2017 BOCA and BUBBA INVADE THE CONTINENT: DAY 53 FRI AUGUST 04 NUUK, GREENLAND

Nuuk also known by its Danish name of Godthåb (Good Hope), is the capital and administrative center of Greenland, with a population of around 15,000 (about 1/4 the entire population of the country). It is the smallest capital in the World, which makes it very easy to walk around; as well as the most Northern. It is the Cultural, Financial, Business and Touristic Capital of Greenland.

vs winter scene- oy!!

If you would have taken a time machine to Nuuk at the times of the Vikings, you would have found a few farmsteads made of turf and mud, with snow on the rooftops and smoke coming out from the chimney, and a very light glimmer of a fire from inside, where the Norse would spend all the time in the winter along with the cattle, and you wouldn't see anything else. Going to the outer parts of the fjords, you would find some small Inuit tribe moving along the coast to the sea, for hunting and fishing, and possibly raiding the Norse for food.

This place was not too bad for having a harbour just inside a fjord but near to the sea, but it is not a good place for placing a capital of a country right here. Nuuk was first written about around when the Church and the Union of Kalmar was documenting how many Churches and villages were in Greenland, also archaeologists have found many small Viking hamlets around the fjords near Nuuk, which at the time was called the Western Settlement, the smallest of all the Viking settlements; but also many Inuit huts. At that time there wasn't a Nuuk, but small farmsteads and Inuit tribes, the only time Nuuk will become a town is when it is at the time of its foundation, in 1728.

During the early 1800s, the missionary Hans Egede founded the town of Nuuk as a trading post after failing in Kangeq in 1721. After a freezing winter, with many of the colonists dying or going back home to Denmark, with the few left Hans Egede founded a fort, and called Nuuk Godthåb or Cape of Good Hope. Hans Egede was trying to find the Norse that disappeared from Greenland, but at the time they thought that they only loosed contact, and Hans Egede wanted to Christianize the Norse of the Western Settlement, thinking that they were still Catholic or even worst, going back to Paganism. Between 1733 and 1734, a Smallpox epidemic killed most of the population, as well affected some Inuit communities, and Hans Egede went back to Denmark. Nuuk became then seat of government of Greenland shortly after he left. In 1733, Morovian missionaries were allowed to build a church in the area of Nuuk. Morovian missions absorbed the Inuit of the Nuuk Fjord, which wanted to convert to Christianity as well as interpreters and missionaries too, also for trading seal, leather and other precious things, which for Europeans was fast becoming a powerful colony. By the 1800s, the local tribes saw a disaster in their local culture, especially around Nuuk, so a interesting and intelligent man called Hinrich Johannes Rink published the first newspaper in Greenlandic, with a Greenlander as the main editor and headquarters in Nuuk, called Attuagagdliutt.

During the War, there was much more independence feeling, because Nuuk, as its capital was temporarily out of Danish sphere of government, making it more self-sufficient. Although, n the 1960s, Denmark started to modernise Nuuk, to keep in touch with time. In 1979, Godthaab was renamed to Nuuk with the Homerule act and it was headquartered in Nuuk. It hosted the Arctic Olimpic Games in 2016. The what?

BACK ON THE BUS GUS...let's go check this capital city out.

BABY IT'S COLD OUT THERE!

Bend down Bubs so we can both be in the selfie along with the volcano.

Bubs tries to warm up Boca- no easy task.

A very grey and dreary town with rock....lots of rock everywhere.

Pretty much everything is built on rock.

Although our tour guide was very colorful in her descriptions of life here...she loves to hunt (much better at it than her husband). She only walks into the "woods", rocks? for 3 hrs to hunt as she can only carry her kill, Reindeer, back for 3 hrs - yes on her back, weighing more than she does! Bubs crushed on her immediately...

New and modern buildings with a Scandinavian Twist confront the old houses in the Old town, which date back to its foundation, with their colourful painted houses.

Hanging clothes outside to dry is the standard, but what do they do in winter- which is most of the year?

Wooden houses, some made of plywood.

Local Lutheran church- 90% of the population is Lutheran.

Quite a bit of renovation and building going on. No easy feat when you are working on top of rock.

Town cemetery...

We observed a burial...what do they do in the winter when the "ground" is frozen??

Our guide said, most everyone has a boat (not a car).

There is no road or rail system connecting cities within Greenland. The only practical means to travel is by boat or air. Nuuk is easily accessible our guide told us. Huh? There are daily flights from Kangerlussuaq and regular flights to other towns in Greenland. There is also service to Reykjavik airport in the summer. From mid-March through October there are flights from Keflavik International Airport in Iceland. There are also boats schedule to stop in Nuuk from Easter to Christmas. Tricky business getting on and off the "island". Here's the airport that flies you to the former American military airbase- where you can fly out of the country.

A must stop in at the local grocery store- the one and only. A very busy place indeed. Chicken- $20 each, unless old, then on sale. Pretty much everything has to be imported.

Not sure what this is?

Is that Whale???

No growing of veggies here.

Have the locals made a mockery of the International Whaling Commission by hawking whale and seal meat to the tourists? Greenland receives about 65,000 tourists per year of which about half come from the cruise ships. Our guide told us 32 boats are scheduled to visit this year- last year they had 28.

Whale burger anyone? The idea was to allow the indigenous Inuits to hunt whale and seal- a la subsistence whaling. We visited the local whale/fish shop....the chart let's you know what you are buying.

Seal burger for the grill?

Ewe. And here's the odd thought- Boca is all for it and Bubs is against it- "they are endangered Boca! No way!"

WOULD YOU EAT WHALE MEAT?

Quite a controversy here...

Pleep wants to join the WDC and "ADOPT A WHALE"- yup you can. Enough of that....

WHAT!!!! KAYAK ROLLING, A LOCAL WAY TO HAVE FUN?

Local skill and the boys like to compete with each other and flex a bit for the local ladies.

Boca shivered just watching them.

Hey Bubs, is that a kid with his snow suit on, in the ocean up to his knees, playing on the beach?

Yup.

While his sister makes a sand castle...well it is summer vacation after all.

Yes, a few wild flowers. No trees, bushes and very few wild flowers grow here....some natural weeds give it a bit of green but mainly rock. Lots of rock.

Boca spots her first graffiti.

Not much, but it is here...none in Iceland by the way.

Boca wanted this...

While Bubba wanted this...high tailing it back to the ship. This Florida Bubba is chilled to the bone. Wonder what it's like the other 9 months of the year? Living in a freezer...where in the heck is Pleep?