As we boarded the ship today, leaving St. Anthony, Newfoundland, the captain announced a couple very interesting statistics: First, he said that the locals were wearing big grins today because it was the warmest day of the year so far. He added that had we tried to come to St. Anthony last week we would not have been able to make this port because of the massive iceberg that had been blocking the harbor. Originally a part of the iceberg that had broken off Greenland in August of 2010 (about the size of Manhattan Island), it began to break apart, so we were very fortunate, not only to be able to get to St. Anthony, but also because we had such enormous and beautiful icebergs dotting the waters.
St. Anthony (and Newfoundland) is one of those funky areas of the world that’s a “half hour” time zone. It’s 2.5 hours ahead of Chicago time. So last night we got a half hour extra sleep, which was fortunate because our first of two shore excursions was scheduled to leave at 7:00 AM. All night we heard the fog horn blowing, and when we peeked out of the curtains, we saw nothing but very dense fog.
We were a little late in leaving because it took awhile for the ship to clear with Canadian authorities. We boarded the tender for a long tender ride into town. As we rode, we could see little other than fog, but we did receive a very warm welcome as a pod of dolphins accompanied us ashore.
Our first shore excursion took us about 45 minutes north of St. Anthony to L’Anse aux Meadows, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Just a few minutes out of town we saw a small moose, who seemed as interested in our bus as we were in it. Our guide said she’d seen eight moose on the way in, but we only saw that one – must have been too far past dawn for them to be easily visible.
L’Anse aux Meadows is the only authenticated Viking settlement in North America. Icelandic sagas had told about Eric the Red and his son Leif Ericsson moving westward. They first went to Greenland and settled there. Then Leif Ericsson went farther west in search of a land he’d heard about that had many, many grapes. A Norwegian explorer Helge Instad researched the area extensively, in search of evidence that would prove the arrival of the Vikings. After years of searching, he came to the area just north of St. Anthony to explore. When he asked locals if there were any ruins, they told him yes and showed him the mounds of ruins. Along with his archaeologist wife, he worked with the locals to excavate the mounds. After much research they realized that they had in fact found the remains of a Viking settlement that dated back nearly 1000 years. Their most prized find was a pin that was a typical Norse pin used to fasten cloaks, a sure indication that the people here had been Vikings.
Instead of excavating the area to death, they chose to leave it as it was (as one of our guides said, in hopes that at some time in the future technology would have advanced far enough to preserve things even better). We walked through the ruins with a local guide, who (like so many of the guides and re-enactors we spoke with today) had lived in L’Anse aux Meadows all his life and had worked with Helge Instad to help excavate the ruins. Each of these people spoke with pride about the part they took in this historical find.
Beyond the mounds of original buildings was another village. This was a replica which they had set up to look like the original. The sod-bricked buildings were so interesting: it was amazing to see the way these buildings were constructed. The sod bricks were covered with grass, and the insides felt pretty cozy. However, I can say that on a day that was about 70°. I don’t want to test it in winter. The re-enactors inside explained what life would have been like for the Vikings who lived here.
We took a very brief school bus ride to Norstad, another interesting site. It was another replica of a Viking settlement, containing several buildings and more re-enactors. The first thing we came to was a pig wallow (and the inhabitant was definitely not a re-enactor)! After watching the pig get its mud all lined up so it would have a comfortable area to sleep, we continued on to a huge building, which turned out to be the boathouse. Inside the boathouse were two Viking re-enactors who told us about how the boats were built. It was interesting to peer into the enormous boat and try to picture the people who might have used it. A little further on we came to the smithy. A teen-age boy was in there plying the trade. He explained that each village had only one smithy, and the smithy worked hard to keep his trade a secret. So he would have kept the doors closed so others couldn’t see what he was doing. With the fire he had to create inside, he would soon have gotten sick, and most smithies died young.
After a quick visit to the little church, we ended up in the chieftain’s house. This was divided into three sections. In the first were women who were making thread by hand from the wool (rather than using a spinning wheel). They had a 1000-year-old loom (replica) and showed how they would have spun the cloth from the wool. Back then, even the sails on the ships were made of wool! The next section was where the people ate. The cooking pots were in the center, and women were making flat bread. We got to sample some, and I even got to sit in the Chieftainess’s chair and pretend I was drinking mead from her horn. The third section contained an area where they kept the wood.
Having taught about Leif Ericsson arriving in Vinland, I was particularly interested in seeing these sites, and I was not disappointed!
When we returned to St. Anthony, we had just enough time to browse a couple of gift shops before boarding a boat for our second excursion of the day, Northland Discovery by Boat. We were among 13 people fortunate enough to climb to the upper deck to catch the views from the top. We enjoyed watching humpback whales feeding and diving and generally playing in the water. One even came within six feet of the boat, but naturally I was on the wrong side. (One lady teasingly suggested that I go to the other side so she could see the whales because no matter which side I was on, the whales were on the other side!) No matter, I did get to see them – just didn’t get pictures.
In addition to the whales, the guides took us very close to the amazing icebergs. They were by far the largest we had seen on our entire trip! It was incredible to see them so close with their white tops and blue undersides. They managed to get some ice for us and broke it apart so we could taste the icebergs. I got an enormous chunk and sucked away on the largest “ice cube” I’ve ever had! It was very pure water!
As we headed back to the dock, we caught glimpses of pods of dolphins ahead in the water. They were very quick, and as the guide said, by that time of day they aren’t as active. They’d probably spent hours entertaining the tourists and were tired of performing. But at least we did get to see them.
The day included two very different excursions – one historical and the other natural. Both were amazing experiences! We were very happy that the dense fog that had accompanied us almost from the time we left Greenland to the time we arrived in Newfoundland had decided to leave and give us sunny skies and the warmest weather we’d had since we’d left Boston on July 23rd.
Barb
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