilla, wanting to come in to turn down the room. Norma told her we would be leaving at 7 and she could come back then. Camilla told her, "I think it is after 7". Sure enough, it was 8:30. I cannot tell time! We rushed to get dressed and headed to Elements for dinner. We were seated at the bar waiting for a table, when we ran into Katarina, the ship's sommelier. For some reason, she has taken quite a shine to us. We asked her if she would advise us on what wine we should have for dinner. She took one look at the champagne we were drinking, whisked those glasses away and got us some of the good stuff from the Lumiere - the kind that doesn't go flat. Good to her word, she came back to see what we had ordered for dinner and suggested a white wine (that tasted like we were drinking velvet) for the pasta course, and a fantastic red for our chicken course. When she heard we were eating at the Japanese restaurant tonight she said she would suggest a wine for us - to leave it with her. We ran into her today and she has picked out the wine for us tonight and has spoken to both the chef and the waitress. She even said we were her favourite customers!
At the town, we needed to walk off some calories and headed up the hill stopping a a church - not terribly old - built in 1932. At the top of one of the hills, we encountered an overgrown cemetery and then another newer one. The wild flowers were abundant. At the new cemetery, I got a glimpse of what I think was a gyrfalcon - a lifer for me. We saw two other species - a Northern Wheatear and a Lapland Longspur foraging in the wild grasses. We finished our tour with a visit to the local museum which was in a house built by Rolf ??? A famous explorer whose last name neither of us can remember. The third floor was reached by an extremely steep staircase - we had to descend it backwards, The second floor had another bedroom and a living area. There was a bird book there which I took advantage of while Norma looked through a book with some pictures of the town in winter. How they would get up the steep hills is a mystery. The bottom floor had some intricate carvings of mysterious creatures - half man and half animal, bird, or insect. The other room was filled with the work of a local artist who had the most wonderful prints of fantastic creatures made up of whales, seals, birds, and fish, decorated antlers, and some wildly colourful paintings.
We are back on board and think we will have a room-service lunch so are waiting for hunger pangs to kick in.
We both had brain farts yesterday. We thought we were going to be eating at the tiny Japanese restaurant only to find out that that experience is tonight. We lazed around the room all afternoon until there was a knock at our door. It was our stewardess, Camilla, wanting to come in to turn down the room. Norma told her we would be leaving at 7 and she could come back then. Camilla told her, "I think it is after 7". Sure enough, it was 8:30. I cannot tell time! We rushed to get dressed and headed to Elements for dinner. We were seated at the bar waiting for a table, when we ran into Katarina, the ship's sommelier. For some reason, she has taken quite a shine to us. We asked her if she would advise us on what wine we should have for dinner. She took one look at the champagne we were drinking, whisked those glasses away and got us some of the good stuff from the Lumiere - the kind that doesn't go flat. Good to her word, she came back to see what we had ordered for dinner and suggested a white wine (that tasted like we were drinking velvet) for the pasta course, and a fantastic red for our chicken course. When she heard we were eating at the Japanese restaurant tonight she said she would suggest a wine for us - to leave it with her. We ran into her today and she has picked out the wine for us tonight and has spoken to both the chef and the waitress. She even said we were her favourite customers!
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