All good things come to and end (almost)

---

As we gathered for breakfast on Day 10, many of the conversations were around the fact that this was the last time we would leave suitcases outside our rooms for loading onto the bus. Our last hotel is in St. John’s, the terminus of this great bus tour. Still almost 200 km to go.

Bay Bulls boat trip

When you leave Clarenville you start down the isthmus that joins the Avalon Peninsula to the rest of The Rock. Traffic is starting to build. Fortunately, we are soon back on the side roads towards Witless Bay and Bay Bulls. There we joined a couple of other bus tours on a fair-sized boat to visit the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve.

Most people (including Dianne and me) rushed to the upper deck where we hoped to get better viewing. Puffins seemed to be the item most people had come to see. The guy on the mike introduced all the crew and then himself as “Joe” and said he was filling in for the regular host. He said he hadn’t done it for a while. Turned out he was the company CEO and co-founder. Even his mandatory safety instructions were entertaining.

The boat trip went out into the harbour into increasingly rough water. Several of our group were relying on Gravol. You really wanted to hang on even when you were sitting down. A couple of people fell when they were changing positions. The apparent wind was ferocious. When we got into the lee of the main island things settled down a bit. The host’s banter was non-stop and very enjoyable. He kept interrupting himself to point out different birds that flew by the boat.

He kept pointing out puffins but I could never see them. My only experience with puffins was in pictures so I had no idea they were so small. I started so see them once they landed to fish. The stories about how they burrow into the cliffs to protect their young from gulls were very interesting. Puffins like the islands because there are no land based predators. Unfortuntely (for them), the gulls think of the nesting sites as ,more of a smogasbord.

The whole trip was about three hours and well worth the rocking and rolling. And the company served us a very nice lunch once we landed. I am pretty sure at least one of our group did not enjoy it that much.

Cape Spear

Once we were back on the bus, it was off to St. John’s. It was a bit of culture shock to see all the traffic and even traffic lights! The first obligatory stop was at the Cape Spear lighthouse. I know, I know…. another lighthouse! This one is interesting to us because of its connection to the military protection of St. John’s harbour. Very similar to the fortifications around Victoria.

It is the eastern most point in Canada. And if you want to spend an interesting couple of hours, try arguing that it is the eastern most part of North America. You will get some who point out there are a couple of islands in Alaska that are so far west they are east and should be the eastern most point. But if you ignore that, someone will point out that geologically Greenland is part of North America so its eastern most point should have the honour. As a side note, the western most point of Greenland, Cape Alexander, is almost the same longitude as Montreal. Take a few minutes to get your head around that one. For a complete (?) discussion, click here

Signal Hill

The next obligatory site was Signal Hill perhaps best known as the place where Marconi received the first transatlantic transmission. We certainly noticed the increase in tourist traffic. The fact that we are part of it wasn’t lost on us. For me, the most interesting part was looking back into St. John’s harbour and trying to picture it full of transports waiting to form convoys during the war.

St. John’s (at last!)

Our final hotel was the Sheraton, very nice. Dinner was on our own but many of us opted to go to the same restaurant for a lobster dinner. Lots of fun and laughter even though I don’t like eating lobster. I don’t mind lobster itself, but I find cracking it open and picking out the good bits is tricky.

Our last day started with a driving tour around town getting a feeling for the city. It included a stop at the Quidi Vidi brewery, the makers of Iceberg beer (and many other brands) which seems to be very popular here. Nice spot to visit, hard to believe you’re so close to a major city.

We had the afternoon to ourselves. Many of our group decided to visit The Rooms, a huge museum. We decided to leave it for the two days we were here on our own. We opted to do a walkabout.

We left the hotel and started up the hill taking time to stop for our first cappuccinos in a while. Then past Bannerman Park and Government House to the Colonial Building, site of Newfoundland’s government prior to Canada’s joining it. We couldn’t tour inside but the grounds had lots of displays that were very descriptive. We came to the Basilica Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. It is huge and it was just like touring a cathedral in Europe.

The basilica was near a Sobeys which had an ATM so we headed there and got some more cash. Who says we don’t know how to have fun? We had the farewell dinner in the hotel. Again, there were lots of laughs and appropriate thank yous to Patti and Darrell, our tour guides. They are both native Newfoundlanders and their ability to relate to the many places we visited really enhanced the tour.

The next morning, we had to get our own bags down to reception. Reality had begun to set in. A couple of couples had 6:00 flights out of St John’s. The computers at the airport were down so there were significant delays. Luckily, we were staying for a couple of weeks, so they didn’t affect us.

On our own again

We rented a car at the airport and headed off to our Airbnb. My travel planner had arranged a tour of the Avalon Peninsula to fill the next two weeks. Should be interesting. ToBeContinued.

---

Photos

Off to see the puffins!
Good sized boat. Should be no problem despite the wind.

Land ho!
The islands in the ecological reserve approach.

Interesting structures
We enjoyed seeing the different structures the sea has carved out over the years.

Rocky cliffs
Matched the rocky trip we had out to the cliffs on the islands of the reserve.

Joe
His commentary was priceless. His job would have been secure even if he weren't the boss.

Nobody home
The holes in the cliff are where the puffins lay their eggs. I think they were all out fishing. There isn't a lot of room to call their own.

Screech in
Four landlubbers become honorary Newfoundlanders at the traditional screech in ceremony. Not sure if this counts for the baby. We were screeched-in on the boat cruise across Bonne Bay.

The best look I got of a puffin
Okay, maybe not the best view but you'll have to wait for that picture.

Signal Hill
Quick stop there. Didn't take enough pictures.

St John's harbour
Part of our morning trip around St John's included visiting the harbour which is still very active.

Mile 0 for Terry Fox
We stopped at the site where Terry Fox started his Marathon of Hope.

Ahhhhh!
We finally got our cappuccinos.

Row houses
Very common in St. John's. Due to the many hills, they aren't always on the same level.

Colourful houses
St John's is famous for its jellybean houses which these aren't but there are still plenty of colourful houses in town.

Quidi Vidi
Once a separate village, it is now a neighborhood of St John's. Very picturesque and it was hard to believe you were in a major city.

The Colonial Building
Site of the Newfoundland and Labrador legisative assembly from 1850 to 1959. Couldn't tour it but the display sign outside told quite a story.

Sample sign
This one talks about the riot of April 5, 1932. I was unaware of this event and these displays give one a hint of what we can look into about our history.

Celebrating the return of soldiers from WWI
The return of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment was celerated in the reuniting of a soldier with his daughter. The designer wanted to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the end of the war with more emphasis on the reuniting of families.

Basilica Cathedral of St John the Baptist
Quite an imposing structure.

Side view
It's not the Leaning Tower of St. John's. Dianne did not take this picture.

Inside view
Lots of meaningful displays. We were able to attend Mass here one Sunday along with a good crowd of locals.