Page 205 - WDT INTERACTIVE

SHADES OF GREENLAND ments. He also—cleverly--named the land “Greenland”

as a gimmick to attract potential settlers. It worked!
Our ship anchored off the quaint town of Qaqortoq
in southern Greenland (pop. 3,000), founded in
1775—which has no roads leading in or out—and
is accessed only via helicopter (which also links to
the small international airport), dog sleds, all-terrain
vehicles, snowmobiles, boats, ferries or cruise ships. It
has a couple of pubs, one police station; one hotel, an
inn and two youth hostels; one tourist office/souvenir
shop (and a few other shops, including one selling
seal-skin boots, handbags and jackets), two large
grocery stores, a few cafe/restaurants, one 18-bed
hospital, a few churches and schools.
But no McDonald's, Starbucks, or Costco! Industries
include fishing, ship maintenance and repair, fur
production, government administration—and tourism,
including serving as a port of call for a few cruise
ships.
The town also has one interesting museum, in a
building constructed in 1804—a former inn where
Charles Lindbergh once stayed.
One shore excursion option in Qaqortoq (which
means “White” in Greenlandic; the fourth largest town
on the island—and regarded as this territory's most
beautiful) included a visit to an Inuit woman's home
for coffee and cake one morning. I was curious to see
what a private home would be like so my husband
Carl and I signed up!
After we tendered off the ship (which was anchored
not too far from an iceberg!), we met our local
PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
guides—two young college students—at 8:30 a.m. at
the pier. Our group of 12 hailed from the U. S., New
Only some 57,000 Greenlanders reside on this Zealand, and England.
world's largest island—which has the lowest popula- One guide assured us that the private home was
tion density; nearly 75% of it is uninhabitable, covered “only a 10-minute walk” away. But he neglected to say
in ice. A constituent country of the Kingdom of Den- it was UPHILL!
mark, the population of Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat) is Fortunately this was a gorgeous, sunny, September
about 80% Inuit and about 12% Danish. The languages day, a crisp 50-degrees. I was awestruck by the
spoken are Kalaallisut and Danish. brightly colored wood buildings—houses and shops—
We've all heard of Erik the Red (Norwegian Erik floating up the hillsides, painted vivid red, green,
Torvaldsson, father of Leif Eriksson) who set foot on purple, blue, yellow. It was magical!
this vast land in 985 and created the first Norse settle-

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