This posting is a continuation of our walkabout of the town of Tasiilaq. We spent about five or six hours walking around town but I could have spent more time.

I will try and point out some of the ways that Tasiilaq is different from where we live.

Houses in Greenland were once strictly color-coded by ordinance. Black was for police. Red was for emergency buildings or people such as the fire department. Blue was for fishing and so on. I suspect it was sort of like a directory for people to find places easily, particularly in poor weather conditions. Today, you can paint your house or business any color that you want to paint it.

The one thing I want to point out here is that pretty much every house has a ladder that goes to an opening on the second floor. We were told that a sudden storm can come in and drop many feet of snow. Without a ladder to climb into or out of your house from the second floor, you are stuck.

We were told that in two to four weeks, the harbor would be full of ice and the ground well hidden under snow. This person was just being well prepared for it.

We watched these kids playing at school. Each bicycle had two kids. When they started to move, one kid sat and peddled and the other pushed. When they got up to speed, the kid pushing hopped onto the back of the bike...which is exactly how it's done on a dog sled.

This was an unusual house to see. In fact, this was the only house that we saw like it but it was right on the main street and down near the harbor, so probably a very old house.