Greenland: June 2025: Day 6: Sisimiut

Greenland

June 2025: Day 6: Sisimiut

Joyce Zhai, senior marketing manager at United, chatting with one of her highest-revenue customers.

Windy day in Nuuk.

Pilots in the cockpit, almost ready to go.

N17306, 2 year old 737 MAX 8, for today's flight.

Lots of dust kicked up as the engines start.

The butt of the 737 is not the prettiest.

Breakfast sandwich at the airport is good, but they could use an egg ring to make the eggs instead of just scrambling them.

Could not resist bacon.

Chicken congee a few hours later was delicious as well.

Heard a crazy noise shortly before my flight was due to leave, turns out it was an incoming Luftwaffe A400M.

Four Europrop TP400-D6 turboprops make one hell of a noise.

Slightly delayed boarding due to the Luftwaffe inbound.

Special Pacific Skies 2024 livery on this A400M.

Close-up of refueling probe and Europrop TP400-D6 with 8-bladed propeller.

One last photo of the A400M. It looks massive compared to the DHC-8-200.

Slightly newer apartments close to Nuuk Airport (apologies, Air Greenland's windows are not known for optical clarity).

Hotel Soma in Sisimiut is much nicer than any other hotel on the trip so far.

The view, including the new wing of the hotel, still under construction. Shower.

Shower.

Bathroom (reverse angle).

Sled dog tour with Backcountry Greenland.

Sebastian Thunberg, one of Backcountry Greenland's guides.

Holding a very happy sled dog puppy.

Sled dog puppy knows he's been a bad dog.

All of Backcountry Greenland's dogs.

Super excited to see their handler.

Soooo many Greenlandic sled dogs.

Stretching.

Stay on the wooden path if you can to avoid any poo. You might still get pee'd on.

Big boy, the upper end of the typical 30kg-50kg (66lb-110lb) weight.

Puppy begging for attention.

They love directional signposts here.

Well-cared for artwork on some old apartment buildings in Sisimiut.

Nana's Shop, sort of a Thai grocery and restaurant.

Carbs on carbs, with some veggie and some protein.

You know veggies are expensive if the are slicing the baby corn.

Sisimiut is starting to expand north of Kangerluarsunnguaq Bay.

Looking back towards the harbor.

Hotel Soma.

Got to the airport very early for my flight to Sisimiut so I could see off the big chunk of the inaugural flight crowd who was leaving today. Patrick Quayle and Joyce from United, Zach Honig from Chase, a gaggle of social media influencers, most of the rest of the United frequent flier group-- was good to catch up with them one last time before they all headed home. The little cafe at the airport is actually quite tasty, so was a nice place to work for a few hours and catch the second departure of UA 81.

Highlight of the day wasn't the departure of United flight 81, but the arrival of a Luftwaffe A400M arriving in Nuuk. Having spent the past few days hearing the little turboprops of Air Greenland's DHC-8-200's with little twin Pratt and Whitney PW127 engines, hearing four giant Europrop TP400-D6's on arrival (11,000shp vs. 2,054shp) was an experience, first as it did a low pass and then it actually landed. Walking out on to the tarmac as the A400M pulled in was waaaaay cool, even if my flight did end up slightly delayed as a result.

Sisimiut, Greenland's second (or third, they're about the same) largest city/town, was my next stop. At a quarter the size of Nuuk, it's quite a bit smaller and more hilly, and I strongly suspect I did not take full advantage of what Sisimiut had to offer by staying in town proper. Hotel Soma in Sisimiut was by far the nicest hotel of the trip, although food at Hotel Arctic was better and more varied (and neither had much of a gym).

Due to insufficient bookings, my backcountry dinner was canceled, although I still got to see sled dogs (and sled dog puppies!), which are extraordinarily cute and apparently love attention from their handlers and accompanying tourists. Apparently Greenlandic sled dogs are much closer to wild than I previously appreciated, so those signs everywhere to not approach them are to be taken seriously. Backcountry Greenland's dogs, tho, regularly receive tours and are quite used to humans-- although I would not approach them without a tour guide from Backcountry Greenland.