At more than 72 degrees north latitude, Upernavik occupies a rocky island in the middle of an archipelago with hundreds of them. Icebergs drift between the channels, broken off from the neighbouring glaciers, their whiteness standing out against the dark grey of the cliffs. No pier can accommodate ships: they anchor in the bay, and Zodiacs provide the link to the shore. From the crossing onward, the setting makes its mark, mineral and immense, dotted with the bright colours of houses clinging to the slope.

An end of the world inhabited for centuries

This land seems inhospitable, and yet the Inuit have lived here for a very long time, following marine game through the seasons. The very name of the place means "the spring place", since families gathered here in the warm season to hunt and fish. Danish colonization later left its wooden buildings, warehouses and church, still standing in the old part of town. About a thousand people live here today, between fishing, hunting and community life, in one of the northernmost settlements in Greenland open to visiting ships.

The museum under the Arctic sky

Upernavik's pride lies in its open-air museum, billed as the northernmost in the world. The old colonial buildings of the historic quarter form its heart: the old church, the trader's post, period dwellings. Inside, the collections tell of kayak hunting, skin clothing, ivory tools and the meeting of Inuit and Danish cultures. The visit is made on foot, from one building to the next, with the bay and its ice as a constant backdrop. Allow a good hour to see it all, longer if you like to read every label. Few museums offer such a striking setting.

Walking through town

The lanes climb between houses painted red, blue and yellow, those bold colours that brighten all of Arctic Greenland. Sleds wait for winter near the houses, cod dry on racks and dogs prick up their ears as visitors pass. From the heights, the view takes in the entire archipelago: a labyrinth of islands, black water and dazzling ice stretching to the horizon. Photographers could spend hours here, the light changes so quickly at these latitudes. In midsummer, the sun never sets here, and the midnight brightness gives the façades hues found nowhere else.

A boundless archipelago

Around town, nature unfolds staggering figures. To the south rise some of the highest bird cliffs in the Northern Hemisphere, where entire colonies of murres nest. To the east, an icy fjord carries icebergs born of the great ice sheet. Some expeditions round out the call with a Zodiac cruise among the ice, up close to these floating cathedrals whose sides can sometimes be heard cracking. These outings depend entirely on the day's conditions, and that's just as it should be: here, nature has the last word.

What you take away from Upernavik

The Zodiac ride back closes the interlude. The call will have lasted just a few hours, and yet it leaves a lasting mark. You have seen how families live, work and laugh thousands of kilometres from everything, surrounded by ice most of the year. The Arctic then stops being an abstraction. It now has a face, colours and a name that means spring.