2022 Canada, Greenland and Iceland: Nanortalik, Greenland

Destinations/Ports Series: 2022 Canada Greenland Iceland Cruise

Show All Destinations/Ports in this Series

Nanortalik means Place of the Polar Beas, and thankfully we did not see any in town, but we were treated to a really deep look in to the traditional ways of the Inuit in the museum section of town, and a spectacular beautiful day full of scenic vistas and icebergs galore.

We were greeted at the pier by a local man playing guitar and singing the song made famous by the Beachboys – Sloop John B in Inuit.

We walked through the town and enjoyed the small town atmosphere where everyone in town seemed to know each other, and young teens were helping their elderly grand parents make their way around town and run errands. We walked by the side of a church where I could hear a choir singing. I thought that they were rehearsing so I just listened in for a little bit. When we came around the other side of the church we learned that the choir was performing hourly concerts for the visitors for a $10 donation at the door. You can barely make out the singing in this next video.

We loved walking around this scenic town and taking in the sights.

Truly the most meaningful part our day was the visit to the Inuit culture museum. They have a formal museum with displays about the town and the area. There was an admission charge of $10 or 10 Euros or 30 Danish Krona to enter the museum section of town. It as kind of funny because there were private homes in this area too but the museum docents had a little gate across the street where they collected the admission fee. My friend Jill and I are museum people and our husbands are not so much, so just us girls went into the museum, which we felt was well worth admission. We climbed a little watch tower to take some great panoramas of the town.

In the 1980’s, the local high school class project was to recreate a traditional turf house which is now also part of the museum. The town has also turned into a museum the blubber industry processing house which used to be the main industry for the people of Nanortalik.

After returning to the ship we loved sailing through the iceberg filled channel headed toward the Labrador Sea and back to Canada. I was working most of the afternoon, but thank goodness my desk was right by the balcony window when I could get some spectacular shots of all the icebergs and mountains.

This entry was posted in My Cruise History

Suzanne Klasen

Suzanne Klasen is the Owner / Travel Advisor of CruiseOne Suzanne Klasen. We have combined our love of cruising with computer skills to bring you a very informative and entertaining site that follows my cruising travels and thoughts. I hope that you will let me help plan your next vacation.