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Published: August 4th 2011
Classic Houses
There are rows of houses like this all over St. John'sA lot has happened since our last entry! After we took a rest in the afternoon, we headed back down the hill to catch the George St. Festival activities for the evening. The major band playing was the Road Hammers, a Canadian Country band that Therese was familiar with. We walked down the BIG HILL from our hotel, and strolled around the city for a while. We took some nice pictures on the harbour front and elsewhere. Then we headed to the festival, had dinner and enjoyed the music. The band was good, and there were plenty of people, but it was not jam packed.
When the band was done at 11, we tried to get in on a "Screeching In" for all the mainlanders, but it was too crowded, and we missed our chance. Then we walked back up the long steep hill. We found that our room had one more problem - the cheap slat blinds on the window (into the hallway) didn't keep the bright hallway light out in the least. The night maintenance man was very helpful and taped a table cloth over the outside of the window which did the trick rather well for the
Mermaid
The St. John's version of Toronto's Mel's Moose night.
The next morning we went to talk to the manager about our frustrations with the room we were in, and he apologized greatly, and gave us the previous night for free, and moved us into a beautiful business-class harbour-view room for our original price. We weren't able to check into the new room until after 3:00 though, so we packed our bags onto our bikes (they were going to move them over for us when the room was ready), and had some breakfast. Eric tried the traditional fish and brewis with his meal. It was fine, but nothing special. After breakfast, since the day was clear of fog (a rarity in St. John's it seems) we headed up to signal hill. It was a nice (long and steep) hike with some interesting historical "exhibits" on one of the side walking paths we went on. We also checked out a museum with a little video about some history, and then went right up to the lookout at the top. What a fantastic view: the Atlantic on one side, the harbour and city on the other, all clear and beautiful.
When done we headed back into the city to
Our Hotel
We stayed in the white hotel at the top of the hill do some work - we were considering taking the plane from St. John's to Halifax (where we'll meet Shira) to save two full days of travel, but taking bikes on planes is not trivial, so we had some information to get. We also wanted to go to the post office and the tourist centre. We had success with the bike info, and got some lunch, but by the time we made it to the tourist info centre it was 4:45, and the centre closed at 4:30. The post office was right next door, and was also closed at this time despite their posted hours being until 5:00. Not to be discouraged, we took a nice walk to a grocery store to buy some cereal, and then took a scenic route home past the Basilica. We stopped along the way at a local liquor store to look at some local wines, and got some information about their "screeching in" schedule. When we got back to the hotel, we found they had forgotten to move us as they had said, but were happy to do it on the spot. We went to our new, beautiful room to book our plane tickets and
The Harbour
A nice view on our first night have a quick rest.
The Drop Kick Murphy's were playing at the festival, and there was a big buzz about them in town as they seemed to be a really popular band in Newfoundland. Not wanting to miss the party, we planned to head back into the city, and found a couple in our hotel lobby about to take a cab to do the same. We split the cab with them, and discussed our respective vacations - they were in from BC for a wedding and family reunion. In town things were crazy. George Street had completely sold out, and the whole surrounding area was abuzz. We went for a bite to a local bar which brews its own beer. Eric tried the house wheat beer, which he enjoyed a lot.
After our food we walked around some more stopping at a few places to enjoy views of the show from afar whenever we found a small crowd doing the same. Then we called it an early night and walked back up the long hill home.
The next morning we went to the post office to get the stamps we needed, got our desired info at the
George St. Festival
The first night at the concert tourist office, and bought tickets for the George Street festival for the night. We wanted to do this early because Hey Rosetta was playing, and they are a local band, on top of which it was the last night of the festival, and reports suggested it was going to be an even busier night than last. After that we headed to the mall. Since we're done biking, we are now free to buy things, and since it feels like October here we needed to get some warmer clothes for the upcoming concert. We did our shopping, and headed back to the liquor store from the previous day for the screech in. We got there a little early, but spent time checking out the local wines and beer, and then went through the long and humorous process, got our certificates, and went on our way. We wanted to make sure to be at the bike store early because they closed at "5-ish", and we had already experienced some "-ish" closings the day before.
We got to the bike store and bought two full bike boxes for five dollars each. On the one hand, this is not a bad deal, but
Superman!
Eric flies away from the top of signal hill and down to the St. John's harbour on the other hand these are used boxes from bikes they've built already and would just need to recycle, so it was not the best deal ever. Regardless, we now had two bicycle sized boxes, and a long climb back to our hotel, with our bikes. Needless to say, riding was out of the question, but with the help of one of the sales guys at the store we rigged up an ingenious system to keep the boxes attached to the bike using an old busted tire. Then it was just a matter of a lot of pushing up the long hill, but we made it in the end. After a quick nap we headed back downtown for dinner and the party. As expected the night was just as busy as the last. With our new clothes, we weren't cold in the least despite temperatures low enough to see our breath (remember, its August 2nd at this point!). The show was great and the crowd was a lot of fun, except for the near-by smokers. Still, it was a great night.
The next day we packed up our stuff into our bike boxes (but not our bikes), and got
Jumper
Therese jumps off signal hill and into the ocean on the road by 10. We grabbed a full breakfast at a near by little home-style restaurant, and then hit the ground biking. We had one single purpose in mind: get to Cape Spear. This lookout is the furthest point East in North America, and given how far we'd come on our bikes, we knew we had to go the last 20 km from our hotel to get there. Even if it was up over a mountain and back down the other side again. Which it was. Because of the proximity to the ocean, St. John's often seems to be covered in a thick and unfriendly fog, and this morning was no exception, so not only the uphills were tough on our trip, but the downhills were a bit scary with the low visibility, and the temperature was rather cold on our skin. We got there though, and took some wonderful pictures. We also got to see a number of whales out in the water who were particularly active that day (we were told) which worked out great for us.
When done, we certainly didn't want to bike back over the mountain. We could have done it, but it
Million Dollar View
You can see the whole city, the harbour and the ocean from this lookout was cold and foggy and unpleasant, and we felt like having made it as far East as possible was good enough. So we went to the parking lot and found a couple with an open backed truck and asked them for a ride down the mountain. They graciously accepted our offer.
When we got back to town we grabbed a bite, and headed to the Regatta. This series of boat races is the "official" reason for the George St. festival, but is an even all its own. The river bank is lined on both sides with raffles, rides, and home-made carnival games, turning the whole thing into an exhibition. The entire city gets a holiday, and everyone goes to join in the fun. We spent a few hours walking up and down, watching the games, seeing a few of the races, and eating some of the food. We tried moose burgers for the first time. We also bumped into Karl (from the ferry) and his brother. We realized we had forgotten to get a picture with him, and rectified the situation.
When the rain picked up and the regatta wound down, we biked back to our hotel. We
Where's Eric part 2?
Can you find him hiding in this shot? collected our boxes from their luggage room, and then went to the laundry room. We took it over and spent the next two hours taking apart our bikes as little as possible while still getting them to fit into the boxes, and then packed up the rest of our stuff. When finally done we grabbed a cab to the airport which we arrived at around 11:00 pm. Our flight departs tomorrow at 7:00 am, so we'll be spending the night here, sleeping and working on our blog and post cards. Well, now that we're done with the blog and the post cards, it will just be sleeping.
- E and T
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MOM
non-member comment
Ups and Downs
It seems even though you reached your destination you are still experiencing some "ups" and "downs" literally. What a treat to act like real tourists instead of the usual hit and run. Therese, there are many places that you have visited that I haven't been to yet including Newfoundland. Maybe some day, but not on a bike! Enjoy your visit with Rachel and Shira. It won't be long before you're home. Love MOMXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX