We woke up after ... some sleep. The curtains were quite good and helped a lot. But it still felt very strange.
The hotel breakfast was good, but we were quite exited for our flight to Ilulissat today, which was quite special, as we are not going to take the direct flight but one with a short stopover in Aasiaat. Because we can.
A330 from CPH arriving ...
And because we knew from yesterday that the small terminal would be completely overcrowded when we landed, we looked for a small corner and made ourselves at home.
From time to time, one of us went out or into the café to take photos or buy something to drink.
Photos of the US Air Force, for example, who had probably flown here to refuel because of the search operation for the back than missing submersible on the Titanic.
And then we boarded our flight to Ilulissat via Aasiaat. To our surprise, a bus was waiting for us at the domestic gate, which took us around the A330 to a waiting Dash-8. By the way, there is no security or anything like that on domestic flights. However, there are boarding passes and seat reservations. Even if these are seen more as suggestions (one sat in our seats that I had chosen).
Boarding was very orderly and with plenty of photo opportunities.
Boarding completed!
And off we go onto the runway and take off in a westerly direction.
Flight time was 30 minutes to Aasiaat. And now listen up Lufthansa: you can have a full drinks service in such short time!
The windows were quite dirty so the picture are not representing the beauty which we saw from the plane.
Quickly after that we started the approach to Aasiaat, flown in a hard right turn. On the left in front of the propeller you can see the runway, which is approached relatively steeply.
And here is the airport of the 5th largest city in Greenland in all its splendour.
The landing was quite rustic, then the pilot went full throttle only to follow up with a sharp U-turn to taxi back to the terminal. And because the aircraft had to be refuelled, it was "Everybody out!".
Those who got off here were warmly welcomed. And the rest waited at the "gate". In other words, the other door to the apron.
The number of flights is manageable. The predicted departure delay of ... 1 minute was funny!
Then boarding was announced. Literally, because an employee briefly shouted something into the room in Greenlandic in a rather raspy voice. Everyone went back to the aircraft and sat down again for the 18 Minute flight in Ilulissat.
Ilulissat means ‘icebergs’ in Greenlandic, which should also explain the title of this blog article. And the first of these icebergs all come from the Ilulissat ice field, which is filled with icebergs by one of Greenland's most active glaciers, the Sermeq Kujalleq, with a flow rate of 19 metres per day! Every day, several million tonnes of ice calve from the glacier and fill the bay off Ilulissat with large and small icebergs. The large icebergs also drift quite far and it is believed that the iceberg that sank the Titanic came from here.
At the beginning we were still thinking "Oh, how beautiful! Some Icebergs!", shortly before landing this had given way to “Wow, so many icebergs!”.
Impressive!
Touchdown and again a short walk to the terminal.
A very small terminal which had something reassuringly village-like about it.
And after a waiting period (Greenland style, not German style) a bus collected us and brought us to our hotel for the next, the Hotel Icefjord. Where our room was already waiting for us. A room with a decent view ...
