Nuuk, Sermersooq Municipality, GreenlandOur six-day visit to Iceland was over and it was time to head to Greenland; the cornerstone destination that underpinned our 2023 travel destinations through the European Arctic. We had for many years wanted to visit this vast ice-capped land, and if I didn't detest the term so much, I would be tempted to say that Greenland had been very much on our "bucket list".
And quite frankly, most of our other destinations for this trip were included because they were conveniently on our way to Greenland. In saying that, we thoroughly enjoyed Svalbard and our stay in the Faroe Islands.
I would be mincing words however, to say that we enjoyed even some of Iceland. We didn't. It was no one's fault. And probably it was mostly because we travelled as part of two tour groups - and to some mega-touristy destinations. It was of course our fault we chose the tours we did. But rightly or wrongly, we are just not tour-group people.... And it had nothing to do with the participants in the tour groups; most of which were very friendly and pleasant. Others enjoyed it enormously. And of course, we are cognisant that just six days in a destination is certainly not sufficient time to justify any far-reaching assertions.
It would also be fair to add that we began with a shamefully poor pre-conception of Iceland; one that was not enhanced by overwhelming numbers of tourists, endless coach and bus traffic, underwhelming scenery, together with average accommodation and very ordinary service. I should refrain from saying "once we had been to Russia, everything since has paled into insignificance". But it sadly it was and still is, true.
Conversely, we had the fortune to share a sector of our Greenland journey with some of the loveliest people we have ever met. And they just happened to be Icelanders....
Our 2:30 am start to the day was tough going. Our bus was leaving from outside our Center Hotel Laugavegur at 5:00 am and as usual, Alan was adamant that it could take me at least two and a half hours to get ready, as well as undertake any last minute packing. And as usual, he was right. Despite many years of travel, I would have to admit that my packing efficiency has not improved one bit. Perhaps it is even worse now with my newly acquired Last-Minute-Paranoia-Checking: "Do I have my iPad? Where is my phone? Did you pack the charging gear or did I? Who has the medications.... (Alan always took the medications)?" And so it goes on. But this time, it was fortunate that when the medication question arose, for some reason I offered to take them, squashing them at the last minute into the top of my heavy baggage.
Bus stop 9 was always frenetic, packed with hundreds of anxious tourists trying to find their correct bus or coach tour. And on our inward journey, the 50km bus trip from Keflavik Airport to our hotel in central Reykjavik had been a nightmare - mostly because of the confusion and sheer inconvenience of changing buses mid-journey, at a large transport terminal. But this time, our return trip went surprisingly smoothly, taking just over an hour and a half to get to the airport.
And from here on in, everything appeared to be going swimmingly well. Some of the self check-in machines were out of action (something a bit different...), so we were kindly ushered over to a check-in bay - which miraculously was staffed by real people! I recall vividly my pleasure in seeing our two red Black Wolf bags being labelled and sent rattling off along the luggage shuttle, with no intervention from us. It was the first time in our European travels that we did not have to stress out about generating luggage labels and boarding passes.
FROM REYKJAVIK TO NUUK, GREENLAND
Our Iceland Air Flight
Our flight had a slight delay. Nothing unusual, these days. But what was a bit out of the ordinary was seeing all the passengers' luggage being loaded, yet after half an hour or so whilst waiting in the plane on the tarmac, a number of bags were taken off by airport ground staff. They must have been re-configuring the luggage, we supposed. Thinking nothing of it, we relaxed as our very comfortable Iceland Air aircraft taxied down the runway, finally taking off toward our destination of Greenland.
Our two and a half hour De Havilland Dash 8 aircraft flight to Nuuk was comfortable and pleasant. We had seats in the front row and for Alan, there was plenty of leg room. The flight service was good and for the first time since we had flown on small aircraft in the European Arctic, we were given breakfast - coffee and what was called a "turkey pretzel" - actually something like pastry sandwich stuffed with thick turkey slices. After a very difficult beginning to our journey, our fortunes were certainly looking up....
Reflections of a Tumultuous Beginning to our Greenland Travels
As early as March 2022 we had been in contact with Andreas (name withheld), a private local travel agent whose details I had found on various travel review sites. A native Greenlander with an apparent wealth of knowledge and experience in the history, culture and environment of the country, Andreas had glowing reports about his professionalism and ability to provide tailor-made small group or private tour programs to off-the-beaten-path destinations on the west coast of Greenland. Intensely disliking off-the-shelf tour packages, he sounded like just the sort of agent we were looking for.
