Dining with the Vikings in St Anthony, Newfoundland

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The day dawned, the sun was out, and the “Where & When” had forecast almost 70˚F and sunny for our return to Newfoundland. I’m breathing easy once again, feeling myself and with the exception of a nagging cough that will no doubt hang around for weeks, if the past is any guide. It’s not really a cough, but more a spot in the back of my throat that sometimes gets irritated; but, no matter how much or often I cough, it just won’t go away. St. Anthony is a tender port and our tour doesn’t start until nearly 1PM! We have the whole morning to ourselves. Supposedly, our tour “Dining with the Vikings” is just two hours, which won’t leave us much time before the final tender at 3:15PM. I’m not sure why it was that we chose this tour, but it probably had something to do with it having “Viking” in the name and this being the “Voyage of the Vikings” cruise. With things like “Moose” and “Jiggs Dinner” being offered I find it difficult to believe that Sharon picked this one, so I’m thinking that this will be on me!

We take our time getting to the Lido and eat out by the pool. I finish my omelet first, and it was a bit chilly, so I said I’d head back (meaning the cabin) and pick up the “Puzzle Page” for today. What Sharon heard was that we’d meet in the library as we have recently; but, what I guess I failed to mention was that I’d left the pens back in the cabin. What could have been a very awkward day-ruining misunderstanding was avoided when I stopped by the Exploration Café to get my now Daily Iced Coffee Mocha (and to check on chocolate chip cookies which I didn’t expect to find at this early hour). What I did find was Sharon, who just arrived for our Sudoku. We headed back to the cabin and did the Sudoku there. I don’t know what’s happened to Sharon; but, she seems to have lost her Sudoku Mojo. She was trying to get connected to the internet; but, instead it was trying to sell her another week of internet. It seems that our “Voyage WI-FI Package” really was just for 31 days of the cruise, not exactly ideal for a 38-day cruise. We didn’t need to review too many options to conclude that we’d just have ante up and pay for the extra week. We don’t need to like it, and our feelings will certainly be submitted in our post-cruise surveys. They could have just increased the price at the beginning and done a real voyage package and we’d have been fine with it.

We’d talked about tendering over to the pier, and getting our picture take to include in our photo package, coming back to the ship, and then back over again for our tour. Ultimately, we decided to tender over about 10AM and stay ashore. Boarding the tender was a bit tricky this morning since it was bobbing up and down quite a bit so it took awhile to get everyone boarded but we all got on safely so that was a good thing. We had a ten-minute tender trip to reach the pier and pulled up at the open berth to the right of a short pier. A “Whale Watching Excursion” boat was docked on the other side, and activity aboard suggested that they were prepping for a tour. With about three hours to kill before our tour started we pondered what to do. Some people were choosing to walk up “the hill”, a trail really that reaches a nice vantage point and gives a good view of the area. The Rotterdam would probably be visible from “up there”. From “down here” though, the Rotterdam was obscured by a jetty and a bend in the waterway making the bay it was anchored in out of our sight. For some reason, there is some security in being able to see the ship; so, for today anyway, we would be without that until our afternoon tour. We decided instead to walk up “a hill”, taking the road to the left we wanted to see if our view improved. Not so much, as it turns out. We did find the pharmacy. Duncan and Pam had said that there plans for the day were to find a pharmacy, now that they’re back on Canadian soil, they looked forward to getting their Canadian meds for Duncan’s cold. Their other objective was to go to Tim Horton’s, for their coffee, donuts and Free-Wi-Fi. I think that that last one was what Duncan had high on his list. Later when we met for Trivia he had complained that from the sign in town it led him to believe that Tim Horton’s was no more than half a mile away. He assured us that it is well over one mile. Not really having any place in particular to go and having no intention of walking up “the hill” we found a bench near a playground just across from the area that those from the Rotterdam were still getting off the tender. We watched a family including the young dad, several young boys and one girl kicking the soccer ball around, and when one errant kick caused the quite deflated soccer ball to land near me, I got the opportunity to kick the soccer ball back. There was a time I might have been considered good at soccer; but, only because of the year in fifth grade I’d spent in Italy, and soccer was played at the end of each day as the entire PE class, that was overseen by the three British male teachers. Ironic that I can remember these three teacher’s names, even still know what they looked like, but not so with my other grade school teachers! This school divided students into three “Houses” headed by these three teachers. Mr. Barnesguttridge was head of my house called “Michelangelo”. Mr. Stringer was in charge of “Lincoln” house. And Mr. Coleman was in charge of “Chaucer” house. Not dissimilar from the Houses of Hogwarts! The Michelangelo lower classman team never lost a game; although, we were tied once. The ball I kick hooked sharply away from my target and Sharon made some disparaging comment like, “Why didn’t you kick it to him?” We decided to head over to the water and sit on benches there and enjoy the view and fresh air. Sharon headed over to the Gift Shop to use the rest room and found it almost impossible to get into the building because of so many people camping out anywhere they could find to get to the free WI-FI. It’s one of the reasons we are willing to pay for WI-FI.

