Travels with Hope

Our Seattle flight got canceled due to technical issues. We got bussed to a little town hotel nearby and got one more day to wander. It was a little disconcerting--until it wasn't. Once we settled into the inconvenience,  it was kind of fun to wander a town that has no mention in any tourist book.. The proprietor of the Vogar Hotel was pressed into a service he doesn't normally provide: dinner last night, breakfast and lunch today. Last night, with only an hour notice, he gave us pizza and sodas.  Dominoes, but so what! Hilarious. Today he made meatballs, fish, mashed potatoes, fried rice, and veggies. Our temporary community of  people who got cancelled was interesting, a little odd. But good. There was art all around the hotel, clearly by the same artist and was in a 1920s-ish style, reminiscent of Miro and Calder. I asked who the artist was, expecting some local. The proprietor proudly said that he is the artist. He also had a great library in his little hotel. ...

I didn't plan to write another post because we're flying back to Seattle later today. However, two funny/interesting things happened that I shall write about since I have time before we can check in. Yesterday at the Nuuk airport I experienced a first. The first time I was sniffed by a dog at customs. The customs guy took the dog on several sniffing tours of the waiting room to find ... was it drugs? Explosives? Or as Doug asked -- what's the most valuable export? Fish! Just joking, of course. It was one of the first two. Nothing found. This is the customs guy. The dog is on a leash and off the pic to the right. When I'm trying to take a surreptitious photo it doesn't always turn out the way I hope. Today as we wait in the airport in Keflavik, we spotted this group of Mennonites. I talked to them, of course. They were very friendly. A Martin family from Wisconsin. I told them that at one time I had relatives (Mennonite) near Steven's Poin...

 Our final day in Nuuk and the weather botched our plans. We had a reservation to take a water taxi up the Nuup Kangerlua Fjord system, the world’s second largest fjord system, to the Qooqqut Nuan Restaurant. We would fish on the way (catching cod, arctic char, or redfish) and the restaurant cleans and makes the fish, along with other excellent food–all in a remote and beautiful setting at the tip of one of the fjord's arms. But several hours before departure they called to say that one of their boats just returned and reported that the waves were too high and they had to cancel all trips today. We could get on another one tomorrow, they said. But we fly back to Reykjavik tomorrow morning. Doug and I were (still are) all shades of disappointment. So we went to get some pity-cappuccinos, while we tossed around the idea that we might come back sometime. It didn’t lessen the disappointment, but it was fun to consider. We have both found this place rather enchanting in it’s uniquenes...

Today was a day of art and history: the National Museum and Archives, Nuuk Art Museum, and a stroll around town to locate the numerous outdoor art installations and street art. All that fun, plus a lunch of Greenlandic tapas that included a musk ox hot dog -- which was delicious -- and strolls through several fascinating and busy shopping centers and grocery stores. Our strolls and encounters today confirmed my observation that the nondescript exteriors of buildings belie a marvelous array of interior designs. Several general observations: there's a well-run bus system with buses running often. And there's an amazing amount of construction going on as if growth is happening.  We had the pleasure of talking to two young people at the national museum who told us about the burgeoning Greenland popular music scene, particularly in rap bands such as Nuuk Posse. They said we could find them (plus others) on the internet. First the tapas. The musk ox hot dog is the bottom center. I ho...

 Nuuk (pronounced like nuke) is a strange and wonderful place. It is unlike anything or anywhere I have ever been, and it is difficult to describe in a way that catches the wonder of it. My very first impression was questionable. It's cold and windy and gray. The buildings are boxy and utilitarian. It's all built in and around the boulders and the rock. But then it started to grab me. Everyone we talked to apologized that we didn't get sun today. The buildings may be boxy, but inside, they are modern and comfortable and well-designed, even a bit chic. The restaurant we ate at was downright cozy inside--its the yellow building in the bottom photo above. We walked to the far end of town to see a woman/artist I found on the internet and the walk was delightful, up and down small streets between colorful houses. I guess that's what you do when you live in a near-arctic community where days are gray and half the year is dark. (For the record, Nuuk lies 150 miles south of the...

Tomorrow morning we fly to Nuuk, Greenland and Ron flies home. A little more wandering today after securing Ron's Covid test in preparation to fly back to the U.S. The test site was in Reykjavik’s concert hall, a beautiful building with architectural features that mimic the ubiquitous basalt formations around the country. The same feature is present in a different way on Hallgrimskirkja, the large Lutheran church building.  Next stop--Nuuk! Reykjavik's Harpa Concert Hall: Hallgrímskirkja:

 We have come full circle around the island and we are back in Reykjavik for our final two days before going to Greenland. As much as I love the natural world with its waterfalls and fjords and glaciers and farms and horses--as much as I enjoy all that, I really love cities and urban wandering. Reykjavik is quirky and artsy and fascinating. All afternoon we wandered the city then ended up at Cafe Loki where we tried two unusual things: rye bread ice cream (quite tasty) and fermented shark (not as bad as it sounds although I won't try it again.) Fermented shark was once an Icelandic food that is now mostly eaten by curious tourists. So here is a camera dump from our afternoon wanderings. View from the tower in Hallgrimskirja Hallgrimskirkja Monument to strong women -- Ingebjorg Bjarnson, the first woman member of parliament in 1922 The Black Cone: a monument to civil disobedience Was James Bond Icelandic? Ron trying the fermented shark.