Andreas had responded promptly to our request and had listed a number of interesting activities over a period of 14 days, including ATV travel to some really unique and remote parts of the country - from Nuuk to Ilulissat and Disko Island, to Kangerlussuaq and then to Sisimiut. We were delighted to be so lucky to find such an agent.
To our growing concern over the next few months, Andreas' correspondence began to wane. His emails were becoming one-liners, sometimes even apologising because "he was so busy that he forgot to organise our travel". But he always promised us that he would prepare a proper itinerary.
And as late as August 2022, Andreas emailed us to confirm his availability. Our problem was that we still had no itinerary, nor any confirmed dates.
By then, we were becoming really concerned. We desperately needed firm dates so that we could organise our external flights, to say nothing of the twenty or so connecting flights, accommodation and tours in our other destinations. On 27th August he sent us a bizarre email telling us to contact a woman called Anna (name withheld) who would organise our tour for us. Perplexed, we contacted her immediately. Her name was not Anna, nor did she have the slightest clue about our travels with Andreas. She tried to be helpful but she told us, she was absolutely inundated with bookings, and suggested that we contact a "proper" agent to help us.
In the midst of the post-COVID travel rush, we were acutely conscious that air and accommodation bookings were rapidly being booked out - in all destinations. And Greenland is no easy place to organise travel. There are no roads between settlements and as we were to find, the only way to book flights is through a registered Greenland agent.
We had done very little work on or travels as we had trusted Andreas to arrange it all - so we had no option than to contact the umbrella travel contractor Guide to Greenland to help us organise our planned fourteen-day travels. And thankfully, they were only just able to assist us in time to organise two tours from Nuuk north to Ilulissat, and from Kangerlussuaq to Sisimiut.*
ARRIVING IN NUUK, GREENLAND
A Chaotic Beginning
Like Svalbard, we were enormously excited to see our first glimpses of Greenland. Marvelling at its vast, remote mountainous countryside, it reminded us of some of the extreme Arctic destinations we had travelled to in Siberian Russia. Almost an Arctic desert, there was not a tree in sight - nor any roads or settlements, for that matter. Glorious fjords carved wonderous patterns into a completely snow frosted landscape: the first low rays of a magnificent sunrise illuminating steep frozen cliffs, the pristine white shorelines and azure waters of the Labrador Sea. Breathtaking....
As we flew closer to the international airport of Nuuk, our small plane tilted over the harbour providing us with a clear view of the characteristic colourful, steep pitch roofed houses and the few roads of the city. And despite what we had been told and read, the diminutive capital city of Nuuk was looking splendid.
As there is a two-hour time difference between Reykjavik and Nuuk, we arrived at our destination at 9.30 am, just half an hour as the clock goes, after we left Iceland. As you do, we happily chatted to passengers milling around the luggage carousel and were delighted to meet a very friendly Greenlandic businessman with whom we had a very pleasant conversation.
Another group of other passengers were not quite so friendly. Attired in what appeared to be military fatigues and wearing comical "Gomer Pyle-style" hats, they looked more like a Trump-supporting group of US military Confederates than a group of tourists. As it happened, they were a group of serious hunters who had come to Greenland to shoot "vole and critter"....and goodness knows what else. With a distinct "Don't mess with me" persona, they certainly kept their distance from us and the other passengers. I wondered why they dressed in their hunting gear while travelling. It certainly made a statement....
My bag came off the carousel with no trouble; the luggage doors into the airport closing not long after. The carousel stopped and the luggage delivery van disappeared. Our businessman friend was looking concerned. Together with Alan's luggage, it appeared that neither his bags nor those of another 15 or so passengers including our Confederate friends, were taken off the aircraft. More to the point, they were apparently somewhere still in Reykjavik Airport.
"Iceland Air is well known for this" lamented our friend. They overbook flights, then offload luggage to lower the weight so they can make the journey". Incredulous, neither Alan nor I really believed him. After all, both our bags were checked-in together by the Iceland Air staff and it was only a two and a half hour direct trip from Reykjavik to Nuuk. Why would they do this to passengers without warning, especially in such an extreme arctic climate - in winter? In our minds, there was no way what our businessman friend was telling us could possibly be correct. But, it was.... And to this day, we still do not have any answers as to why an airline would do something quite so ruthless to their hapless passengers.
