Museums Gratis

You know what is nice? Updated, informative and interesting museums that are free. That's right in a city where a cup of drip coffee is 5 dollars, some of the best museums are free.

While in Copenhagen we visited two stunning museums, the Post and Telephone museum (my favorite) and the National Museum of Denmark. 

Post and Telephone Museum 

Exterior of the Post and Tele Museum

This museum is not listed in the Rick Steve's Denmark snapshot. I am starting to think him and I have very different interests in tourist attractions. He is great about art and history museums but seems to have little interest in science or just unusual cool things. I read about this museum on the visit Copenhagen website. I saw that it was free and located in a cool neighborhood. I expected it to be a small kitchy museum full of random telephones but instead was amazed to find it was a large updated museum that talks extensively about the history of the Danish post office.

Copenhagen: a city of Awesome

Copenhagen was never before on my travel radar. If not for my work having me fly back through there, I never would have experience the wonderful culture charm of this beautiful city.

The only way for me to fly home from Greenland was to go to Copenhagen. Greenland and Denmark are both countries in the Kingdom of Denmark (whatever that means). Doing a little research before I left, Copenhagen sort of reminded me of Seattle. The cities are about the same size, around the same latitude, have similar weather, recycle, value culture and are both broken up by lots of water (Copenhagen is on an island). So naturally I extended my layover to about a week and turned it into a vacation.

Copenhagen is a wonderful mix of old and new. Despite having been a city since medieval times, most of the buildings were built in the 1700s after a massive fire destroyed over 50% of the medieval city. Afterwards the King decreed that all building must be made out of brick. So most of the city is old (but not super old) brick buildings and then interspersed are sleek modern buildings indicative of Danish design. 

Hello Ice Sheet

While in Greenland, I touched the side of the ice sheet, I flew over the ice sheet, I stood across a crumbled ice ramp from the ice sheet but on my last day in Kangerlussuaq, I finally got to walk on it. We drove that bumpy dirt road all the way to the end. The road ends at the side of the ice. We hiked up a well traveled path with other scientists from KISS onto the ice. Normally this time of year the ice sheet would be a thin layer of dirt and gravel over ice cut with small flowing streams. But recent snow left the ice sheet blanketed in a winter wonderland.

Aerial view of the Ice Sheet

A top the ice sheet

Helicopters and Quick Sand

"I have never landed on sand before so you will have to tell where looks best"

On a crisp sunny Sunday morning we met our Norwegian helicopter pilot on the landing pad. There are no helicopters stationed in Kangerlussuaq except a massive search and rescue vessel.

Search and Rescue Helicopter in Hanger

We had four potential stops picked out. The principle investigators (PIs) had scoured google earth looking for sub glacial drainage sites and found 4 candidates (one heavily researched by another team). Our pilot was new to flying in Greenland, his first summer. Because there is no helicopter in Kangerlussuaq he had to fly a B12 from Nuuk. The B12 is a much smaller helicopter than the Huey used in Thule. And in the Air Greenland colors it looks almost like a lady bug. With only 3 of us traveling this time, I got both a window seat and a headset! So it felt like a real helicopter mission. 

Kangerlussuaq: A whole new Greenland

Quick geography lesson. Thule is almost at the top of the globe. It is 750 miles North of the arctic circle. It is latitude 76 degrees. There is only one city in the world with more people further North and that is in Svalbard. Kangerlussuaq however is right on the arctic circle around latitude 67 degrees and is inland as opposed to on the coast. There is a large sound that connects the town to the ocean.

Totally stolen from mappery.com

While in Thule, I was technically still in the US. Being on a military base is still considered the United States. They didn't stamp my passport until I boarded the plane for Kangerlussuaq. And so most of the people in Thule are Danish or American. The prices for food, goods and postage are all heavily subsidized. 

Greenland however is expensive.

Thule by Helicopter

I had never ridden in a helicopter before. But I am a big fan of roller coasters, I am not afraid of heights and I love to try new things. So of course, I was super excited to go.

We arrived to the Air Greenland hanger on Thule Air Force base with 4 people and a truck load of equipment at 9am. Our plan was to collect two river samples and an ice sample and if possible land on the ice sheet. It was a large helicopter a "Huey", the same helicopters used in Vietnam. It could seat about 9 people not counting the crew  and carry cargo. Weather is always an issue for flying and in Greenland the weather can be fierce but we got a nearly perfect day. Partly cloudy and not so much wind.