July 27, 2025 – Nuuk, Greenland – Sunny and “Warm” – 55F

July 27, 2025 – Nuuk, Greenland 

Port Information.  Nuuk is the capital of Greenland and its most populous city – about 20,000 people live in the capital.  That would be about 35 percent of the total population of the world’s biggest island. Nuuk is considered to be the most “indigenous city in the World considering the percentage of Innuit people.  Like all of the Greenlandic towns, Nuuk has a Danish name – Godthab. Nuuk uses hydroelectric power for its homes and buildings. The city was founded in 1728 by Hans Egede and named Godthab (Good Hope). Nuuk translates to “Cape” in Greenlandic.  Nuuk is the World’s Most Northernmost Capital just edging out Reykjavick.

Once docked it was difficult to see much since buildings got in the way.

I had another nice breakfast up in the Windows Café.  The cottage cheese and sour cream systems continues to work well and I am yet to tire of the food.

Azamara is providing a shuttle from the ship to the City Center for those folks who don’t want to walk (20 minutes to an hour).

We are on tour today – “Nuuk City Tour”.  This will involve seeing almost all of the city by bus and getting out for some photo ops.  We met on the pier which gave me an opportunity to get a picture of Quest docked.

We found our Guide, Aya, on the pier.  The bus was nice.  There was a second guide on board taking notes  – Aya told us that she was born and raised in Greenland but goes to college in Denmark.

She told us that since Greenland became a news item because of Donald Trump, Denmark had sent military (equipment and personnel) to Greenland to shore up defenses.

The bus took us first to the City Center where the only shopping mall in Greenland - Nuuk Center -  is located.  As shopping malls go, it is quite small - maybe a little less than a block and painted all black.  I couldn't get a picture of it from the bus.

We then drove out to the Marina - lots of boats that probably can only be used for a short time during the year. 

 

We then drove along the water in the Historic Part of the City to see the Church of Our Saviour.  This is the only Catholic Church in Nuuk as the main religion is Lutheran.

 "The Mother of the Sea Sculpture", 

The statue, best seen at low tide was created by Aga Hoegh, depicts Sedna, a Sea Goddess of Innuit mythology.  When human misbehave, she uses her hair to tangle all the sea animals preventing access to hunters and fishermen.  Shamans have to go and comb her hair to release the animals. 

We also stopped to take pictures of the Hans Egede Monument on the hill (Hans Egede, a Dano-Norwegian missionary founded Nuuk in 1728). 

 

We also got our guide to get a picture of the two of us as evidence that we were here.

There were lots of kayaks stored along the water - the water here must be real cold - you have to be hardy to kayak here.

We went to a view point and got off the bus to get pictures of the iconic mountains surrounding Nuuk. The most iconic is Sermitsiaq, a 1,210-meter-high saddle-shaped peak visible from the city - it is located on an island and we saw it on the sail in. 

 

I got the mountain and Ellen in the same picture.

Ukkusisat (Store Malene) - 772 meter mountain with views of the nearby fjords. Quassussuaq (Lille Malene), a smaller mountain and a common hiking venue - our guide said that he hiked this mountain.  Malene is a Danish name and Store and Lille mean "big and little" in English.  As we drove along, these peaks surrounded us as they are very close to the city.

We also went by the Nuuk Airport, where I managed to get a brief shot of an Air Greenland Max8.  

Air Greenland flies to other cities in Greenland and also to Copenhagen to connect to other European destinations.

We also went by the Ny Alstat Prison.  

The prison was opened in 2019 and is a high security prison which can hold dangerous criminals which in the past had to sent to Denmark for incarceration. 

The bus then returned to the pier around dinner time.

The show toight featured Bandmaster Daniel Diaz performing "Latin Heritage". We passed on the show and instead went to the Discoveries Restaurant for dinner because the Insider said that the featured dish was Halibut.  But, as happens sometimes, the Halibut was not on the menu.  We reverted to the Salmon dinner instead.

Because of the timing, there was no entertainment when we finished dinner so we went to our stateroom.  A nice day in the capitol of Greenland.