After a very peaceful (no foghorn, hallelujah!) and smooth sailing evening, we are up early, making our patented “Gary” move, sneaking into the gym way before it is open so we can be right on time to meet our walking tour at 8:15.  A quick breakfast later, and photos of the beautiful little growler icebergs floating past us as the ship anchors in the harbor, we are in the Cabaret and ready to go way before our appointed meeting time.  After some slight delay (tenders?  Who knows?), we are finally released to our virtually private tender which whisks us to shore in no time.  Nobody is moving quickly this morning as we have until 8pm here in port – and let’s face it, with a population of about 3,200, Qaqortoq is an easy territory to cover.

Of course, we have signed up for the first tour so that we can get out, tour around, then do some hiking before returning to the ship.  So, off we go with 14 other intrepid early birds (one of whom asked “are we getting off here?” when we got to the tender pier ashore – um, yeah?  Where else do you think the tender goes? No more comments….although that line now becomes our secret message to each other when we overhear someone say something stupid – and there are lots of someones on this ship, trust us. Meeting our sweet local guide at the pier, we begin to follow him around town (I cannot for the life of me figure out his name – maybe Fari? But probably not!).  We start off in the harbor, making our way around to the first of many rock carvings that make up the Stone and Man sculpture project.  In an effort to save their Nordic heritage, local artist Aka Hoegh invited artists from across Nordic countries to contribute to what is essentially an open air museum focused on Nordic legends.  Artists carved their representations of various legends in rock formations that already existed around the town. 

There are over 30 sculptures, and during this walk, we end up seeing a whole bunch – all of them marked on my map already.  Perfect!  We start with the Mother of the sea representation – swimming fish, but all connected with a swirling line, representing the Mother’s hair.  This is a famous legend here – the people believe the sea creatures were created from a woman who was thrown overboard by her father (for a variety of reasons – depending upon which legend you believe!) and when she tried to get back in the boat by clinging to the side, her father cuts her fingers off – each of which becoming seals.  Then one by one, her other body parts become other sea creatures and she becomes the Mother of the Seas.  As a reminder of the legend, across the harbor and visible from this rock sculpture is a mural of the Motner of the Seas with her hair flowing out behind her in the form of fish tails. 

Moving on through the town, we pass one after another carving:  whales, Innuit faces – with fish swimming among them, a large ram’s head (the symbol of the city), what was once planned as the main square with the creature sculpture (which has an adorable face), a woman statue and various and sundry other carvings.  All fabulous and interesting in their own ways.

Heading toward the fish market, we stop at the Mindebronden, Greenland’s oldest fountain designed in 1929 and built out of rock moved one by one, by boat, over a series of years from another area of Greenland. 

Arriving at the fish market, we find yet another carving, plus one of the many amazing growlers, right there in the water.  Heading inside, we find the fish market itself to be quite small, and while Fari warned us there would be blood and guts here, it was really quite clean and very fresh! 

Back out into the streets, we visit more sculptures as well as the Church of our Saviour, the oldest building in Qaqortoq, built in 1832.  The wooden church is emblematic of the Lutheran heritage here, with the headstone of Hans Egede – the Norwegian priest and missionary who launched Lutheran mission efforts here – prominently laid in front of the building. 

As we pass the school buildings here, Fari explains the educational system – all free, at age 15 kids get a gap year off to do what ever they want (because the government knows teenagers are basically worthless and need time to just be teenagers!), then at 16 they go to what is known as the “gymnasium,” a boarding school to prepare them for college, then finally college. He also explains that the colors of the buildings used to be used to identify the business or service held within: Red was governmental, schools, churches; Yellow – hospital, doctors, health care personnel; Blue – trade (retail), power works, mechanics; Black – police stations.  Green was just a pretty color – LOL.  Houses can be painted in any color desired, there is no identification system there – and obviously, from the brilliantly painted houses all around the little town – Qaqortoq residents like bright colors!  The views across town with all the little painted houses are just beautiful in an of themselves. 

