Day 4: Nuuk

We had to check out of our hotel by 10.00 on Friday morning and we weren't supposed to board the ferry until around 20.30, so we had quite a lot of time to spend in Nuuk today. Fortunately it was a lovely sunny day, if a bit chilly at times, and the hotel reception were nice enough to allow us to leave our suitcases in the hotel for the duration of the day, which made life a lot easier.

After checking out, we made our way down to the main harbour area, to find where the ferry would be leaving from.

The ferry had in fact already arrived earlier in the morning and was spending the day in Nuuk.

The Sarfaq Ittuk ferry is essentially what passes for public transport in Greenland. Because there are no roads between different settlements - and certainly no railways - the only way to get from town to town is to fly or take a boat. The Sarfaq Ittuk spends half the week travelling north, stopping at various settlements on Greenland's western coast, before turning around and spending the second half of the week travelling south again. So it's a bit like a long-distance coach service for the towns it serves.

We'd now confirmed where we needed to be so there was no chance of us missing the ferry this evening We enjoyed the views in the harbour for a while, noticing that there was what seemed to be a large Danish military ship nearby.

From the harbour we then walked into the centre of town, passing a large church on a rock.

We found what seemed to be the main square, complete with Greenlandic flags flying in the wind.

There was also a rather bizarre statue; not sure what it was supposed to be!

We did know what the statue on the top of the hill in the background was supposed to be, though; Hans Egede, the Danish missionary who founded Nuuk in 1728.

The red church is Nuuk's cathedral, the Church of Our Saviour, which was built in 1848.

We decided to see if we could climb up to the statue of Hans Egede to have a closer look.

It was a bit steep, but we made it!

From here there was a good view across Nuuk...

...including the not very scenic tower blocks!

But considering it's a capital city, Nuuk isn't really that built up. Just under 20 000 people live here in total.

We walked up to a viewpoint which was looking out in the opposite direction, towards the fjord we'd sailed in yesterday.

From here we could see the beautiful colourful houses which we'd noticed from the boat yesterday.

On the way back down we passed what I think is Nuuk's most famous statue, the Mother of the Sea. It feels a bit like Nuuk's version of Copenhagen's Little Mermaid.

We were starting to feel a bit chilly by this point so we decided to head back into the centre of town...

...and go and get a coffee to warm up

Suitably restored, we then set out to explore the southern part of Nuuk.

There's a rather unusual system of wooden walkways here, complete with plenty of steps, which take you around this part of the coast.

There were some lovely views of the sea and it looked quite calm, which is always reassuring when you know you're going to be on a boat later in the day

It felt like we'd walked for a long way and climbed up a lot of staircases...

...but eventually we emerged at a little beach area on the south side of town.

The views here were superb with the bright blue sea and the snowy mountains behind.

We were feeling cold again by this point so we headed back to our hotel and sat in their cafe for a while with coffee and cake. The cake actually wasn't that great; it was oddly chewy!

When we headed outside again, we decided to go back towards the Mother of the Sea statue to get a closer photo of it.

Unlike with the Little Mermaid, Tim didn't have to fight through hordes of other tourists to get a good shot  

We felt like we were close to exhausting the sights of Nuuk by this point, so we walked back to the viewpoint we'd visited earlier for another look at the multi-coloured houses.

Then we found an American restaurant in Nuuk's one and only shopping mall, where we ate the biggest possible meal in preparation for spending the next day and a half at the mercy of the menu on the ferry. I had a steak and Tim had an enormous set of ribs.

There was just time for a final walk down to the beach, before we headed back to the hotel to pick up our suitcases.

We managed to board the ferry a bit before 20.30. There are different categories of accommodation on the ferry and we are staying in one of a handful of suites, which means we get a double bed, an armchair and some limited WiFi access  

It's quite a small room but the bed is surprisingly comfy and we have our own bathroom too, complete with shower and toilet. Having a shower on a boat is going to be a first!

It was still bright daylight at 11pm when we decided to go to sleep, so I was definitely glad to have brought eye masks! Saturday will be a full day on the boat, hopefully with some good views out of our window