Not Brownland, nor Yellowland - not even Redland but Greenland. Yes. Let us go there today, The photo illustrations will all be courtesy of Streetview.
I realise that many residents of Blogworld are geographically challenged but with a modicum of confidence I will tentatively suggest that everybody has heard of Greenland! Furthermore, most of you will know that it is a stonking big island squeezed up against eastern Canada. and that its name is a mischievous deception. Surely it should have been Whiteland!
In terms of size, how does Greenland measure up? It has a land area of 836,300 square miles. As you know, Australia is another massive island but at 2.97 million square miles it is more than three times larger than Greenland. However, Greenland is much bigger than Mexico or Alaska and almost ten times bigger than The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Despite its vast size, the population of Greenland is only 56,770 - the same size as the towns of Loughborough in Leicestershire and Macclesfield in Cheshire. The vast majority or Greenlanders live in or around the capital city - Nuuk which means "tip".
89% of Greenlanders have an indigenous Inuit heritage. The Kalaallit of western Greenland speak Kalaallisut while the Tunumilt of eastern Greenland speak Tunumilt oraasiat. The Inguhuit of north Greenland speak Inuktun.
I would love to visit Greenland in person but I don't suppose I ever will. Instead, let us board the Google Streetview car and go to Nuuk - virtually.
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| Queen Ingrid's Hospital, Nuuk |
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| Streetview imagery on foot - not by car |
It wouldn't be for me - too barren, too cold. But definitely fascinating for a visit!
ReplyDeleteGreenlanders must be very hardy people.
DeleteWe often visit Iceland for Vimto and Holland's pies..
ReplyDeleteDo you visit Legoland for lego?
DeleteI don't think it'll be on my list of places to visit. My mate Jim 'grassy' Green said it was named after his grandad.
ReplyDeleteDoes it smoke a pipe and wear a massive beige cardigan?
DeleteHigh rise construction seems a little strange in such a small place but there is, presumably, a reason. It's not on my list of places to visit. I'm sure Mr Trump will make another attempt to buy it. It'll be a distraction.
ReplyDeleteTrump wants to make it the 51st state - for oil and minerals but I know that you knew that already Graham. Let us hope that Denmark resists with all of its might.
DeleteBrrr... just when I was starting to feel warm
ReplyDeleteIn comparison The Isle of Man is a tropical paradise.
DeleteThere is, or was, a video (probably more than one) about Greenland on the BBC Home News website some time ago. It looked an interesting place, but not one that would hold the attention for long - there really isn't much there.
ReplyDeleteCan't see an endless flotilla of cruise ships calling in - the infrastructure couldn't support the masses, even for a short time. Although I think Voyages Jules Verne take small ships there, but more under the guise of research, rather than tourism.
No funfairs? No aqua parks? No casinos? Just natural beauty! How boring!
DeleteSo far they only have one case of coronavirus, which is making it look quite attractive at the moment. ;)
ReplyDeleteThe cases in Greenland just doubled ADDY!
DeleteIt looks like Newfoundland. Starkly beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThere is a good book by Jared Diamond called "Collapse" which talks about the failure of the Norse community on Greenland. He also wrote another very good book called "Guns, Germs and Steel" which I would highly recommend.
Stay healthy.
I certainly would like to read a book about Greenland Lily but my "To Read" pile is already as big as the CN Tower in Toronto.
DeleteYP, re your reply to Lilicedar: As the years start creeping up, even on me, and I reflect on things I'd like to do (say, like you, reading - indeed re-reading - certain books), I sometimes think: Does it matter? Who the hell cares? I'll take it to my grave. Fat load of good that'll do. And then I remember my father and laugh. He was in despair when I, his eldest daughter, read Camus, Nietzsche and Schopenhauer (the latter a counter point) at an impressionable age. Kierkegaard I hid as best I could. He didn't wrestle their respective works from my hands but I can, now, see where he was coming from.
DeleteExistentialist greetings,
U
You took on challenging texts at an early age. Why weren't you reading "Bunty" like the other girls?
DeleteGreenland is interesting as it is very, very different. The big fear is that the ice on Greenland is melting and contributing to ocean water rising.
ReplyDeleteI flew across Greenland on my way to Vancouver. It's very big and so much white wilderness. I have heard about the continuing ice loss.
DeleteWhere do you apply for a job as a streetview camera walker?
ReplyDeleteOn an application form.
DeleteGreenland actually looks greener than I thought it might. We learned in school that Greenland and Iceland should have exchanged names!
ReplyDeleteI have visited Iceland and there's not a lot of green there - mostly the lichens on lava fields.
DeleteI love Google Earth and Streetview and use them often. The only way I will ever be a world traveler, I am afraid. I was thinking that Greenland was about the only country left without any cases of the coronavirus but I am wrong. I just checked the current virus map and it has at least two cases as of today.
ReplyDeleteI should go and have a look at your street Bonnie but I do not know its name.
DeleteI like the word "stonking".
ReplyDeleteGreenland doesn't FEEL close to eastern Canada, at least not southeastern Canada, which is where I live. In fact, I googled distances from your hometown to the southernmost point of Greenland and my home town to the same point, and then of course had to convert (whew, what a bunch of work) and we are only 455 miles closer than you are!
I applaud your geographical research Jenny. Very good. It would take me a long while to walk 455 miles. At least a month.
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