Photo Gallery 6-Newfoundland

We spent the first two and 1/2 days in St. Johns. On the first full day we took a bus tour. This is a view of St. John's Harbor. St. John's is the capital city of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and served that role when the two provinces were the independent Dominion of Newfoundland from 1907 to 1949. This is from the parking lot of the Basilica of St. John the Baptist, the most prominent religious building in the city. The entrance to the harbor in the distance is called The Narrows, to no one's surprise.

Another view of the Harbor, here from Signal Hill Battery park overlooking the Narrows. If you look above where the blue-hulled ships are docked you can see the two-spired Basilica from where the previous photo was taken. From the Basilica photo we are now on the hill to the left of the Narrows.

Here's a closer look at the entrance to The Narrows from the Signal Hill Battery. You can see why the lighthouse, see opposite is needed.

A bus tour of St. Johns included this small fishing harbor called Quidi Vidi with even a smaller harbor entrance. Nearby is the brewery that makes, surprisingly named Quidi Vidi beer.

On our way to our second stop, Gander, we took a whale watching boat trip, and what do you know, that small black thing in the bottom right center is a whale.

Here are other people, trying to get a photo. We also saw lots of puffins, birds with colorful beaks, common in these waters.

This is a view at the start of the trail which is a bridge over one on the lake's inlets.

Once in Gander we visited their airplane museum. This is one of the Canadien fighter jets they have outside. Gander became famous during 9/11 when many of the international flights not allowed to land in the United States landed here. Many residents opened their homes for the waiting passengers while they waited for flight to resume.

This the view from the cabin at our third stop, a bed and breakfast on the Bonavista peninsula overlooking the eastern Newfoundland shore, on one of the few mostly sunny days.

This is a view of the mountain range within the park which are too high and rocky to support plant life.

Another shot showing a slightly different view of the rare sunny sky, roadway and valley between the mountains.

Here's a view from the boat traversing the inland fjord, officially called the Western Brook Pond. One has to walk a couple miles inland to get to the boat, fortunately, the heavy rain showers forecast held off.

Here's a view of the terrain leading down to the fjord, the plants root in pockets or cracks in the rocks.

This shows the cliffs surrounding the fjord which gets narrower as you proceed further in. (You might notice it's raining slightly.)

This a look at the cliffs on the way back to the dock. We were able to get much closer to the cliffs at many points.

Here's a view of the tour boat (on the right) looking straight down the inland fjord before hitting the snack bar to resupply for the hike back to the car.

Gros Morne park also included coastal areas as well. One of the lighthouses open to the public was this one at Lobster Cove Head.

During our stay visiting Gros Morne National Park, we stayed, naturally, at the Grose Morne Resort just outside the park borders, it advertised a restaurant and golf....

This was the view from our room when it was not pouring rain, or foggy (Didn't see anyone playing golf).

After our visit to Gros Morne we headed toward the northwest tip of Newfoundland and our final destination, the Viking landing site at
L'Anse aux Meadows...

Along the way we got close enough to see Labrador across the Straight of Belle Isle. The houses in the foreground are typical for this part of Newfoundland.

Here's another view across at Labrador further up the Viking Trail Highway, for you road fans Newfoundland Route 430.

We stayed for the night before seeing the Viking site at Burnt Cape Cabins in Raleigh (not quite the size of the one in NC)...

This was the view outside of the front door of the cabins looking out on the Raleigh harbor, don't miss that yellow sign in the dark.

Here's a view of the village of Raleigh and our cabins from the other side of the harbor, a nature sanctuary due to the small flowers that grow among the rocks that are unique to this location. Mostly a rocky landscape otherwise. There are places where you cannot see any plants at all and it more resembles the moon than Earth.

The next day we drove further north to L'Anse aux Meadows the site of a Viking encampment discovered in 1960...

This is what the site looks like today, all that remains of the Viking encampment are mounds where the wall of their longhouses were, the plaques indicate the possible use for a given longhouse site, this one probably contained prominent individuals.

This view looks back across the site toward the entrance and Visitors Center.

These mounds which are in the center of the site are speculated by the plaque to be the longhouse of Leif Erikson.

Archaeologists have re-created in some places on the site what they believe the Longhouses looked like, the squares on top serve as chimneys to clear smoke out of the buildings.

Here are more reconstructed buildings including the forge building on the left. The forge is for smelting iron (a discovery that clearly pointed to European occupation since the native Americans of the time did not have this technology.)

Here's a reconstruction of a boat reconstruction area. Planks of wood were held together by iron nails made in the forge. Many now believe this site was not an actual village but a weigh station that was used during the summer to repair boats and to proceed on short fishing exhibitions.

Here's what the reconstructed interior of a Longhouse may have appeared like, not much light at the turn of the eleventh century.

After the trip to the archaeological site it was off to, after lunch, Norsestead, a recreated Norse village featuring costumed interpreters that tried to help portray the lives of the Viking settlers....

This is the view from the entrance to Norstead with recreated buildings, including a christian church, in the background. The Vikings started converting to Christianity around the time they discovered Greenland and settled in northern Newfoundland.

Another view with more buildings that included a ironworks building and a longhouse, the pink stone in the center served as a map of the Norstead complex.

The view from the opposite side of the complex, the building in front contained a full-scale replica of the Viking ship, Snorri, which re-traced Ericson's voyage from Greenland. This scene looks pretty empty because most of the people acting as interpreters were in the buildings since this was a rather windy day. In the afternoon we visited the town of St. Anthony before starting back south for the night in Raleigh then back home to the United States.

Signs along the Newfoundland roadways constantly warned us to be on the lookout for moose. Given the size of these animals any collision would do more damage to you than the moose. We didn't, however, see any until the day we left for Deer Lake and our plane home....

Just outside of Raleigh there were a couple moose by the side of the road, this is the best photo I could get of one, all but the head hidden by vegetation.