Filling in some gaps in Spain, a Greenland cruise and I'm getting a tattoo!

[Flashback]

Actually here is one....... it ended up arriving 3 days later and not to where it said it would be. It then wasn't send up to the town I was told it would be and finally was told I'd get it............... when we finish the cruise. Hey ho. No compensation given, but I did sprain my ankle quite badly so they covered that bill.

 

[RooFlyer]

I can confirm @Flashback 's travails with his bag. I mean - how does a charter flight to a cruise starting in a very remote port take off without every bag checked as being on board? And then the faffing around as to where it was and where it would go - only to find that it went to Nuuk!

Ilulissat - its a popular spot due to the Ilulissat Icefjord (UNESCO world heritage) that is another prolific 'calver' - the greatest in the northern hemisphere. A bit unusual in that the front of the glacier is some way up the narrow fjord and massive icebergs clog the channel, often being grounded along the way until they melt a bit, re-float and are released into the sea, at the town. Hence all the (relatively small) icebergs as we approached last night.

We woke up to an overcast day, bit of fog and some rain forecast.



In the right background are the icebergs flowing out of the ice fjord, left to right.



Activities offered were boat trips amongst the icebergs, flights and walks of various length. The boat trips and flights were all expensive, so @k_sheep got busy and booked us nine on a private boat trip, for ???half the cost.

We took the boat zodiac into the port, which was very busy. Ilulissat is Greenland's thirst largest town and is growing rapidly, with tourism and fishing being the largest industries. In the town 'tours and activities' are advertised on every second building.





We went out on a 10-seater open motorboar/zodiac . I was a bit apprehensive at first, thinking of three hours exposed to the rain, but the rain held off and it was a remarkable adventure.













@k_sheep and +1 bravely took the front seats, completely exposed. It was cold!

 

[RooFlyer]

As it turned out, a very large berg that was grounded and clogging up the ice fjord re-floated the day before yesterday, so we were able to penetrate far into the fjord compared to cruises to date, this year. This is a record of all the cruises done this year, leaving from the port on the right. The ice fjord is emerging at the bottom right. We are at '1' in the lower centre, with yesterday, just 2 cruises that weren't forced to cruise the outer reaches.



Basically it was zooming amongst massive icebergs

Fishing for cod on longlines.



Returning to town

 

[RooFlyer]

Like I said, its a very busy port. There are possibly more boats than cars





The group re-gathered in the gin palace for a de-brief and G&Ts, with the Ts by this time kindly supplied by @Flashback . I was sitting by the balcony door, when I heard a whooshing noise. Thar be whales!





Three humpbacks gliding by, very close to the ship

Later, we weighed anchor and again glided and manoeuvred our way out through the ice pack.

Hard to see, but the view from the observation loun ge was 180 degrees of icebergs.



And the view down below would normally be a but unnerving.