Hello from Qaqortoq, Greenland!
Qaqortoq really needs closer up pictures to see the beauty of the colors.
But it didn't start out so colorful this morning. It started like this:
Even so, I knew I wanted to be on the first tender to shore so I made my way to the Wheelhouse Bar before 7 AM to grab my tender ticket. The Captain held us for a while because of the visibility but by 7:30 we were on our way. It was only a few minutes to get to shore and was almost as foggy there.
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| Just us and Holland America out there |
The fog didn't stop me from exploring about everywhere I could with the scooter. With no sidewalks and crazy fast drivers I had to be cautious on the straightaways, the curves, and the hills I tackled. I wished the fog didn't obscure everything but it did add a bit of Greenland-ish feeling to the day.
Thankfully at that time of morning no one else was out and about other than the walking tour folks. I kept running into them again and again so I figured I must be hitting all the good spots.
I found the oldest fountain in Greenland. After the tour group cleared out, that is.
I easily found the stone carvings right above the tender dock area. At first I thought I was going to have to climb the stairs...
but found the best of the carvings were on a paved path. Whew.
I discovered a church, a river, and statues.
Can't forget the flowers and road signs.
I discovered lots and lots of hills. Scooter and I tackled some and passed on others. We definitely passed on the stairs. Most definitely.
When I'd had enough of the cold and fog and was already onto my backup battery I headed to the ship. I checked my photos to see where I had been and was pleased with the ground I covered.
Looking at my health app today's number of steps (which really meant steps made while pushing a scooter up a hill) was the highest of the entire summer. Wow.
But more wow was to come. After I got back to the ship I took a verryyy long nap and woke up to this view off my balcony.
A roundtrip tender ride for me, please. (I even parked the scooter under the stairs on deck 4 and walked limped to the tender.) And I found out there were actually mountains under all that fog.
It turned out to be such a beautiful day. Even the pool deck was packed. Umm...we're in Greenland?!
Oh, but the day didn't end there. On the tender ride back I had seen a little bit of smoke not far from town but didn't think much of it. Guess I should have because a couple hours later it turned into a mighty fire.
A helicopter was dispatched to help put out the fire so then I got to spend time watching a helicopter dumping water on it.
You'd think that'd be enough excitement for the day. Nope. As soon as we left port we wound up with icebergs around us. It's hard to judge the size of these things but they are bigger-than-house size. They are everywhere!
Then there were the whales. (Sorry, no pics.) And just when I thought it couldn't get any better, this guy shows up off my balcony.
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| Words fail me |
Icebergs have been going by all evening and my crew member bud Pradnesh sent me a video of some of what we saw. Check it out!
The sun has gone down, I’m pooped and my body is shot, but tomorrow we're in Nanortalik, Greenland and I'll be there on the first tender again. See you there!
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| A Greenland sunset |