Cruising Prince Christian Sound

Our third and last day in Greenland waters we spent the day cruising through Prince Christian Sound, one of the most scenic areas in Greenland. We've been on numerous Alaska cruises including Glacier Bay, but I'd say that Prince Christian Sound was our favorite.

Below is a link to a map which shows the locations of the three pictures in the remainder of this blog post. On the bottom left of the map you can also see the previous day's stop in Nanortalik. We also passed through Prince Christian Sound on our way back from Rotterdam to Boston 18 days later. You can see the pictures for that passage in another album. You can see the blog post for that day here.

Locations for Pictures Below

At 8:41am we moved close to the mouth of Prince Christian Sound. Passage through the sound is not guaranteed as at times ice can block the entrance or exit of the sound.

Iceberg Near Entrance to Prince Christian Sound

By 10:08am we had moved near the first of many glaciers that can be seen as you pass through the sound

Glacier and Iceberg

By 12:30 we were moving close to the exit for Prince Christian Sound. Below is one of the last glaciers we saw until our return trip through the sound on August 18.

Prince Christian Sound Glacier

There were more glaciers we viewed between this picture and the previous picture and the entire passage was very scenic. On the August 18th passage through the sound we were able to move closer to one of the main glaciers in the sound. I'll add a link to that blog when it's ready.

Click this link or one of the pictures above to see more pictures in the July 31 Prince Christian Sound photo album.

Click this link to see pictures in the later August 18 Prince Christian Sound photo album.

Nanortalik Greenland

Our second stop in Greenland was in Nanortalik, which in the Greenlandic language means "place with polar bears" though you're not likely to see a polar bear there (more marketing? :-). Although it is the 11th largest town in Greenland it only has a population of 1,185 people. Another town that when a cruise ship stops there suddenly doubles in size for the day. We hadn't booked any tours for that day, but it wasn't really necessary given the small size of the town. We spent much of the day at the Outdoor Museum.

View From Nanortalik Outdoor Museum Tower

Be sure to go to the outdoor museum when you're there and climb the tower to get a 360° of Nanortalik. The outdoor museum also contains some interesting exhibits from the earlier days of Nanortalik when it was even less populated.

Click this link or one of the pictures above to see more pictures in the Nanortalik photo album.

Paamiut Greenland

Our first stop in Greenland, and our first visit ever to Greenland, was in Paamiut. I feel a bit sorry for this colorful town of 1,500 people, who when a cruise ship stops, have an equal number of people, maybe more, descend upon the town for a day.

Fun facts: Kalaallisut is the Greenlandic language spoken by most people in Greenland as well as Inuit people who live in mainland Denmark. Greenland is a district of Denmark and has two representatives in the Danish parliament. 80% of Greenland is covered by ice leading to the often heard joke aboard the cruise: there is more ice in Greenland than in Iceland, and more green in Iceland than in Greenland. Greenland was probably named by the head of marketing.

For our first stop in Greenland we had booked an excursion with the cruise company. It was a simple walking tour which lasted an hour or so. There isn't much to the town, but what there is is very colorful.

Colorful Paamiut Buildings

If you visit Paamiut be sure to bring your bug nets and bug spray. We'd brought both on the cruise but made the mistake of leaving them aboard the ship. We were swarmed by mosquitoes which seemed to be common in Greenland when the weather was warm and the wind was calm. Although we never encountered as many bugs as that first day, we never again left the ship without our bug nets and bug spray.

Click this link or one of the pictures above to see more pictures in the Paamiut Greenland photo album including icebergs on our way into port.

Corner Brook Newfoundland Canada

The day after our stop in Sydney we were at the last Canadian stop we'd have until almost a month later when we were on our way home. This stop was at Corner Brook Newfoundland, the 5th largest town in Newfoundland and Labrador Canada with a population of almost 32,000 people.

We'd booked an excursion with the cruise company which took us on a short 15 minute scenic drive up the Humber River in a rented school bus, which appears to be the only "mass transit" vehicle available in the area. The tour took us from Corner Brook to the Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Tree in Steady Brook. The Heritage Tree is a totem pole carved from a 500 year old cedar tree in 1999.

Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Tree

Steady Brook appeared to be an interesting area even beyond the Heritage Tree. There were ski lifts which operate in the winter and a zip line which operates during the summer. And as with all of the stops in Canada, there were lush green forests as far as the eye could see.

