Our journey home did prove more difficult than expected. Originally we were scheduled to fly out of Kangerlussuaq at around 10:00 in the morning; so everyone was ready for an early and good to go after a quick breakfast.

At 5:00 in the morning however it was announced on the ship, that the plane did have a technical issue and had not even left Hamburg for the outbound journey. Breakfast got rescheduled to later and most people just turned around in bed and went for some more sleep.

Ultimately our plane made it into Kangerlussuaq only at around 18:30, with our departure delayed to close to 20:00. Also – we were not going to Hamburg direct. The plane was due in Copenhagen the next morning for its normal rotation, so we were now heading to Copenhagen as well. We arrived there at around 4:00 the next morning. Here we now had to wait for a connecting flight to Hamburg. That flight was bound to leave at around 05:15. I think, it was past 7:00, when I got out of baggage claim … I finally was home around 15:00 and completely exhausted.

We boarded Hanseatic from the tender boats, were welcomed on board and offered lunch. Most people spent the afternoon exploring the ship, unpacking and simply moving in.

A mandatory emergency drill and safety briefing followed, after which – in the late afternoon – the journey finally started and we left Kangerlussuaq and made our way through the Søndre Strømfjord (aka. Kangerlussuaq Fjord) towards the open sea into the Baffin Bay. The next stop was in Canada, so this was already our farewell from Greenland – with the promise of being back soon.

It was a quick flight to Kangerlussuaq, taking a bit more than four hours. Now – with the time difference between Greenland and Hamburg also being four hours, our arrival time was only something like 20 minutes apart from our departure time (just in different time zones). This meant, there was a full day ahead of us … with the ship – obviously – not ready for us yet.

So we were taken on a bus tour around the Kangerlussuaq countryside, up a nearby mountain with occasional stops, some fantastic views and loads of fresh air (too fresh for those, who did not consider taking some additional layers of clothing into their carry-on luggage).

The bus tour finally made it back to Kangerlussuaq (which basically only consists of the airport and the supporting businesses – with a mere ~ 600 inhabitants) and continued on to the small port, where tender boats were waiting for us to get us to the MV Hanseatic.

This morning Maren dropped me at Hamburg airport, where I made my way through check-in and security (plus a tea on the way) to the Air Greenland charter flight to Kangerlussuaq. Easily the best trans-Atlantic in Economy ever with comfortable seats, ample space, good service, excellent food and the best entertainment on the other side of the windows.