It didn't take long for the initially quiet and friendly airport lounge to become chaotic. A stumbling staff member tried to deal with passengers' concerns, but it didn't take much insight to see he was totally out of his depth. Insisting on taking Alan's boarding pass, he assured us he would try everything to retrieve his luggage. But he didn't even ask for phone numbers or email addresses - we had to thrust these details upon him; the paperwork of which went into one of his pockets. It certainly didn't give us much faith in the bureaucracy of the airport.... Or of Iceland Air....I took photos of all our documentation. But it didn't' help.
A stiff-jawed man who appeared to be the Leader of the Confederates Mob was going ballistic but that didn't help either. Apparently, all of their hunting gear was still somewhere between Reykjavik and Nuuk; without which they would be unable to undertake what was apparently an enormously expensive hunting tour. Our problem was that we were only in Nuuk for one night - one afternoon, actually. The following day, we would be flying north via Kangerlussuaq to Ilulissat. The enormity of our problem was rapidly sinking in.
"Well, the next flight from Reykjavik is not until next week, so if I were you I would hot foot it to the city centre mall and buy all the clothes you need for your trip as soon as you can. Try Ittu or Pikkori stores. They sell good quality cold weather clothing.... Then claim it from the airlines. Good luck!" He looked sorrowful. As he bade us farewell, I barely heard him; my head bursting with the appalling news that we would have to spend our only afternoon in Nuuk trying to buy Alan a complete cold weather outfit for 14 days. After all, Alan had with him only the clothes he was wearing plus some minor gear in his backpack. Not even any toiletries. Thank goodness, he was wearing his snow boots and - I had the medications.... But it was small comfort.
Welcome to the Aurora Hotel, Nuuk
Guide to Greenland travel agent Inesa had been very helpful in organising our tour. As mentioned, it was very much a last-minute process and although it appeared the company had limited resources, she had been very obliging and efficient. To our knowledge there were not many quality hotels in Nuuk and her advice for our accommodation in Nuuk was to book into the well-known Hans Egede Hotel, an upmarket facility in the centre of town.
But at a cost of nearly USD500 per night, we decided to give the Hans Egede a miss and booked a night's accommodation at the Aurora Hotel, which although was some distance out of town, was new and had good reviews. And what a good decision that was.
It would be an understatement to describe us as overly stressed when we arrived at the Aurora Hotel. We had no time to purchase a SIM card, and having no phone nor internet didn't add to our desperate situation.
Thankfully, Eva at the reception calmly took over. Kindly making us some coffee, she then spent at least an hour on the phone to Iceland Air trying find someone in management who may assist in locating our lost luggage. Anita, the owner and manager of the hotel sat with us, as did other staff members Joanna and Yasper, providing us with some much-needed support. Their kindness was, and still is, very much appreciated.
Meanwhile, our Confederate Friends arrived. They were understandably furious and if it was at all possible, even more stressed than we were. Strange things can happen under intense duress. And extreme adversity can have some wonderous effects at bonding the recipients of similar experiences. The Confederates, although not exactly friendly, did at least begin to chat, telling us they had spent USD 10,000 per head for their hunting trip which like our tour, began the following day. Goodness knows what sort of lethal weapons they had packed, but for them it was impossible to even buy the gear they needed in Nuuk.
The guy who appeared to be in charge of the group did manage to contact Iceland Air management. The phone call was memorable. But whilst there was no doubting that he got his message through well and truly, he got nowhere. The last we saw of them was when he swore loudly and threw his phone onto a table. We gathered, he was not successful....
Meanwhile, our lovely Eva was doing everything in her power to help us, phoning numerous Iceland Air numbers, and even assisting me to buy a Greenland SIM card. Finally, she and Anita suggested that we check into our room and then head off as soon as possible to Nuuk to buy Alan a new wardrobe. It was after all, the end of the winter season and being an isolated city, stocks could well be low. Especially for someone of Alan's height. "Oh goodie...." we groaned quietly.....
Our hotel room was on the second floor, accessible by a tiny but efficient lift with a curious opening door. Our room had been upgraded to a family room, with a loft with extra bedding. It was clean, comfortable and well fitted out with tea and coffee making facilities.
