Saturday - day 15 - Nuuk, Greenland - part 2

Continuing our visit to Nuuk -- part 1 can be found here: https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2026/08/saturday-day-15-nuuk-greenland-part-1.html

We found the entrance to the Greenland National Museum and headed in.

An exhibit of a Greenlandic home...

... another room in the home...

... pump organ in the dining room.

Characteristic attire for dog sledding

Information about the farms in Greenland

Depiction of farm layout

Another depiction of farm layout

Depiction of farm layout

Depiction of farm layout

Depiction of farm layout

Information about cattle farming

depiction of cattle farming

Information about cattle farming

Information about cattle farming

Depiction of cattle farming

In the front of the museum was this art piece -- it seemed to have been cut from metal maybe from the side of a ship (it was about 1" thick metal)

Plaque about the art piece in front of the museum

I had read about this art piece online before we went into town -- it is a memorial for Arnarulunnguaq... The English words say "Without you the journey will not end" -- but I used Google translate on the local language and it indicated, "Without you, the journey could not have completed."

The side facing the sea was hard to see because the sun was behind it...

Closer up you can see the carving of the face and a needle

There was not much information at the memorial, but here is some of the information I found online (from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnarulunnguaq):

Arnarulunnguaq (AR-nar-oo-LUUNG-oo-ahk); 1896 – 2 October 1933), a Native Greenlander, was a key member of Knud Rasmussen's Fifth Thule Expedition (1921–1924) which crossed the Northwest Passage by dog sled. She was one of the two who accompanied Rasmussen from the Hudson Bay to Alaska, preparing meals and keeping skins and furs in order throughout the two-year journey. As a result, she was the first woman to complete the long Arctic journey from Greenland to the Pacific.

Biography
Early life
Born in Thule in 1896, Arnarulunnguaq (meaning "little girl") was the daughter of the Greenlandic hunter Uumaaq and his wife Aleqasersuaq. After her father died when she was only seven years old, as the youngest child she experienced a difficult childhood, helping to provide for the family.

According to Rasmussen, her family had initially decided to murder her, a practice among the Inuit when resources were insufficient to support everyone: she was required to put a rope around her own neck to show her acquiescence; but her brother Ajako began to cry and her mother decided not to go through with the killing.

Arnarulunnguaq saw this event as a kind of rebirth.

Fifth Thule Expedition
Among the Arctic Inuit chosen by Knud Rasmussen to participate in his Fifth Expedition were the hunter Iggiannguaq and his wife Arnarulunnguaq. Shortly before their departure, Iggiannguaq died of pneumonia but Arnarulunnguaq insisted on continuing, explaining to Rasmussen: "Before it was you who needed me, now it's me who needs you."

After the first stage of the expedition had reached the Hudson Bay, most of the party returned home. Rasmussen, Arnarulunnguaq and her cousin Qaavigarsuaq Miteq, a hunter, continued by dog sled for the next two years, proceeding under extreme conditions over unexplored Arctic territory all the way to the Bering Strait.

Arnarulunnguaq proved to be a vital member of the group; brought up as a hunter's wife and companion, she not only took care of preparing meals but created and maintained skins for clothing and helped build shelters of peat. During the journey, Arnarulunnguaq produced a number of drawings, including detailed images of Inuit women's tattoos.

Summing up her positive influence, Rasmussen tells us that Arnarulunnguaq had "that good humour about her that only a woman can instil [and was as] entertaining and courageous as any man when we were out on our journey."

Later life and death

Rasmussen, Arnarulunnguaq and Miteq, 1924
In late 1924, Rasmussen, Arnarulunnguaq and Miteq embarked on their return journey to Denmark via the United States.

On arriving in Copenhagen, Arnarulunnguaq was diagnosed as suffering from tuberculosis and was hospitalized but she never fully recovered. Rasmussen visited her in hospital, honouring her with the Silver Medal of Merit which she had difficulty accepting, although she was said to deserve it as much as anyone.

In 1925, Arnarulunnguaq returned to Thule where she died on 2 October 1933, aged about 36 or 37.

Legacy
She will appear on a 2028 Danish krone banknote (the krone is also used in Greenland). In 2026, a bacterium isolated from permafrost from the Kap København Formation in Northern Greenland was named after her. 

Isn't that a neat story? 

While near the memorial, we saw a young person out in the water doing spins over in their kayak... upright...

... upside down...

... coming back up. Remember, there are icebergs in that water, so it is *cold*!

We decided to walk on the Nuuk boardwalk to make our way back toward the ship; this was a photo back toward the colonial harbor...

and another picture showing the motorboats that were speeding around -- it was a beautiful Saturday, and it appeared many locals were out enjoying the day, or maybe giving tourists rides.

Back on the ship, leaving Nuuk -- a view back toward the east...

... and one of many icebergs in the water as we were passing some of the islands on our way out to sea.

It was a beautiful day in Nuuk -- the first sunny day we've had in a long time!

