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!