I watched the whale watching boat loading passengers while a HAL tender on the other side of the pier seemed to be having some difficulty. After approaching, its rear seamed to swing around carrying the whole tender away from the pier. There was some gunning of engines and it was eventually steadied against the pier. As I sat there waiting for Sharon to return, enjoying the sun and gentle breeze coming off the sea… and you had to listen for it to notice… it was the silence. This is a peaceful place. There was an occasional sea gull that would swoop by, and the wisp of win coming through the seaside foliage, and the cries of children in the park behind us were muffled by the grassy knoll between us. When the Whale Watchers did depart, their PA system broke the peace announcing, “We Newfoundlanders love days like today; but, to live in Newfoundland you NEED to love the winter!” There were about 15 on board that were going whale watching, and there was no protective canopy to shade the sun. Sharon returned and we enjoyed some quiet time alone and enjoying the solitude. Then, one by one, others began to discover our little spot by the sea. Most of these people, as it turns out, were also waiting for the Feast of the Vikings. The whale watchers returned within 60 to 90 minutes, evidently successful, and all I could think about was our Boston whale watching that took us 90 minutes out into the Atlantic to get to the whale watching area (and then the 90 minutes back all on rough seas). We could have done this whale watching excursion AND gone to the Viking Feast; although, this boat was quite a bit smaller and the accommodations were rough. Busses were beginning to return cruisers from earlier tours, and some were being positioned for what we supposed was our tour. Sharon and I were among the first to walk on over and found the bus that would be taking us to the Feast. A lady behind us was trying to reach somebody on her cell phone. She said, “I’ve been trying to reach my son since yesterday. It just goes to voice mail.” Getting on a school bus again brought back memories for some. Evidently, this time the lady had some luck reaching her son because now she was chatting away happily (and loudly) in the back of the bus. This wasn’t the “Bronx Lady” that’s been my nemesis; but, she was obviously one of those people that believes that her son in Florida won’t hear her from up here in Canada unless she talks really loudly. She’d already been talking for ten minutes when one of the excursion team popped on board, and tried to tell us that we didn’t need a tour guide because we were just going out to the lighthouse for the Viking Feast and was giving us instructions for where to go when we got there, what time to be back on the bus, etc. The man behind us couldn’t hear over the phone call two rows back from them, and he turned around and demanded, “Hey, some of us would like to hear what’s being said.” Perhaps she thought she should talk more loudly on the phone, because she continued to talk. I turned around and others in her party were seated mum in their seats looking straight ahead with blank expressions, and I didn’t spot the culprit at first. And then I saw her, scrunched down, holding her cell phone, in the very last row, as if scrunching down would make her conversation any less disturbing. I guess in the overall scheme of things, some people are just more important than others.

