Ilulissat, Day 3 of 2. Let’s once again talk about today’s flight to Nuuk, that was moved up as of last night due to bad weather in Nuuk. We were up at 5:45 am with a 7:20 am departure time to the airport. The shuttle was late, which wasn’t an issue as we were about 5 minutes away from the airport with time to spare.
Everyone checked in with Air Greenland, prepared for our 9:15 am flight. Around 8:15 am there was an announcement that our flight was delayed and an update would be provided at 9:00 am. Sometime after 9:00 am we were informed that our flight was cancelled due to inclement weather on our end, and the inbound flight never left Nuuk.
Fortunately this is something the tourism industry is accustomed to, so they were prepared with meal vouchers, our hotel rooms were rebooked (literally the same rooms), and we were to get details later of tomorrow’s outbound flight.
Our tour leader made plans to walk to town (yes…walking again… a 20 to 25 minute walk) to visit the museums that were closed on Monday, eat lunch, and take a hike. Walking to town was an experience unlike any other experienced thus far. Keep in mind the flight was cancelled due to inclement weather on our end. Flags were flapping straight out, some of the flag poles were swaying in the wind, and at times we had to lean into the wind to walk. The wind was steady at 20 mph, with gusts up to 35 mph, making the windchill below 18 Fahrenheit. It was brutal!! We guarantee that we would never do something like this back home!!
The first stop was an art museum, featuring Greenlandic artists. The museum did not allow shoes, and offered seal skin slippers to wear instead. Most of the subjects were Greenland, Inuits, and Inuit culture, although there were a few modern art pieces, and various mediums were used. Photography was not allowed so we have no pictures of the museum to share.
The next stop was lunch. We stopped at a place that advertised themselves as a rock/jazz/blues/karaoke bar. They must be quite a hot spot as they’ve hosted a lot of small performances, in addition to the draw of weekly karaoke. They offered simple bar fare – handmade pizzas, sandwiches, and snack type food. We opted for pizzas and settled in to relax for a bit. As lunch ended, our group split up, but not before we were informed that our flight tomorrow is scheduled for 7:00 am.
Most were going with our tour leader for the two hour ‘yellow line’ hike near the Icefjord Center. We are certain that it affordable spectacular views, but between the lack of sleep, miserably cold conditions, and gusting winds we opted, along with two others, to visit the Ilulissat History Museum instead. (The museum had been closed during our Sunday and Monday visits, so this was our only opportunity to visit.) The museum is the original house (built in 1846) of Knud Rasmussen’s father and is where Knud, a famous polar explorer was born.
This museum also prohibited shoes and had seal skin slippers to wear. There is a lot packed into this museum! Traditional clothing displays including outfits with intricate beaded wristlets and collars, a pair of sealskin boots that must be considered thigh highs as they were way above normal knee level, and many other articles of clothing. There were many pictures, notes, and general information, as well as a dog sled display, a kayak display, a video area, etc. Here is a broad sampling of pictures:
And this sketch needs a little background. Our trip guide out to the village told us that the early settlers (before houses) would build their homes with underground entries. Since heat rises, and with no door, this allowed the home to maximize the warmth it retained. At the museum, we saw a sketch demonstrating how this worked.
There was also an intricate time-line of the Greenland / U.S. interactions over time (including up to 2025 when J.D. Vance visited the country). Here is a snippet of the timeline, which was honestly very interesting.
One last interesting tid-bit was this unique, two thumbed mitten. There was a question on a placard (that you could turn over for the answer), asking, why did this mitten have two thumbs? We’ll place the answer at the bottom of the blog so that you can try your own guess-work on why there would be two thumbs.
We collectively decided that walking back was not an option, so we took a taxi back to the room. Considering the lack of sleep and today’s activity level, we lazed around in the afternoon, reading and napping.
Remember that 2-hour yellow line hike we mentioned the rest of the group was taking? It turned into a nearly four-hour hike and was said to be extremely hard and extremely cold. Glad we went to the museum and then napped & read!
We looked at Air Greenland’s flight schedule and saw that tomorrow’s early flight was postponed until 9:10 am, so hopefully we can get up at 5:45 again, rather than an even earlier start for a 7:00 flight. It is getting dark in the west, and a bank of clouds is slowing rising. Nuuk’s forecast calls for rain, snow, and 30+ mph winds, and Ilulissat’s forecast calls for rain, snow, and slight wind. Who knows what Mother Nature has in store for us but we hope it includes a flight to Nuuk tomorrow!
There are no flights between Ilulissat and Copenhagen, Denmark so we are confident that at some point this week we will make it to Nuuk, and then on to Copenhagen. And if we don’t, and continue to be stuck in Ilulissat, we hope our bosses are reading this and won’t expect us first thing Monday morning.
Mitten Answer: The mitten has two thumbs because if you were to get the mitten wet (working in and around the sea), you could take it off and turn it over, allowing the wet side (now the back of your hand) to dry in the sun… thus always having dry(ish) gloves.
Leave a reply