Saturday - day 15 - Nuuk, Greenland - part 1

We traveled overnight north to the capital of Greenland, Nuuk. It is a city of 20,000, comprising approximately 1/3 of the population of Greenland. The only accesses to Nuuk are by airplane or boat; no roads lead to it from other parts of Greenland. (I think I have read that applies to every city/town in Greenland, that no roads connect them.)

We didn't have a great view of the city from our balcony as the pier was on the starboard side...

... there were a few new build apartments that we could see on the far side of the harbor.

We were meeting Joe and Pat for breakfast, but Carl had ordered room service so he could have coffee soon after he woke up. He also got a "Passion Fruit Yogurt" bowl, consisting of mango, granola, chia seeds, and mint (and yogurt) -- one of the standard offerings on the room service menu.

We met Joe and Pat at the Lido buffet for breakfast, and then met on the pier to head into town.

Joe had researched that we could take a city bus from the city center back to the cruise terminal area for about $2. Holland America was offering a shuttle bus to take passengers from the ship to the city center for $18 per person round trip. It was supposed to be about a 1.5 mile walk from the cruise terminal pier to city center. We decided to walk into town and see about getting tickets at Nuuk Center for the bus to come back (no tap-on/tap-off and no pay online option that we could find for the Nuuk buses).  

We passed by the Kulturhuset Katuaq - Nuuk Cultural Center

We saw this interesting set of steps in the green in front of the cultural center...

At the top it said, "Join - Feel - Jump". We weren't sure what it was talking about... on the other side (if you jumped) was a rock. Pat and I decided that "jump"ing from there would not be wise!

On the side, it indicated that it was something associated with the 2016 Arctic Winter Games.

I looked up more information after getting back to our room. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Arctic_Winter_Games:

The 2016 Arctic Winter Games, officially known with the slogan "Join — Feel — Jump", was a winter multi-sport event which took place in Nuuk, Greenland, between 6–12 March 2016. The elected host city was announced on 14 September 2012 by the Arctic Winter Games International Committee (AWGIC) in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada.

The Arctic Winter Games is the world's largest multisport and cultural event for young people of the Arctic. The Games is an international biennial celebration of circumpolar sports and culture held for a week, each time with a different nation or region as the host. AWG celebrates sports, social interaction and culture. The Games contributes to creating an awareness on cultural diversity, and develops athletes to participate in the competitions with the focus on fair play. The Games binds the Arctic countries together and includes traditional games such as Arctic sports and Dené games.

Around 1,200 athletes from nine teams participated in the games. Around 4,000 people were involved in 2016 Arctic Winter Games, including all competitors and participants in sports and cultural events.

Participants
Nine contingents participated in the 2016 Arctic Winter Games. The amount of athletes sent by each contingent is shown in parentheses in the list below.

• Alaska, United States (241)
• Greenland (120) (host)
• Northern Alberta, Canada (191)
• Northwest Territories, Canada (218)
• Nunavik, Quebec, Canada (57)
• Nunavut, Canada (142)
• Sámi people (31)
• Yamalo-Nenets, Russia (4)
• Yukon, Canada (234)

 I also read some more about the stone that was on the ground beyond the steps (we didn't take a picture of it) -- it seems that it is "Hans Egedes Knælesten" (Hans Egede's kneeling stone) and said to be the place where the missionary Hans Egede preached his first sermons in Greenland.

We were heading to Nuuk Center to see if we could find the place where we could purchase bus tickets, and maybe find some Greenland teeshirts as well.

Nuuk Center was an indoor shopping mall, with probably an office building above it. We didn't find the place to purchase bus tickets, but since we'd just made the walk from the port to the city center and we were still feeling fresh and energetic, we decided to forego getting bus tickets.

Some of the frame buildings across the street from Nuuk Center.

We were walking toward the colonial harbor - on our way, we walked by the Church of our Savior. It had a sign out front asking that we not disturb, so we didn't go in.

There was a hill up the rocks beside the church with a statue on top -- we weren't sure we were interested in going up there, but Carl went up and took pictures...

Looking out to the harbor

You can see some icebergs in the harbor

Church of our Savior and other frame buildings down below

Antennas and radar installation beyond the church

Looking north from the top 

Statue at the top of missionary Hans Egede

Looking back toward Nuuk Center

I took Carl's picture as he was coming down (he is in the teal jacket)

This was a building near the church - note the small triangular dormer-style windows sticking out from the roof...

....more of those small triangular dormer-style windows on this house.

We were heading toward the museum -- saw a sign on the front of this house...

... nope, this is not the museum! (Do you think they get people asking?)

Continuing our walk toward the museum, we saw this art piece down by the water, it is "Havets moder", Mother of the Sea. The way down to get close to it looked a bit slippery, so we didn't get a close-up picture. The information I read indicated that the statue is submerged during high tide.

As we got close to the museum, Joe and Carl were intrigued by these implements...

... and these...

... so they found the information placard to get more information.

Zoomed in on the English description

We were getting very close to the Greenland National Museum -- we were where the little red man is shown on the picture, and the entrance was just up ahead!

More on our visit to Nuuk in another post!