Blogs from St John's, Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada, North America

Thursday 21st September 2023 8.00hrs – Saturday 23rdSeptember 2023 19.00hrs St Johns, Newfoundland Boy was I glad to see land again, especially when we heard that some of the Bridge windows had smashed in the storm as well!! It seemed quite rough as we were approaching ‘The Narrows’ where we had a good view of Signal Hill and all the old houses that seemed to tumble down into the water, as well as the Cathedral and “The Rooms” high up on the hill!! ‘The Narrows’ is a small stretch of water that opens into the sheltered bay of St Johns. John Cabot discovered Newfoundland in 1497 and St John’s is the oldest Port in Canada but the first English fishing Captain to enter St Johns was ‘Admiral of the Harbour by Ancient Custom’ and Sir Humphrey ... read more

Observations on bus touring We had never taken a tour of this type preferring to make our own arrangements (I have a great travel planner). We took this one on the recommendation of friends who had taken the trip pre-COVID. I was nervous about travelling with a bunch of “old people”. Yes, I saw the irony in that statement. The people on the tour turned out to be great. We now have lots of new friends (foreshadowing). The tour guides had a great system of assigning us to different seats every day so no one got the coveted front seats for more than half a day. There were twice daily draws to see who would be the King and Queen for the next half day. Patti had arranged for “door prizes” and the drawing of the ... read more

Newfoundland gives one a sense of calmness and serenity. The easternmost Canadian province has soft winding roads with one stunning vista after another. Even though we had studied what we might find once we arrived, we were surprised by the number of lakes, streams and rivers. We’d call it "the land of 10,000 lakes" but Minnesota already has taken that name. Acres of trees landscape your drive, so many in fact that we decided to look up the abundant varieties in these dense green forested areas. They include many birch trees along with black spruce, white spruce, junipers, white pine and balsam firs. Seems the white pines were heavily harvested for use as sawlogs and ship masts at the turn of the 20th century. This and an infestation wreaked havoc with the species, but they are ... read more

So we had 2 travel days. From Deer Lake to Gander, and from Gander to St. John's. That's about 400 miles. So guess who is coming to dinner? That's right, its Dorian. That damn hurricane is supposed to hit Halifax on Saturday and Newfoundland on Sunday. Guess who is supposed to fly from Newfoundland to Halifax on Sunday afternoon? We are waiting for Air Canada to tell us that we can rearrange our flight. If not, we have to drive back to Gander Sunday morning in the hurricane. They say 75 mile an hour winds and up to 4 inches of rain. We are trying to delay our flight by one day and fly from St. John's. That would be a lot easier. We got to St. John's this afternoon. After checking in to our hotel, ... read more

We’ve fallen into a bit of a routine, not needing to set alarms, in part because we’re travelling west, occasionally getting an extra 30 or 60-minutes to live, as Linda reminds us during her Showtime emcee responsibilities; or, also because our tours are starting later in the morning (or even early afternoon as it did yesterday). Sharon had forgotten one of the “Cardinal Rules” of cruising, namely “Late to Port, Early to Mass!” It was already past the 8AM start time when she realized that she’d be missing out on one of Father Roman’s Blessings of the Day. In the Lido is was a sight to see this massive cruise ship snake through the narrow S-turn channel into the St. John bay and marina, and once clear of the channel markers to do a reverse rotation ... read more