h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The "strøm" part of "Søndre Strømfjord" is Danish for "current" (and not "storm" which is also "storm" in Danish). So "Søndre Strømfjord" means something like: "The Southern Fjord With the Current".

Exactly one of the two things I was going to say!
The other is that - as Gyrregrubmah also shows even if he don't say it - we don't call it the place Sondre Stromfjord, but Søndre Strømfjord. There's a big difference!!!

Btw. Nice name Gyrregrubmah! Makes me hungry!
Why don't you put something on your userspace so people can come and talk to you there?

More corrections and comments.

"Kangerlussuaq Poelsevogen"
should (probably) be "Kangerlussuaq Pølsevogn" (pølse means sausage)


"Luftgruppe Vest, RDAF Detachment Gronland"
Luftgruppe Vest is the name for *one* of RDAF's planes (A Gulfstream III) with crew. It's placed under "Grønlands Kommando", an authority placed directly under the Defence Staff.


"In 1940, the Danish government had to flee Denmark abruptly to avoid
German troops."

No, the Danish government stayed and collaborated with the Germans. As late as March 43 there was a general election. Following a number of general strikes over the summer, the Germans declared martial law on August 29th 1943, and the next day the government resigned.

It was the Danish ambassador in Washington D.C., Henrik Kaufmann, who signed the agreement allowing the United States to establish defence installations in Greenland. He did that without agreement with the Danish government! But in 1945, after the Liberation, the Danish Parliament confirmed the agreement, and with the NATO treaty of 1949 in force followed a new Danish-American agreement in 1951 on the defence of Greenland. The 1951 agreement stated, that what used to be American
bases from then on became Danish-American Defence Areas flying the flags of both nations.

Is some time since this conversation was taking place, but I want to ad that many in Greenland called it just Sønderstrøm or Strømmen (last most common at the Greenex mine, Black Angel) in the 80:ies.

Regards/Nanoq

All this time, and I missed the conversation!

There are some very good comments there. For some, I just plead ignorance; for others, I plead the lack of an 'ø' key.

Well Admin.Gen.

There is really not that much to say about Kangerlussuaq/Strømmen, except that it sits in the middle of nowhere, 300 km, deep in a greenlandic fjord, between two mountains ridges of ca 600 m, in my time, with a civilian site on the north side, the US base with the sheriff on the south, the landing strip and a crazy polar fox in the middle, the two hotel baracks Hilton and Sheraton to the fiord and some rather grumpy muskox towards inland ice. -30 in winter and +25 in summer.

The most exciting events where when US MATS started and took of towards Thule and the DYE stations on the ice (abandoned today), sitting in the main hotel/transit hall building having a gigantic shrimp sandwich and a beer. Where the MATS monster really to lift before the runway ended?

But the most vivid memory where the little sign in all rooms: "Don't smoke, the ash that falls might be your own". Nice

Nanoq

Oh, I forgot, the town council in Sisimut, the town at the start of the fiord, is discussing a public road in to Strømmen. If it happens, It will be Greenlands longest paved road, if not the longest of all, making access to Sisimuts Alpine Center simpler for Scandinavians, no costly heli-flights.

A road from Kangerlussuaq to Sisimiut *would* be a useful bit of architecture. I have to wonder, though:

1. What will all the visiting hikers think about just walking along a road instead of going 160+ km over trails?

2. So European tourists can stop taking helicopters to Sisimiut, will Greenland introduce its first inter-city bus route? When I was in Kangerlussuaq, they were happy to rent me a bicycle, but I didn't see any rental cars.

Administrator-General (5+0+9)*3+0 wrote:

>A road from Kangerlussuaq to Sisimiut *would*
.........
>1. What will all the visiting hikers think about
>just walking along a road instead of going
> 160+ km over trails?

Well, what to do, thats progress , no I think they'll either
keep away from the present or makes a new trail, a bit away
from the road. But I guess few will use it, just the tuffest.

>2. So European tourists can stop taking
....
>happy to rent me a bicycle, but I didn't
>see any rental cars.

Not in Nuuk either if I remember right, oh sorry wrong, you could rent a van to move, like a VW buss, Rugbroed (Rye bread) in danish. A danish franchise I believe.

Hmm, might be a way to move "home", a business opportunity .