Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Cornerbrook.... NO, I am not walking up that hill again.

 Having been to Cornerbrook before, but now with a group that hadn't, we decided to repeat our walk around the small town and the picturesque Glynmill Inn trail.

Arriving in the early morning we watched as all the locals, donned in red jackets, busy getting the port area ready for us...  Shopkeepers were busy rearranging their wares, ready to entice us to enter their stores.  

Volunteers in full force to help with any questions we may have and the lone guitarist, singing to entertain us as we debark the ship.


Some great murals to take our photo's in front of


The town puts on a free shuttle to take us to the city centre where locals also have set up a small craft market.  As the demand for the shuttles dies down at the port, they start to also ferry people to the local Walmart, which proves to be just as popular as any highlight around town.


Small market out front of City Hall


Homes of Cornerbrook






As planned we walked around the stream trail, but I did refuse to do the walk up to the Captain Cook lookout ... there was no way I was doing that again....  Taxis are scarce, so if you really want to get up there, start chatting to a local and in true Newfoundland hospitality they will probably offer you a lift, wait for you, then bring you back.







The trail has also been transformed into a Memorial Park, so you will see lots of plaques in memory of love ones lost.


Of course, we had to have the obligatory coffee at Tim Hortons as a reward for our hike! 


 On our way back to the centre of town we passed a sign "Odins Axe" specialising in Axe Throwing / Bar / Food.   That had our names written all over it ... but alas it was still closed and not due to open 2pm, which was a bit late for our 4pm sailaway...


Instead, we enjoyed a lovely lunch at the Crown & Moose, with the treat of having a celebrity drop in.




Ahoy Captain.....

On the way back we called into a small Florist/ gift store and picked up a bar of Peace by Chocolate.  There is a lovely story behind this brand and how the business came to be.  There is a movie of the same name that tells the tale, and luckily it was showing on the Princess on Demand Channel....


ok, so we called into one more pub on the way back.

Finally back at the wharf, and lo and behold we find our ship's celebrity with a local celebrity.... a rather large black Newfoundland dog, now could this be the dog that we saw on our last visit that was only just 9 months old.

Any way the Captain escorted the dog along the pier and into the atrium for all to enjoy.  Why? cause he can!!




Look who got new hats and necklaces....  Well when near Labrador you need some Labradorite

Sail out was lovely along the channel and out to sea.


Just as we exit,  we pass the small, Woods Island.... Not much protection for these two!


Monday, November 20, 2023

Qaqortoq Greenland

A larger village than Nanortalik, still a small town in our eyes, but classified as a city  when it comes to Greenland.

 As the sun rose over Qaqartoq we found that we were not alone sitting in this little harbour.  Holland America’s Zaandam had already started shuttling it guests back and forth.

Qaqortoq looks different in the light of day

 Having been to Antarctica earlier this year we felt we didn’t need to spend the exorbitant cost of the tours that took you out up and close and personal to the icebergs, a tour that was missed the last time we were here due to the weather. We spent the day just wandering around from one side of the town to the other. 

Zandam at Anchor
We tendered to the information centre which is this red building ... just next to it there is a small market set up by the locals as you can from the picture below...


To add to the quirkiness of Qaqortoq a local artist decided to create an open-air art gallery throughout the town.  Soliciting the help from other artists from other Nordic countries, she created Stone & Man. Many are around the waterfront, but as you wander around, you come across some of these wonderful stone sculptures.











Small open-air fishmarket


Fisherman having a rest and people watching..... or people watching them ...

Qaqortoq, just like all of Greenland is very Photogenic






I was just mesmerised by the moss in this little stream... made me think of Monet.







Finally found a place where we could sit for a coffee,  we ran into our friends with we shared our foodies tour in Reykjavik and they told us about their adventure out to these hots springs they had just been on... via a helicopter


Nice graffiti around the water front.


Called into the local supermarket and checked out the Wine Section ....  What the !  never seen this cask wine in Australia LOL....






On return to the ship we were feeling a little hungry so we ordered Pizza and salad to enjoy out on our back deck on 11

Before we left the Captain put one of the young bridge officers in charge of the ship and she did a big reverse and lined us up with Zandam.  What ensued was a horn-blowing match and then we quickly sped off.  Had to laugh as later in the afternoon friends debated with us that the Zandam left before us...
"It did we saw it sail past".... they did not realise that we were going backwards!!


Managed to capture the last of the iceberg we would see on this amazing trip.


I thought this photo gave a good concept of just how big these floating bits of Ice actually are.