We walk as far as the Tasersuaq Lake – a freshwater lake that serves as the town’s main water source – on the edge of town, before turning back and heading uphill into the more of the town proper.

More sculptures and scenic views ensue, as well as a set of stone steps leading up to the new church, where Fari tells us the Innuit story of creation:  A raven created all beings, but the beings couldn’t communicate, so the raven gave humans a feather, which allowed them to talk and understand each other – which is why all the Greenlandic and Innuit languages sound so guttural, almost like a raven call.  Oh – and as he is telling us this, a raven flies by overhead.  How’s that for shivers?

Continuing on, we pass more sculptures – each one some bizarre representation of something – no one really knows!  Then to the Big Innuit Boot which is a symbol of the hotel at the top of the hill (we all thought it should mean something more, but no, just a marketing gimmick) and circle back down to the harbor, passing our final sculpture, the man and the woman (with seats on the opposite side for 3 people?  Maybe the 3^rd is for a child?). 

All in all an excellent little 2+ hour tour around a beautifully quaint little town!  Left to our own devices, we head off into the hills looking for a path to get up to a viewpoint, but end up turning back halfway up – the fog is rolling in and there will be no point be up in the hills with nothing to see.  We do get some really good shots of the Quest and the growler out in the harbor though.  Not to mention more scenic panoramas of the town.

A brief stop in the Fur house shop – the home of the old seal fur processing plant with incredibly beautiful but equally expensive accessories and clothing made from seal fur – and we are back out into the harbor, winding our way back to the tender and the ship, leaving us with a very relaxing afternoon aboard.

Blogged, read, walked deck 10 – it was warm enough with the sun….and our puffy coats!  Watched one of the helicopters that regular service Qaqortoq land, took more pictures of the beautiful, picturesque town and some amazing icebergs floating around. 

Went to the surprise Destination showcase in the Cabaret with a local music duo called Small Time Giants – 2 local boys – Miki and Jakob – who decided to form a band, because, well, why not?  They moved to Denmark and became quite famous as one of the few groups who sang in English, winning the contest for the official song of the Arctic Winter Games, entitled “We are the Arctic.”  Eventually they moved back to Qaqortoq for Jakob to become a boat captain (who actually took the tours to Halvsey island today) and Miki to focus on business development.  Adorable guys and some very good Alternative Rock.

Then it is a race to dinner in Discoveries – we have no idea where all these people came from!  They weren’t in the show with us, coz we left first…..and of course…Table 4 was stolen just seconds from our arrival at the front of the line.  Sigh.  This is getting ugly.  Poor Vicson is beside himself and arranges for a 4-top table in the middle of the dining room for just us 2.  Ryan comes over with our drinks – before the James, the assistant (whom we know from previous cruises) can even get to the bar!  Joel comes over to check on us, telling us he will see us tomorrow – and Vicson comes over later to make sure we are all right, and apologize again.  These guys are just too sweet to us.  Even though we keep getting shut out of Table 4, the service and attention can’t be beat – we aren’t complaining!  It’s game on now!

During dinner, the Captain makes an announcement to alert us that we will not be arriving in Paamiut at 8:00 as originally planned.  There is heavy fog and ice which will delay us.  He is now planning to arrive around 9:30 – which will be a total mess because the Zuiderdam is also scheduled to be calling at Paamiut at 10.  2,000 more people in that little town?  Oh no.  At this point, we’d be happy to skip it – our plans were to hike to a couple of viewpoints, and well, if it is foggy?  Why bother.  And we’d rather not be trying to bob and weave our way through the tiny town filled with almost 3,000 cruise passengers.  Oh, and did we mention the bugs?  Paamiut is reputed to have the worst mosquito and black fly population – we have our mesh insect outfits just for that port call.  So yeah, if we have to lose something, Paamiut is it.  We shall see…..

The rest of the evening is in the cabin – the show is Crooners again, so we’ll pass. And besides, it is gorgeous outside with beautiful scenery and more icebergs as we sail out of Qaqortoq on our way to Paamiut….hopefully.