It was a short ride out to the lighthouse; but, I was glad for the school bus to get us there. We saw the sod-like building extend from the ground beyond the lighthouse, and a stone pathway extended from the cavernous door up towards the parking lot. There a Viking clad man greeted us, “Welcome. Come, Eat, Drink and Be Merry, For Today I am your Judge!” Before entering, we could see the Rotterdam down in the distance with a unique head-on view that one doesn’t normally see, at least not without some sort of obstruction. Entering the seemingly underground accommodations one was immediately accosted by the smell… in particular, the smell of fish! This wasn’t the overwhelming “puke-your-guts-out” type of smell that we’d walked into when we walked too near the fish factory when we’d done the Viking Experience excursion in Iceland; but, something was definitely “fishy”. There were two rows of picnic tables facing of with two tables in each row and then two long tables along the walls. Our Viking Host was now standing on a rock at the front of the room. “Sit any place ye like at the eight tables.” Sharon and I sat at one of the middle tables. Each table seated eight people, and a group of four had already claimed the side closest to the front. With our eyes still adjusting to the darkness, I think all of our nostrils were homing in on that fishy smell, and it seemed to be coming from a small plate of what we were to learn are our appetizers! “Bang! Bang! Bang!” The Viking man was now giving orders. “There are appetizers on the table for you to enjoy! I caught them mee-self, and me woman prepared them for ye. They’re catelin and cod tongue!” The catelin was a long slender sardine-like fish, lying there on the plate, mouth open, eyeball looking at you and tail at the other end. “What are we supposed to do with these?” the woman who sat down across from us asks her husband. “I guess we’re supposed to eat them,” he says cheerily, and he popped the whole fish into his mouth and began to chew. Now what most impressed me, was that he didn’t spit it back out again. “Hmm. A bit salty I think.” The cod tongue, although the hostess pouring people tea and coffee seemed to indicate that it was cod-cheeks by the way she was patting her cheeks when asked “What is this?” pointing to the pan-fried something next to the catelin. Or possibly cod-jowls. “This isn’t bad,” the woman said to her husband, trying the cod tongue. I thought, “What the heck, this is what we’re here for.” The cod tongue had been pan-fried in a bit of egg-batter and really didn’t taste like much of anything. But what to do about that other one, the thing with the eyeball looking back at me! I held one of these fishy things with both hands to see if I could break or tear it in half, and I could, it was evidently dried fish. I bit off one of the ends from the center, experienced the very saltiness of it, and realized that this particular Viking experience had gone far enough for me. I could see how someone who’d been on a ship for 4-weeks crossing these icy waters might cause people to eat something like this… Come to think of it, I have been crossing these waters for the last 4-weeks!

There was one pitcher of water for each table, and the group at the other end of our table didn’t seemed inclined to share their pitcher with us. They’d each filled up their glasses and then placed the pitcher at the edge of the table furthest from us. They were too busy complaining to notice us. I mean, I have this salty fishy taste in my mouth! “It’s too dark in here.” “Look what they put on the table for us to eat.” “It was terrible how we missed those ports on the way over.” “Yeah, that was HAL’s fault too!” “They should do something to compensate us for that.” “And that Noro-virus, inconveniencing us like that.” “Yeah, that was HAL’s fault too!” “Right, they weren’t cleaning things good enough, just going through the motions.” I kept urging Sharon to ask for the water, since she was sitting next to them; but, she was too stunned by all of their complaining to interrupt. Finally, she did though, and all four of them stared at her like she’d just interrupted something really important. “Could you pass the water, please.” She repeated. Some people don’t seem to be able to be happy unless they have something to complain about.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!” That Viking was banging his staff on the floor and standing on the rock again. The importance of the rock it seems, is that it was the biggest piece of Iceland that he could bring with him to this new land. “Iceland is important because it gave us the Althing.” He explained how an Althing is how we resolve disputes, and it sometimes requires a council, and it seems that we are the council. Voting is done by slamming your fists onto the table in rapid succession, hopefully until the fists become bloodied! He did caution us to secure any drinks that might otherwise wind up bouncing to the floor before we practiced. I learned later why that was important as the mug next to me that while empty almost crashed off the table but Sharon grabbed it just in time. There was a loud banging of fists on the wooden table tops. “Good. Now that you know how to vote, you can eat.” He directed the center section to go up first (which was us). We’d already ordered our 7-up and Pepsi from the hostess, and we’d be charged for these later. Beer and wine were also available. He had also split us into our own groups (or houses), and we were the “Ocean Eaters”.

The buffet offered us a garden salad, moose stew, roast beef, Jiggs dinner (boiled vegetables including potatoes, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower and turnip), baked beans, shrimp rice and cod rice. For dessert we got a rhubarb crumb cake. People seemed to love the moose stew, and one of the complainers actually went back for seconds of that which I think broke ranks from the chief complainer who I think wanted nothing better than to hate “this overpriced farce”. I thought the moose stew was actually quite good. Sharon piled three large boiled potatoes onto her plate, and I had asked her “Are you going to leave any for the rest of us?” “There are more there, and besides, I’m Irish.” She really had taken the three biggest potatoes in the Jiggs Dinner! The roast beef got Sharon’s stamp of approval. It was tasty and tender. I told her, “You better clean your plate or that Viking Fellow just might haul you in front of the council and charge you with wasteful gluttony!” It didn’t take long for me to finish my plate. Sharon asked, “Will you help me finish my potatoes?” “Did our eyes get a little bigger than our tummy?” I ask her. How can you resist Sharon when she gives you that sheepish look of someone whose been caught red-handed. She gets it from her mother, I know. One of Sharon’s favorite stories was from when her mother was convalescing after breaking her hip, and Sharon had come into her room, and her mom was trying to hide the fact that she was eating one of her favorite treats, a Snowball. She just wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding it with powdered sugar all over her.