The hotel I must say, was located in an unlikely part of town, a long way from the city centre and in the middle of what looked like an industrial area that was undergoing a huge amount of construction. In heavy icy snow, there was no way of walking to town. In fact even getting from the front door and into our taxi across the glassy ice, was absolutely lethal. We certainly needed cleats.
Our Shopping Afternoon
Shopping for entire Arctic winter wardrobe for Alan plus so many extras was the last thing either of us felt like doing. But we had no option. It was a Thursday and the earliest flight coming from Reykjavik was apparently on the Tuesday of the following week. A real concern was when (or if, in this case) Alan's luggage arrived, how would we arrange to have it delivered to Ilulissat - or even the next destinations of Kangerlussuaq or Sisimiut? As we were not returning to Nuuk, it presented a nightmare of complexities.
We were advised to head to Nuuk Centre shopping mall and seek out Ittu store - a general clothing store that was likely to have the widest possible range of clothing, and hopefully something that would fit Alan. Apart from thermals, t-shirts, fleecy jumpers, jackets, trousers, hats etc we even had to purchase cleats, balaclavas, under gloves and mittens, as well as a myriad of underwear, socks, toiletries and even a hairbrush.
On arriving at Ittu store, a very friendly Inuit woman Sisi approached us wanting to know if we needed any help. What a question! But in no time, the very competent Sisi had scoured the shop for suitable clothes, her arms operating like an octopus as she filled up a trolley full of clothes for Alan to try on. There was no point in saying he didn't like green or brown - or the puce pink t-shirt. Stock for Alan's size as Eva and Anita had predicted, was very low - and sadly of pretty ordinary quality. It was heartbreaking as we had both armed ourselves with the very best cold weather gear you can buy anywhere in the world. But there was no point in complaining....
Alan then headed for the supermarket to buy toiletries, while I took the escalator upstairs to buy some big bags in which to pack everything, even including a toiletries bag. We had nearly forgotten that we didn't even have a suitcase!
After five hours of this sort of shopping, we were wrecked. Back in our hotel, we had a beer then fell asleep until the evening when to our horror, we realised that we had forgotten to buy Alan some hiking trousers.... And then there was the miserable job of photographing and collating all our receipts for hopeful re-imbursement from Iceland Air, made even more difficult as a lot of the dockets' information was in Greenlandic language. Our purchases had been shockingly expensive. All up, we had spent nearly USD 2,000! To say things became a bit tense would be a gross understatement.
Despite all her efforts that day, Eva had got nowhere with her calls to Iceland Air. Furthermore, the company had the gall to insist that the only way to communicate about lost luggage was by email. Not only was it gross incompetence or plain shocking management, their customer service was non-existent. And infuriatingly, there was not a single thing we could do about it. But Eva had everything well documented and would stay in contact with us during our journeys. At least we were certain that we could rely on our newly found friend.
Looking pitying at us, Eva suggested that we might like to try a local Thai restaurant for dinner. The hotel could provide a meal, but it was very much a microwaved frozen curry affair. Food was definitely not a priority and so we accepted the curry. It was just OK, but it certainly beat trying to catch a taxi in the snowy conditions.
That evening, when I looked up our emails, I noticed a message from an English friend Linda who was congratulating us on our wedding anniversary. To her credit, Linda never forgot birthdays or anniversaries. We had not remembered. But then again, we rarely do.....
NOTE: We booked all our Greenland travel through Guide to Greenland. Guide to Greenland www.guidetogreenland.com |The two tours we booked were: Winter
Package – Kangerlussuaq/Disko Bay and Winter Adventure Package – Kangerlussuaq & Sisimiut
Quilla Zane
2024-01-09
Well I throughly enjoyed hearing about the start of your Greenland adventure Wendy. What a ride that must have been 😂
Cathy Callen
2024-01-09
What a shocker…. Shameful on the Airlines treatment and gross negligence. Poor confederates thankfully no guns. I certainly felt your panic … but so humorously written. My mind commentary as I read was OMG!!OMG 😳🤣Bring on the next blog… what about a YouTube series or TV show…. Joanna Lumly has nothing on You. XxCathy
Cathy Callen
2024-01-09
Fantastic photos. Well portrayed
crowdywendy
2024-02-02
Dear Cathy ad Quilla - I have only just found your comments. Thank you so much! The good news is that things became worse. Much worse.....