Monday, September 8, 2025

Day 16: Nuuk, Greenland (Monday, 08 September 2025)

Cruise Compass

Dinner Menu: A Taste of Asia

Today’s Weather

Location at Start of Day

View From the Port Webcam

Location at End of Day

 One of the biggest challenges of trying to figure out a plan in Nuuk turned out to be the total inscrutability of the bus system, which seemed to be the only viable self-service option for getting out of the cruise port (outside of walking). The bus system website offered maps and schedules that were close to useless. After hours of work I managed to find the actual location of several bus stops – but the majority didn’t show up on Google Maps or street-view (where most photos were from 2014, at a time when it seems like most of Nuuk was undergoing massive road construction). From that I got an idea of where bus route #1, which was the route generally mentioned online as being the right one for cruise passengers to use, could be accessed – but even that was filled with a lot of what-ifs. Finally, as it seemed like the only way to pay for the bus was to have local currency, that idea went out the window!

In April 2025 I tried to find us a bus-based tour, but the only one I could find that could accept both of us started at 7:45AM and that was earlier than I wanted. So that really left us only with walking our way through town, which looked like it would be in the neighborhood of 2 ½ to 3 miles roundtrip. Clearly, whether we did something at this port was going to be a game-time decision. While it would be nice to say that we “saw” Nuuk, I’m wasn’t sold on the idea that there was really much of great interest to see there – so if we DIDN’T get onshore it wouldn’t be the worst thing. I did manage to find a couple of potential geocaches that would involve very little walking, so there was the possibility of just a “quick walkabout” if that’s what we decided.

Neither of us had a great night’s sleep last night. We had purchased tickets to the 1015A shuttle, which was comprised of a number of city buses Royal had chartered. We were delivered to the Cultural Center by 1030A and took a leisurely walk to the National Museum of Greenland, where they have a lot of clothing (animal furs), kayaks, and small artifacts spread over 3 buildings, which occupied us for about an hour.











We then walked across the street to Kittat, a place where they use native techniques to create clothing/costumes. Amusingly, we’d gotten a PM on Facebook from Hallie Feldman, saying she had a penpal in Nuuk(!) who she’d been communicating with for about 20 years, but she’d never met and hoped we could meet up with. Well, we did meet with Louise Ottosen at Kittat. She had a number of native tattoos and we had a nice visit.



Given that Louise had tattoos that evoked the imagery of the mythic Mother of Sea (something discussed in the museum) it was quite appropriate to try for the Earthcache Mother of the Sea. On the way down rain-slicked rocks to get closer my feet went out from under me and I took a hard fall, catching my back, elbow and shoulder and giving myself a good scare. Fortunately just bruised. But this prevented me from getting as close as I hoped, and I logged the find without answering the questions since I never got close enough. It appears the cache owner allowed my claim based on my selfie, however.



The rest of the day was the usual mix of Schooner time and post-dinner live music, followed by the ship’s Production Show by the RC Singers and Dancers. There were several “interesting” moments in the show, including

1. I believe that one of the male leads was sick and they had male #2 sing his solo number while he mostly marked his group numbers.

2. Male #2 was late for a solo entrance – sang a couple of lines offstage, or perhaps they were stabbing buttons to get his vocal track running?

3. One male dancer took a spill on a move;

4. Obvious “someone’s behind that curtain” moment breaking an illusion; and

5. an actual show stop – about 16 minutes - due to tech issues. While 2x female singers were starting an ABBA number in front of curtain, there was obvious noise behind curtain – sounded like a set piece had hit the floor. They kept singing, but at the point where they would have opened the curtain recorded voice told us they had to stop the show. Band stopped and women immediately exited US through curtain – with mics still live. So we heard whispers of “I heard that out there” and other confusion before the board op killed their mics. We heard lots of squeaking, etc US of the curtain before they finally brought the orchestra pit back up (having dropped the band below eyesight about 8 minutes into the stop) and then they finally restarted by playing the instrumentals of the duet again, and then opening the curtain to reveal things and allowing the vocalists to pick up from where they’d left off. My best guess is that one of the rolling stairways they had had lost a caster and they needed to fix it to make the stairs safe again. (Later during the cruise the CD confirmed that a flying element had come out of its track, making an unsafe situation. In correcting the problem it sounds like they may have bumped another element out of its track!)