Monday 22 June 2015

The word of the day: "The last"

It was really hard to leave Ilulissat, the town of the icebergs. Many guests used their last opportunity to see the large icebergs, passing by in the midnight sun. The reflections in the sea were marvellous as we had no wind. Nobody knows how many pictures were shot during our last night in the ice. We were heading south during the night and when we woke up in the morning we recognized that we left the sunny weather behind. But especially during the morning we were so busy that it was not so important for us. Perhaps it was even good that we had some dark clouds, they made it for us a bit easier to be prepared to say good bye to Greenland.

In the morning we had our last lectures, last bridge visits and last informations about our flights home. As we had a last landing in the afternoon many passengers started packing to be ready for Itilleq, our last destination of our cruise.

Itilleq is a very small fishing community app. 50km south of Sisimiut. The settlement was founded as a trade station in the 18th century. Today there are living app. 100 inhabitants in small and colourful houses. 


We were greeted by the children at the pier and we got the possibility for a nice Kaffemik (coffee klatsch) in private houses during our stay. What a wonderful personal experience! 



Some of our guests used the last opportunity for a kayak trip or a fishing adventure with our officers. Look at the pictures and you will see how successful they were. Most of the caught fish was cod, Fjord cod and the Atlantic cod.




But our last highlight of our Greenland experience was perhaps the soccer match between MS FRAM and Itilleq. Everybody felt young again and even though we lost (like nearly always), it was an unforgettable sport event.



Back on board we were invited by our captain for a Farewell cocktail. Later on we had a special auction for the "Association for Greenlandic Children". Next to the Hurtigruten flag and the chart we got the possibility to vote for a special log book done by our captain. All his morning announcements, ice charts, weather forecasts and so on have been collected with all his personal notes. We say "thank you" in the name of all Greenlandic kids who will profit of your donations. 


Around 08:00pm we sailed into the Kangerlussuaq fjord. Here we could see our last glaciers. It was nice to sit a last time in the bar for a last drink and a last small talk with other guests before we went to bed for our last night on board our lovely lady MV FRAM.