Iceland and Greenland Day 8 - Farewell Greenland

Today was our last day in Greenland. We are sad to say goodbye. We will miss waking up each morning and seeing the icebergs in the Bay. We will miss this charming hotel. We will miss the clear, clean arctic air. We will miss the sounds of sled dogs howling. We will miss the beauty of the ice fjord. Greenland is such a unique and incredible place. I am not sure if we will ever make it back here again, but if the opportunity presented itself we would come back in a heartbeat. 

Things did not go quite according to plan today. We booked a helicopter tour this morning, but it was so rainy they had to cancel it. We had been watching the weather and we knew this was a real possibility. While we would have loved to experience the helicopter tour, it would have been far and away our most expensive activity, and I am sure it would have been amazing we have had so many amazing experiences we didn’t feel like we really needed anything else to feel great about this trip. 

The rain today was a slow and steady drizzle which made doing anything outside mostly miserable. So we found a few things to do inside. We visited the two museums in Ilulissat. 

We started at the Ilulissat Museum. This museum is located in a smallish building near the center of town and is also the polar adventurer Knud Rasmussen’s birthplace. One of the main exhibits is about Knud Rasmussen. They also had exhibits about the people who have lived in this area dating back to the Stone Age, Polar expositions, modern local life in this area, and an exhibit on qajaq, or kayaks, which were invented in Greenland. Overall it was a great little museum. We were struck by people’s ability to adapt and thrive in polar, hostile environments. Native people have been living in Greenland for thousands of years, surviving off the land and ocean. It’s easy to see God’s creativity in this country. 

After the museum, we braved the rain and walked down by the church. I wanted to get some pictures of Disko Bay. With all the rain the visibility is fairly poor, but the fog creates an interacting effect. The icebergs also had vibrant blues in the moody weather. 

Then we headed to the Ilulissat Art Museum. This museum is located in the former governor's mansion. The exhibit features paintings by Emanuel A. Petersen. He painted a lot of Greenland-inspired art. Alongside his paintings, they had a photography series focused on local residents. It was a great little art museum. 

After the art museum we popped over to a local cafe for some hot chocolate and then we walked back to the hotel. We had checked out of our room this morning so we found a common area in the Hotel Arctic to hang out for a bit. It was too rainy to do much else. We had a nice view of Disko Bay and we watched the fog roll in and out all afternoon. The fog could get so thick the visibility would decline to at most 5 feet and then it would retreat and we could see the ice fjord in the distance again. 

We caught the 4:15 shuttle into town and visited a few souvenir shops and bought a small souvenir to bring home with us. Then we went to dinner at the Inuit Cafe. We tried to eat at this restaurant last night, but they were fully booked so we made a reservation for tonight. We are glad we did. The food was excellent. Alison got the catch of the day (halibut) and I had a reindeer steak. For dessert, we had absolutely delicious cheesecake. This place was great - once we ate here we understood why it books up every night. 

After dinner, we walked back to our hotel. Shortly after leaving the restaurant, a sled dog started following us. She was really happy and excited to see someone out in the rain. She would walk so close to us we could feel her bump against the backs of our legs. She walked with us all the way back to the hotel.

We were watching our flight closely. With the weather, we were concerned it might be canceled. The flight we are on leaves from Reykjavik comes to Greenland and then turns around and goes back to Reykjavik. Once it was in the air we knew it was likely we would make it out tonight. And we did make it out tonight. The flight landed a little after 9 pm and we boarded and were in the air around 10:30 pm. We will miss Greenland - what a place!