We found that Newfoundland (pronounced NewfoundLAND, with least accent on “found” and most on “land”). It was our third stop in Newfoundland and Labrador including the small village we visited at the very start of the cruise. All three days were reasonably warm – in fact they were warmer than any of the European ports. In St. John’s, the British claimed the “new found land” for the queen in 1583. Today we learned that until 1949, Newfoundland and Labrador was not a province, but rather it had been associated with Canada without full provincial rights. After several invitations were rejected, in 1949, Newfoundland and Labrador voted to become a province by a margin of about two percent. Newfoundland of course is the island and Labrador the mainland, but the overwhelming percentage of the provincial population is found on Newfoundland.
For the second morning in a row, there was dense fog, but unlike yesterday when the skies brightened quickly and the warmest day of the year was experienced in St. Anthony, the fog in St. John’s was much more dense. St. Anthony is found near the very top of Newfoundland and St. John’s, the provincial capital and largest city, is in the far southern portion. We had hopes that the fog would quickly lift like it did yesterday.
As we got off the ship to board tour busses, we were greeted by the provincial mascots, the Newfoundland dog and the Labrador retriever. Of course, Barb had to take time to snap a picture of the dogs. I had planned to do so later, but that didn’t work out as the ship’s tourists had perhaps worn out the dogs with the constant photos and on our return, they were gone. In addition¸ we were greeted by some costumed musicians along the pier.
On this cruise, we have taken very few city tours but opted to do this in combination with a visit to Cape Spear National Park. As we left, our guide told us that we would visit Signal Hill (more on that later) last in hopes that the fog would lift and we would have great views of the harbor. So our first stop was a small village very near St. John’s, called Quidi Vidi. No one is sure of the origins of the name, but it could come from Latin. Quidi Vidi was a small fishing community with a secluded harbor where fishing is the primary source of income. Our guide pointed out an old wooden home, regarded as one of the oldest wooden structures which had not been materially changed, in North America. Many of the places along the harbor were being rebuilt as they had been virtually destroyed by a rogue wave about three years ago. From there we went to visit the attractive Government House and where the provincial Lieutenant Governor lives, all in a park like setting. An old wooden church was nearby.
Then we visited the Roman Catholic Cathedral, designed in the shape of a Latin cross and a church with beautiful stained glass windows and a very ornate ceiling. We followed a route above the city to Cape Spear National Historic Park where we visited the location of the eastern most point in North America. There are two lighthouses, but only one was visible but we heard the foghorns blaring loudly as the fog was still quite dense. Our view of the water was severely hampered by the fog unfortunately. At the site, there are also some World War II gun emplacements. It seems that in the last two years, we have seen so many World War II sites that I had been unaware of before – from Bora Bora on our South Pacific cruise, to our wonderful World War II trip over D-Day 2010 to some of the European World War II locations, to the island of Guernsey on our UK and Norway cruise last year, to the role St. John’s played in that war.
A brief stop to another attractive harbor, Petty Harbour, was followed by the visit to Signal Hill above the St. John’s Harbor (and visible from the ship). The fog seemed to be lifting so the decision to delay the stop at Signal Hill seemed at first to have been a good idea. Signal Hill was where Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless signal. It was also where the first telegraphic ship distress signals were faintly received. In fact it was the success of saving that ship, that made the Titanic overly confident that they could be rescued. Our guide commented that maybe we could have a good view of the harbor but as we climbed in altitude, the fog was present and we were disappointed that what we had hope to see was largely obscured by the fog.
As we returned to the ship, Barb noticed that there was a Tim Horton’s close by. We had been hoping to find a Tim Horton’s while on the Canadian portion of our journey, so we headed straight for it after the tour ended. For those not fortunate enough to have visited a Tim Horton’s before, it’s a chain of Canadian donut restaurants, named for a popular NHL hockey player, Tim Horton, who was tragically killed in an auto accident. Being close to Canada, the Buffalo area has lots of Tim Horton’s and having moved to the Chicago area which has nothing but Dunkin Donuts, a Tim Horton donut is a real treat. Maybe it’s good, because I am not nearly so tempted by donuts since Tim Horton’s is not an option. But I felt I deserved at least one Tim Horton’s on this trip and today looked to be a good bet! So we hoofed it over to Tim Horton’s with our mouths watering for the donut. (Western New Yorkers take it for granted, but as a transplanted Chicagoan, we can’t get a Tim Horton’s donut easily – much like our yummy beef on weck sandwiches which are totally unknown outside Western New York. On second thought, maybe it’s good we don’t have Tim Horton’s.) We went in commenting to each other that we would have a peanut donut and if they were out of those, a jelly donut would be a second choice. Unfortunately we saw none of either in the trays but we inquired about them. We were told that they no longer carry peanut donuts because of peanut allergies. Apparently the Canadians are also into uber-regulation of peoples’ lives too!! So we settled for a few TimBits and received our Tim Horton’s fix that way.
Now it’s one more day at sea and final ports in Halifax and Bar Harbor, Maine before we disembark our Voyage of the Vikings in Boston on Saturday.
Chuck
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