Deb Travels the World

Our second Greenland port was also accessed by tender, but there were two docks and the ferry time was much shorter. As a result no line ups in either direction. Steve had had enough walking and decided to stay on the ship while I went into port. I sat up top in the tender and took a few pics.

Qaqortoq was much larger (>2500) and clearly more prosperous. The supermarket was well stocked, but the prices were high.

And I bought a T-shirt at the Great Greenland fur company.

The houses were similarly brightly coloured and the town was very hilly. I walked up and down every hill and every linking staircase. It was safer on the stairs as there are no sidewalks and the cars are faster than you’d expect.

Whale meat just carved for sale. Apparently, tastes like beef.

This is the town square and fountain.

Qaqortoq is known for its carved stone art near the dock.

Before heading back to the ship, I wanted to sample Qajaq, the local beer. There was a wheat, which I didn’t try, but I enjoyed a small glass of each of the IPA and the dark beer, and then one of the men I was chatting with bought us another beer, so I was quite happy as I ferried back on the tender.

Very happy with the visit to Greenland, especially seeing the difference between the two towns. Would have liked to compare Nuuk as well, but enjoyed the visit. There was disappointment that the weather remained overcast so no chance of northern lights. I’m glad we saw them in Iceland in April.

Looking forward to St. John’s, Newfoundland as our next stop.

Our three days at sea turned into five, after the captain announced the weather was bad and it was too rough to go to Nuuk, our first port and Greenland’s capital. This was to be the “best” port with the most to do and also the only accessible port for those with mobility issues. Everyone was understandably disappointed and some disgruntled, but most just hoped for better weather in the other two ports, both further south than Nuuk.

Nanortalik and Qaqortoq both required tenders. Nanortalik was small (pop < 1500) with only one tender dock and a 30 minute boat trip to shore. The process was glacial. We picked up our tickets at 10 and didn’t get on the tender until after 1pm, but had been told it would only be an hour wait. Then the line up to get back on the boat was very long, but a local entertained the line.

Nanortalik: view from the tender & pics of the small village. It was pretty and quaint, but seemed a bit run down and the kids were begging for dollars.

We’ve been essentially without internet for the past week or so on board the Caribbean Princess cruise out of New York (Brooklyn port). It’s our first time on Princess and there’ve been a few hiccups. We’re now en route to St. John’s NFLD after a couple of stops in Greenland. But first, here are some pics from the sail-away from NY and the first two ports, Sydney and Halifax Nova Scotia.

A wet day in Halifax

And a long walk in Sydney

As mentioned, it’s our first time with this cruise line. Embarkation was very easy and we were on the ship and in our cabin by noonish. The ship is nice. Good artwork; we like that the hallways are filled with photos of cruise destinations, apparently submitted by guests. Our deck’s hallway is mostly Alaska, but others cover European and Caribbean locations. Very nice.

We have an obstructed ocean view, partially obscured by a life boat, but we can still see the water.

The ship has a phone app that is used for viewing the deck plans, finding venues and entertainment events, locating and/or chatting with each other…and, best of all, for ordering drinks. The app and wearable medallion know where we are on the ship, so we can be virtually anywhere and the drink server will find you. Also handy for ordering extra towels and hangers, room service etc. This is really nice, because Steve can order a cocktail while I order a tea and they both arrive even though they have to come from different places on the ship.

The concept is great and I hope the work on it a bit more because execution is not as good as it should be. Sometimes the orders are inexplicably cancelled, or “delivered” but not actually received. Options, such as lemon, are often missed. Also, the app is VERY slow at times and didn’t always work. Although, despite having virtually no internet this week in the Greenland area, we were usually able to still order drinks (it was often the only feature on the app working).

Anyway - small problems. We are finding the service a bit hit and miss; often slow. Some of that might be due to crew illness - there’s apparently an outbreak of Covid on the ship and some passengers are quarantined; it seems likely that some crew are as well. Also, the venues are relatively crowded (less so today, after the captain asked everyone to be more vigilant in wearing masks). This is largely due to the location - given the colder temperatures, no one is hanging by the pool or in the open decks, which channels off a lot of people on southern cruises.

So we are not finding the ship to be as good an experience as we’d hoped, but again, small irritants and not large problems.

Three days at sea and then - Greenland!

An uneventful and only slightly late flight to JFK via Frankfurt. Uneventful is always good when it comes to international travel. Nice 3.5 hours in the airport lounge, including food and rest. We could have even used a sleeping pod, but we chose not to. Luggage arrived after only a small delay and we Ubered to our hotel in Brooklyn. Significant difference in the cost vs Uber in Poland about 4 times the cost for a similar time/distance.

First a few pics from my Sunday morning walk through downtown Brooklyn to the river. You can just see the Brooklyn Bridge in the background.

In the afternoon, we enjoyed cheering on the Mets to victory over the Phillies, including a home run and a good hitting game by both teams, although the Mets posted a shutout.

Near Citi Field where the Mets play is Flushing Meadows Corona Park and the site of the 1964 World’s Fair. You might recognize the towers from the Men in Black movie.

Did a few loads of laundry at a great place around the corner, so we are all set for our cruise, with clean clothes and everything.

Next post from Caribbean Princess, which will be our first on that cruise line.

A final walk around Wieliczka, including a visit to the “graduation tower” for some brine therapy (Prophylactic inhalations permit to cleanse the respiratory tracts and that is why they are also referred to as nebulisation therapy, according to their website.) Salty water flows constantly down the sides, which are made of branches.

The the very efficient and comfortable train from Wieliczka to the Krakow airport and a short Uber (although we could have walked) to the nearby hotel. We decided to stay one less night in Wieliczka because we have a morning flight and need a Covid test beforehand (this test - thankfully negative- was nit required for the flight or entry to the US, but is required for our cruise out of NY on Monday). Some picks from my morning walk and I liked the roof on the train station.

After dropping the luggage at the new hotel - google maps still shows it as a forest in the satellite view -

we walked to the train station and took the 20 min trip to the old town, hoping to secure last minute tickets to the Rynek underground museum, which was closed last time we tried. Unfortunately, we were not successful, so we walked across the river and we’re lucky enough to find late tickets to the Oskar Schindler museum, which was very well done, although we were disappointed to be too late to see the film with individual’s stories.

Now, Friday morning, We are just about ready to board our first flight to Frankfurt. Gotta go…