Capital Village
At 18,800 inhabitants, Nuuk contains one third of Greenland’s population and is a mixture of traditional (charming) and modern (not so charming) buildings. Among the charming buildings, the Cathedral was like a dream – small, neat and with red painted wooden cladding. As Nuuk has this cathedral, according to British custom, it should be accredited the title ‘City’, not ‘village’ as my cheeky heading suggests. Among the not so charming buildings were modern apartment blocks that could have been found in any western town.
We disembarked MS Fram by a steep gangway, giving a foretaste of the ups and downs we would encounter while exploring Nuuk. Despite Hurtigruten providing a bus shuttle service from the ship to the Culture Centre in the centre of Nuuk, we preferred to walk the short distance, making our way through the shopping street, featuring several touristic ‘arts and crafts’ shops and galleries. We were rather taken aback by the prices – 12,500 Danish kronor for a seal fur jacket, anyone?
The traditional houses are Nordic in style, with painted wooden claddings with white painted corners and gables. What is different from Swedish houses is the variety of colours, including yellow, green and blue – though all of pleasingly ‘earthy’ tints. Also noticeable was the square land space surrounding the houses, most with a flag post (but no actual flag flying).
We took a coffee break by the old harbour – hardly more than a rocky shoreline – before spending a fascinating 1 ½ hours in the National Museum. The number of exhibits and the detailed descriptions (in Inuit and English) explored many strands of life of the various folks and tribes that have inhabited Greenland over the last 4,500 years, right up to the adoption of internet as the preferred means of communication.
Learning about the Dorset tribes, the Norsemen and the Inuit, interesting as it was, exhausted us, and we needed to pay attention to stretching our legs! Near the museum we clambered up a rocky hill to pay regards to Hans Egedes, the ‘founding father’ of Nuuk.
Searching for the ‘First House’ took us to the Northernmost edge of Nuuk, where we exchanged pleasantries with a Nuuk inhabitant who was complementary about the English sense of humour… We turned back after having scaled a rocky hill giving us an impressive view over the imposing shape of the Sermitsiaq mountain, to the North. We also managed to get slightly entangled in wooden pathways and staircases, leading us to the base of a giant telecommunications satellite dish. We are sure we really should not have been there!
We never did find the ‘First House’ in our walks, but learned later that we had walked past without noticing it!
After a good 5 ½ hour walk, we returned to the ship, filled with lovely impressions of an open and pretty town/village/city. Though what it would be like to live there throughout the long, dark winter, goodness knows.