Our next, and last major stop on this shore excursion, was at the Captain James Cook National Historic Site. This commemorates the landing of Captain Cook in 1767. It offered a beautiful view of Corner Brook and the surrounding area. You could even see our cruise ship behind the paper mill, which is the largest employer in the area.

View From Captain Cook Historic Site

There isn't a lot to do in Corner Brook. So when a cruise ship full of people docks in a town of 32,000 people, the Captain Cook Historic Site and statue is literally swarmed by tourists.

Click this link or one of the pictures above to see more pictures in the Corner Brook Newfoundland photo album.

Sydney Nova Scotia

The third day of our cruise took us into the first foreign port - Sydney Nova Scotia on of Cape Breton Island.

We booked a tour with the cruise company for this stop. It took us on an hour-long bus ride to the Alexander Graham Bell museum in Baddeck. Bell held the patent for the telephone and founded AT&T. He continued to experiment with new ideas his entire life and many of his experiments were conducted at his summer home in Baddeck.

Alexander Graham Bell Hydrofoil Prototype

The museum was somewhat interesting with early telephones, experimental boats and other devices that Bell worked on while in Baddeck.

Returning to port in Sydney we walked around the port a bit. It's not very big and the "highlight" of the area is the Sydney Fiddle, the largest fiddle in the world.

World's Largest Fiddle

Click this link or one of the pictures above to see more pictures in the Sydney Nova Scotia photo album.

At Sea

The second day of our cruise was spent at sea on our way to Sydney Nova Scotia. It was a relaxing day at sea without many pictures. Below is the best picture of the day, a sunset.

Sunset At Sea

The "highlight" of the day was a "beer tasting," though I don't know if you can really call it a beer tasting if the beers are Blue Moon, Sam Adams, Stella Artois and Guinness. They also included a few snacks, though I'd say the beer was better than the snacks. All in all the beers weren't bad, but not as good as what we've had at BJ's Restaurant Beer Dinners.

Click this link or one of the pictures above to see more pictures in the At Sea photo album.

Bar Harbor Maine

Our first stop was in Bar Harbor Maine, just a hop, skip and a jump away from Boston. We'd been to Bar Harbor a number of times as well, including trips and tours to Acadia National Park and Cadillac Mountain, two must-sees if you're ever in the Bar Harbor area. This time we stayed close to the pier taking a walk along the shore on a nearby path, which was quite scenic.

Elizabeth "Fixing" a Tipped Boulder

After the walk we visited one of our regular hangouts whenever we're in the area, the Atlantic Brewing Midtown. One of Elizabeth's primary goals on this trip was to sample the lobster rolls whenever possible. We hadn't found a good place to get one near the cruise terminal in Boston so we thought we'd check out the one at Atlantic Brewing. Elizabeth was skeptical, never trusting food at breweries, but she was pleasantly surprised to find such a good lobster roll at Atlantic Brewing. It wasn't filled with a mayo based sauce and a few pieces of lobster which she hates. Instead it was prepared her favorite way with just lobster, butter and a bun. It was also cooked just right, another problem we sometimes have with other lobster rolls.

Click this link or one of the pictures above to see more pictures in the Bar Harbor Maine photo album.

Boston Pre-Cruise

July 22, 2023

We flew into Boston the previous evening and spent the night at a hotel near the cruise terminal. After sleeping a few hours and grabbing a quick breakfast we checked out of the hotel, leaving our luggage for later pickup since it was too early to check in for the cruise. We had been to Boston a few times before so we didn't feel the need to travel into downtown Boston again. What we had missed before though was a visit to the local brewery, Harpoon. It's an easy walk from the pier so after taking in a few sights in the nearby area, checking into the cruise and dropping off our luggage, we spent the afternoon sampling a couple of beer flights.

Harpoon Brewery - Boston

Click the picture above or the link below to check out some of the "exciting" pre-cruise pictures, such as the sign outside the men's room in Denver airport designating it as a tornado shelter, the colorful sunset at Denver airport, and colorful sights near the cruise terminal including the Harpoon brewery beer menu and a beer flight.

Click this link or one of the pictures above to see more pictures in the Pre-Cruise photo album.