. The proper toast was “Skoal!” After doing that we received our Viking Yell certificates.

“Bang. Bang. Bang.” Now it was time to conduct some Viking business. First there was the trial of his wife, accused of murdering her father. She had a witness, I believe her slave, who clearly bore coerced testimony on her behalf. I believe her final words were, “Well those all the words you taught me to say, mee-lady?” Next, her sister volunteered to give testimony. She revealed that their father wasn’t dead at all, and pointed him out amongst us. I’m glad she didn’t pick me! There then came the opportunity for others to come forward and to accuse others still of wrong doing. I was surprised that Sharon didn’t step forward to chastise the complainers for not being able to enjoy what for most would be a vacation of a lifetime. There’s only so much fun you can have in role playing situations such as this when your time constrained to get back to the ship. The next case was started by one of the Shore Excursion Staff where she accused someone of stealing some cows. The person she accused then had to come up and accused the original person of being jealous of her Southern Accent. It went on thru several witnesses and then we had to vote. The Shore Excursion person was convicted and bound with rope and forced to dance. It went on a bit long but it was pretty funny.

The time had come for the final toast, and thimble-sized cocktails were given to everyone. Mine supposedly was some fruity vodka elixir while Sharon got apple juice. Mine tasted like Kool-aide and I wondered why they bothered with the distinction

We made the tender and were on board at 3:30PM. We rushed to the cabin and headed directly up to Team Trivia in the Crow’s Nest. The Crafts group was in “Our Spot” so Duncan and Pam had staked out a new table. When Sharon and Rose Marie walked in together, the last crafts person decided that the Crow’s Nest had gotten too noisy to suit her, and so we re-occupied “Our Spot”. Trivia began with, “In 1917 what did the Danish Government sell to the USA for $25 million in gold?” I scribbled down “USVI” and everyone seemed to agree. It was indeed the United States Virgin Islands. It seems that we’d gotten the next one wrong before; although, I couldn’t find it in my spreadsheet. “What is the northernmost tropical sea?” Ultimately, we went with “Caribbean”; but, we sort of overlooked the “Red Sea”. “What is the oldest European airline operating under its original name?” I was thinking British Airways; but, its former name was BOAC. Just before Linda was going over the answers, I remembered the question in my spreadsheet: “Name the national airline of Columbia, the second oldest airline in the world (after KLM)?” Our answer of “Lufthansa” went up in smoke. “What did James Spangler invent in 1903 using an electric fan, a tin box, a pillow case and a broom handle?” This one really shouldn’t have stumped us; but, it did. The (portable) vacuum cleaner. The bonus for five points was to list each of the five Beatles movies. We came up with “Yellow Sumbarine”, “Help” and “A Hard Day’s Night”. We sort of overlooked “Let it Be” and “Magical Mystery Tour”. Yikes! We got just 11 of 20 points, barely making the 50% threshold.

Sharon headed off to mass in the Wajang. Father Roman was talking with a passenger before mass started and then decided to change his sermon. He’s been kidding about volunteer homilists all cruise when looking for lectors; well, today he decided he’d found one who had two nice stories from the day in St. Anthony and he had one to go with it. He said these stories would show some special things about Newfoundlanders and are good examples of being Christian. Father’s story was from a few years ago when he had a 10-hour drive as part of the area he covers. At one point the “Check Engine” light came on and he’d been told to pull over when that happened. There wasn’t anything in the area but he did notice a farm house in the distance; so he walked over there to ask them to call a tow truck for him. They said it would be too late to call that evening but offered to let him stay with them that night and included them in their family dinner. What he didn’t know is that also called their son-in-law who is a car mechanic. In the morning when he got up his car had been fixed and brought to the house for him. The son-in-law had also tuned the car up for him saying it was a bit off. When Father Roman tried to pay him for it they wouldn’t take anything saying they are Newfoundanders and that’s just what they do.

The passenger then told her stories from today. She and the people she was traveling with decided the night before they wanted to go to L'Anse aux Meadows (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) but the ship’s tours were sold out, so they decided to try and rent a car and drive there. While trying to find a way to rent a car they asked a woman for directions and she told them to get in her car and she’d take them to it. When they got to where she worked she told them to take her car for the day since she wouldn’t need it while she was working. They couldn’t believe this, and she didn’t want any money for it (though told them it was low on gas) and didn’t ask them for ID or anything. They had a great trip there. They’d also seen the couple that have bikes on board on our Deck and had decided to ride them to the site, but it was a long drive and they were getting tired. A man driving a pickup truck stopped and told them put their bikes in the back and he’d drive them to the site and wait for them to enjoy it before driving them back to the ship. Father Roman suggested as Christians, we might all strive to embrace some of the values that Newfoundlanders practice without a second thought.

