July 16 – Hvalsey Church and Qaqortoq

We were scheduled to arrive in Uunartoq this morning for a nature landing and swim in a hot springs.  However, there was an overnight medical emergency and they had to divert to the nearby town of Qaqortoq.  The guest was sent to the hospital there and we cruised on to an alternative site, Hvalsey fjord, where we tendered into the UNESCO heritage site of the oldest Norse ruins in Greenland. 

We had a short hike to the ruins of the old Norse Church.

Nearby were the remains of a stables and some other buildings. 

The hillside was carpeted with wild flowers…

Clover

Unknown Flower

Harebell

Three Toothed Cinquefoil

Yellow Rattle

and the fjord and surroundings were beautiful.

We arrived back in Qaqortoq mid-afternoon to dreary weather and the threat of rain.  It never actually rained but we certainly could have had nicer weather.  We didn’t sign up for any shore excursions as there were only two, one a coffee tasting (a Kaffeemik - which we later found out wasn't really a coffee tasting but a typical social event common in Greenland) and the other a tannery…neither of which interested us.  So we took the tender in and wandered around the town.

The town is very colorful with brightly colored buildings climbing the hills surrounding the harbor.

There were a lot of sculptures and other art pieces all over the town.  We found a few of the stone sculptures that we had been told about…but not nearly all.

We stopped in the local museum that had a lot of history about the settlement of Greenland and many artifacts.

The museum also had a room with some very colorful modern art by a local artist.

We also found the little “town square” with the fountain spouting water, supposedly in a manner resembling whale blows. 

There was also a pretty little red church.

And of course, lots of flowers.

Sea Mayweed and the Harbor Beyond

Sea Mayweed

We were back on board late afternoon when the weather started getting colder than we wanted to deal with.  Dinner tonight was a Mexican buffet…pretty good.