The tender comes within sight of the shore and the dogs can already be heard. Hundreds of Greenland huskies, tethered near the houses, punctuate the approach to Sisimiut with their barking. Red, blue, yellow and green façades cling to the rock between the fjord and the mountain. This is Greenland's second-largest town: just over 5,500 inhabitants, 75 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, and an energy that surprises in such a harsh setting.

Arriving by tender

Ships anchor in the bay and land their passengers at the tender dock, right in the centre. Everything is then done on foot: distances are short, even if the streets rise and fall with the terrain. The old colonial quarter is about a five-minute walk from the landing, which leaves plenty of time to explore, even during a port call of just a few hours.

The colonial quarter and its jawbone gate

The Sisimiut Museum occupies a group of 18th- and 19th-century buildings, remnants of the trading post founded by the Danes in 1756 under the name Holsteinsborg. You enter by passing beneath a gate formed of whale jawbones, a striking reminder of the era when whaling sustained the colony. Next door stands the blue church of 1775, the second oldest in Greenland, with its modest bell tower and painted wooden walls.

The museum's rooms trace 4,500 years of human occupation, beginning with the Saqqaq culture, whose remains archaeologists have found in the region. Hunting tools, kayaks, skin clothing sewn with sinew: each object bears witness to the ingenuity deployed, generation after generation, to live from the sea and the tundra in an unforgiving climate.

A community geared toward adventure

Sisimiut happily presents itself as Greenland's outdoor capital. It's the northernmost town in the country whose port remains ice-free year-round, and the southernmost where dog sledding is practised. In winter, teams set off directly from residential neighbourhoods; in summer, hikers head for Nasaasaaq, the peak that watches over the rooftops, or onto the Arctic Circle Trail, which links the coast to the interior over several days of walking.

• The Taseralik cultural centre, on the shore of a lake, presents exhibitions and performances and houses a welcoming café.
• Artisans' workshops offer carvings in bone and caribou antler and traditional beadwork.
• The still-active fishing harbour lets you watch the boats return laden with shrimp and halibut.

Walking between two worlds

A simple walk through the streets reveals Arctic daily life: fish-drying racks near the houses, snowmobiles waiting for winter, children playing outside in all weather. Scandinavian modernity and Inuit traditions intertwine here seamlessly. The supermarket sells Danish products as well as seal or reindeer, and conversations switch from Greenlandic to Danish in the same sentence.

A last look from the bay

When it's time to return to the ship, the tender pulls away from the dock and the town recomposes itself before your eyes: the splashes of colour of the houses, the dark mass of Nasaasaaq, the clouds caught on the peaks. You leave with the feeling of having touched a way of life where nature still rules, and where each generation reinvents the balance between the hunters' heritage and the promises of the present. Few port calls leave such a clear impression of having truly arrived somewhere.