Today is the start of the fifth and final week of the 2023 Voyage of the Vikings and the Zuiderdam visits Quaqortoq this morning.
There are no shore excursions for anyone. I guess when they changed dates, Holland America didn’t check on tour availability. There’s a Princess ship visiting today that booked all the limited inventory.
Qaqortoq Morning
I was up for a couple hours during the night so was able to sleep in until 6:30 when I did get back to sleep. The fog horn was sounding so I knew what that meant! Up in the Crow’s nest we got our coffees but couldn’t see a thing.
About 8 am, we headed to breakfast in the MDR.
Steve was happy to see the cinnamon roll french toast on the specials. I ordered a mimosa along with coffee.
We both had the fruit plate.
It was very nice! I also had a bagel. Steve enjoyed his meal while I had Irish oats. I appreciated that they sent out warm milk with it.
We decided to wait until the fog lifts and it’s open tendering to go ashore. Open tendering opened at 9:35 am but it was still very foggy. Steve went to the Ocean Bar to read.
Qaqortoq Afternoon
The fog lifted right before we went to lunch. This made the lido busier than usual as everyone was doing the same thing; eating before going ashore.
No photos but I had lasagna and my favorite peanut butter silk pie! Before going to our cabin to get our things, we checked out the Island Princess “parked” immediately behind us and the scenic view of Quaqortoq.
We walked right onto a tender and we still had comfortable seating when they took off towards shore. Got a good picture of the ship as we pulled away.
We had plenty of time to explore this small town.
Once ashore we started following the route from the cruise director’s port map. Unfortunately there aren’t street names so I’m guessing at the turns. At least I remember some of sights from his talk like this fountain of whales spouting water.
What I appreciate is that this town of 1200 residents made room for art in their town. There were several sculptures including some by one of Greenland’s most well known artist, Aka Hoegh.
The faces are part of her stone and man series. That’s the Qaqortoq hotel above. We ran into our table mates who were also taking a walk. We told them we’re going to the lido for dinner with the American BBQ menu.
The only time the flies were a problem was by the creek. Not bad enough to put our head nets on but some people were wearing them. I love the colorful houses.
The ship had a block party event at 4 pm. We didn’t partake but crew and officers were coming down the corridors offering wine and snacks to guests who could then meet their neighbor. Great idea except in this age of Covid and we’ve already been on for 29 days!
This half of the cruise seems to be having more special events. The Orange party, Zuiderdam ball, block party, etc. About 3 pm or so the town landfill had a fire and we could see helicopters dropping water.
It was still quite a big column of smoke hours later. You can see it behind the Island Princess ship as we both sailed away.
There were lots of icebergs as we left.
This iceberg had apparently broken in two as it had a trail of ice debris.
Qaqortoq Evening
Here is tonight’s main dining room menu.
We had dinner in the Lido buffet and it was a mixed bag.
The bbq legs were great but the pork ribs weren’t tender enough.
I didn’t like the desert shooters.
The mint tasted like cough medicine! We decided to skip the show (surprise, surprise) and instead I watched a movie. It was “Never Too Late” with James Cromwell. Just okay movie.
Turned clocks back 30 minutes tonight for Newfoundland time.
Click the image below for the full daily program.
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