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An outdoor museum in Nanortalik surrounded by icebergs

Itinerary, Menus, When & Where and Entertainers

Today was our second and final port in Greenland. We stopped once on the way over to Iceland, and we are now stopping once again on our way back.

There isn’t much to see in Nanortalik and Holland America only offers one shore excursion: a walking tour.

Icebergs were everywhere as we approached Nanortalik. I didn’t appreciate how large the icebergs were until I saw one next to the ship. See the featured photo above.

The ship stop moving and settled into her final position around 8 am. In many ports, the ship will not drop an anchor but use its engines and thrusters to hover in a specific position. This is either due to unfavorable conditions on the seabed or the desire to maintain the ship’s position facing a specific direction to minimize wind or other conditions.

GOING ASHORE

Tendering started at 8 am and it wasn’t long until they announced open tendering. This turned out to be slightly premature as there was a surge of passengers around 11 am which exceeded the capacity and there was no longer a process to manage the lines. The line snaked up the stairs to Deck 1 from the A Deck, but people would continue to arrive directly on A Deck from the elevators and it wasn’t obvious to the new arrivals that the end of the line was actually up the stairs. It seemed longer at the time, but once the tenders started moving the line cleared in less than 15 minutes.

However, once we approached the tender pier, there was a 20-minute delay waiting for the previous tenders to unload and board new passengers. Whenever the tender pier is not large enough to accommodate more than one tender at a time these delays are inevitable.

Nanortalik is a very small town. You probably could have walked up and down every street in an hour.

This is the town map on a sign near the tender landing

This is the caption for the above sign, enlarged

I spotted a bar on maps.me and we headed off in that direction. The bar opened at noon which was about the time we arrived. We would have enjoyed trying some local food, but they were only selling drinks. Food service was only available for guests staying at the hotel. Beer was 80 kroner or a little over $10 but we took a pass and after a few minutes, we left and headed off.

Hotel near the tender landing. The bar opened at noon

Inside the bar – Beers were 80 DKK or about $10 USD

This soccer field was on the north side of town, near the hotel

As we headed back towards the town we saw a reddish-colored building with a blue flag with a polar bear and a sign Pilersuisoq. This turned out to be a convenience store but you wouldn’t know it by looking at it from the outside. We went inside to have a look. It was what you would expect in a small convenience store that catered to the local residents. There weren’t any touristy items for sale. There was a grocery store with the same name closer to the pier near the center of town.

This is a convenience store. You can’t really tell by looking at the outside. There is a larger grocery store with the same sign near the center of town.

Near the center of town, there is a fish market, selling freshly caught fish, a clothing store with a few touristy items, and a tourist information center with a restroom and a wider selection of souvenirs and touristy items. Everyone took credit cards.

Here you will also find another grocery store, more clearly marked and more obvious than the others. They had some pastries and premade sandwiches if you are looking for something to eat. We didn’t find any open restaurants anywhere.

Continuing on, we headed toward the Outdoor Museum. Along the way, we saw an interesting rock formation that looked like an old man and a church.

Danish Lutheran Church, made of wood, was built in 1916

There were a few people sitting at the base of this rock helpfully pointing out it looked like an old man

Sign and entrance to an outdoor museum. Not sure why they call it an outdoor museum as all the exhibits are inside, except for the buildings themselves

The Outdoor Museum consists of nine historical buildings. Many of the buildings have exhibits and artifacts that depict life from the colonial era.

The admission is $10 USD cash, 60 DKK (they accept credit cards)

This is the main building to the museum. There is a small gift shop, and restrooms and this is where to pay with a credit card. Attendants near the gate will accept cash and give you a wristband.

We spent about 1 hour here, but you could easily spend longer if you wanted to go into every building and read every sign.

These exhibits are inside the main building

This picture was taken near the center of town at the end of a pier

Judy showing off her earrings purchased from a local vendor

Back on the tender pier, the line was gone. For a while, the line for people who wanted to return to the ship was over 100 yards long.

Sailaway snacks – they are in limited supply – don’t be late!

Paul Stepien, from Poland, was the featured entertainer on the World Stage. The flute is his primary instrument, but he also played a few songs on an EWI-5000 electronic wind instrument, which can be programmed to sound sorta like a saxophone in addition to other wind instruments. His best tune was his original composition “Shadows” which finished his show.