I met Sharon by the exit of the Wajang Theatre and we headed to the Dining Room. Things are getting back to normal and we didn’t need to fall back on the Lido to find something for Sharon to eat. Better still, they have jumbo shrimp with American cocktail sauce. I requested extra horseradish and used the whole dish. The resulting sauce is still only a fraction of how strong it should be, and I would only label what I concocted as “mild”. It’s still much better than the sweet stuff HAL comes up with that can only be labeled “pathetic”. Mine has only the hint of oomph; but, not enough to bring a tear to my eye. I will say though, the story is different in Alaskan waters, where the horseradish there actual packs a decent punch! Sharon graciously ordered the Crab & Shrimp Crostini for me and I enjoyed that too. This left me to get the Cheddar Cheese Soup as my second appetizer. I decided to try the Alaskan King Crab Legs (which I probably should do again when I find myself in Alaskan waters) because they did look good when served on the first leg of this voyage. It was clear from my serving, that they must have used all of the big meaty legs on that first segment of this voyage, and what I was served were a few smaller slender pieces and one meaty joint. I enjoyed the crab. Sharon enjoyed her Roast Beef Tenderloin. Our two dinner partners were having the Braised Veal Cheeks with Polenta. I was tempted to order these as well, and they might have complimented the Cod Tongue that I’d had earlier today; but, my reason had nothing to do with this cruise. It had to do with a TV show Sharon’s sister Erin told me about: “Below Deck”. In one season there was a chef who kept serving Braised Beef Cheeks to charter guests and getting rave compliments to the chagrin of the chief stew. She felt the dish beneath what charter guests should get, and that the chef should not be so limited as to keep making the same dish over and over. “It’s the cheapest cut of beef, he marinates the hell out of it, and it takes no skill to prepare,” were some of her complaints. I was just wondering if it deserves rave reviews. The couple we were dining with seemed to like the dish and had ordered it before. I had my cheese plate again and Sharon was happy with her Whoopie Pie with a peanut butter flavored filling. She said that she would have preferred marshmallow flavoring; but, this would do. She had enjoyed her package of Whoopie Pies that we got when we were staying in Boston. That does seem like forever ago.

Voce was performing again tonight. We arrived early and entertained ourselves with our mobile devices (phone for me and tablet for Sharon). Most people in the balcony section were either on their phones, tablets or Kindles. The lights flickered, and we had our five-minute warning. Linda introduced the quartet and the singing began. I felt a coughing fit coming on and tried to clear my throat during the applause of the first song. I realized it was getting worse, and so I excused myself, found the restroom, and could not seem to quiet down that tickling sensation that was only getting worse. I realized that it was time for some more self-medication. I walked towards the casino and to the adjacent MIX bar. I asked for a Drambuie on the rocks. “Do you want a double?” the bartender asked. “Why not!” I agreed. I returned to Sharon and that drink soothed my throat thru the end of the 45-minute show. The even brought out one of the male HAL singers to join in a duet from “Phantom of the Opera”. With the exception of his microphone malfunction, the performance was very impressive.

After the show, I decided to try my luck at the blackjack table. The “High-Roller sidekick” was playing at the Fun-21 table which suited me, since I wanted to play at the regular blackjack table. I had to accept the $15 minimum bet; but, at least this table pays the 3:2 odds on blackjack. And best of all, I got to play with nobody else slowing play. Things start surprisingly well for me, I was definitely winning more hands than I was losing (which sometimes happens). I was getting more blackjacks than the dealer (which sometimes happens). I was winning all of my double down and split bets (which sometimes happens). It’s just been a while since these good things happen to me! I was winning steadily through several shoes. Then I lost a double down. On the next hand I had 20, and I lost that hand too. I decided to take my profit and call it a night… I certainly didn’t want to see my run of good luck evaporate.

Sharon was already back in cabin catching up on her reading etc.

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Comments

[Ruth F. Curley-Lefebvre]

To your health!
I'm pleased to read that John's cold is in full retreat, and his cough is (albeit slowly) improving. Enjoy the last few days of the cruise. It's been fabulous riding along with you.