Blogs from St John's, Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada, North America - page 4

We blissfully sleep in this morning. What a great way to start our vacation! We have a satisfying breakfast at the hotel and then head by car for Signal Hill, arguably the city's #1 tourist attraction. After a little bit of trouble in the rabbit warren of streets around the base of the hill, we find the correct road and start climbing. Signal Hill rises on the north side of the Narrows, the entrance from the ocean to the spacious St. John's harbour beyond. For centuries, it has been of immense strategic importance for guarding the harbour, and has seen numerous battles. Its rich history has left behind many ruins and artifacts. Our first stop along the way is Deadman's Pond, encircled by an easy trail. Towering above it is an outcropping called Gibbet's Hill, where ... read more

Today we said goodbye to Eastport and made our way to Gander to drop Tim's daughter Shayna off at home before we continued on the rest of our trip. We took a little side trip to an old outport town called Greenspond which is linked to mainland Newfoundland by a causeway. The landscape there is rugged and barren, strewn with rocks. This area was settled by people from England and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited outports in Newfoundland, having been settled in the 1690s. Its livelihood was cod fishing and an annual seal hunt in which they used guns and nets to kill the seals. The population at one time was over 2,000 but now there are less than 400 people there. Our next stop was Lumsden which has miles of white sand beach. ... read more

Breakfast this morning in St. John's was toast with bakeapple and partridge berry jams. Yum. As it was a bit rainy, we, along with Tim's daughter Shayna, decided to visit "The Rooms" which houses the Provincial Archives, Art Gallery and Museum. The building itself is beautiful with a breathtaking view of St. John's harbour, the Narrows and Signal Hill. Its architecture and name come from the tiny gable-roofed sheds, called "fishing rooms", that were once so common on the shores of Newfoundland fishing villages. The two hours we spent viewing the exhibits of the history, people and culture of Newfoundland and Labrador wasn't nearly enough time to see all that this outstanding venue has to offer, and we were sad that we didn't have time to see the art gallery, but we all felt fortunate to ... read more

I just recently moved to Newfoundland and never spent much time touring around this beautiful province.. So I thought I would show some of my day trips to those who may not get a chance to visit. Today we visited The Ferryland Lighthouse on the Avalon Penninsula, a 1 hour drive from St. John's. Nice leisurely drive lots of ocean views on the way going thru various small communities until we reached Ferryland. I had reserved a lunch picnic at the lighthouse which by the way is recommended as in the summer season things fill up fast. We made it to the parking lot and started our trek up to the light house.. It is a very easy walk a road big enough for one car it takes about 10minutes or so to get up to ... read more

The wind and rain were pounding on the windows this morning – our luck has run out. Just before leaving the room, I decided to take a photo of what the view from the window actually was. That made me notice that at 9:00 in the morning the clouds were so dark that lights shone as if it were late dusk. The usual start to the city tour is Signal Hill, but that was inadvisable because we couldn’t even see Signal Hill, let alone the view. Our city guide, Linda, had us driven along streets past important buildings and monuments. Thankfully, the bus seat rotation brought me to second row where I could see out the windshield; I am not sure the others could see much of anything through the tinted side windows. Since we didn’t ... read more