Voyage of the Vikings Redux - Corner Brook, Newfoundland, Canada

Cruise Day 5

Wednesday, July 26, 2023

We woke up to gray skies and the prediction was for thunderstorms later in the day.  This is another port we visited in 2016 and here is the link to that blog post.  We didn’t have anything planned for our day in Corner Brook, so we had a leisurely morning until we decided to go ashore around ten and explore the town.

We had to sail into a long inlet to get to Corner Brook.

We got off the ship to a welcome sign and music being played to entertain us.

We got off the ship and got in line for the provided shuttle into town.  The line was quite long, but once the bus arrived it moved quickly.  We were dropped off in the center of town at the town square across from city hall.  There were some vendors selling their wares in the square, so we wandered around there checking out the various booths.  There was also a local musician playing music, so we listened to him for a while.

The shuttle dropped us right in the center of town next to city hall, the library and museum.

There was also a craft fair going on.

We walked around town, but there wasn’t too much to see so we returned to the square and visited the local museum.  We spent quite a bit of time going through the museum and found it very interesting.  The early settlers here had to be very hardy as it was a very harsh environment.

The museum, the town library and the city hall are all connected, and we had been told that there was a good view of the town from the top of city hall, so we went looking for that.  We found the elevator with some help from a very friendly employee and went up to the roof.  Much to our surprise we found a rooftop garden with benches and seats where you could enjoy the views in a peaceful environment.  While we were there, we felt some rain drops and decided it was time to get back to the ship.

They must have been expecting us.

 

 

 

The roof of City Hall.

The view from the City Hall rooftop garden.

The City Hall rooftop garden.

 

 

 

Sure enough, as we went outside, we started to see lightning and hear large peals of thunder.  We had our rain jackets with us, but the rain was just a sprinkle, so we didn’t get them out.  It looked like everyone had the same idea as there was a long line waiting for the shuttle back to the ship and we missed the first one, but it was followed by a second and we got on and were on our way.

It was a short drive to the ship and the rain was still light, so we checked out some of the vendors around the pier.  As I do in most places we visit, I found a t-shirt I liked and bought it, but other than that we didn’t find anything of interest.

By the time we got back on the ship the rain had started to come down heavier and we were treated to quite a lightning and thunder show from our balcony.  We headed off to lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and reading.  I downloaded all of our pictures for the last few days, got caught up on the blog, and backed everything up.

Corner Brook is situated inland at the end of a long inlet that was somewhat like a fjord.  We sailed out of Corner Brook around 5:00 PM and enjoyed the scenery as we made our way back out to the Atlantic Ocean.  It would have been quite spectacular if the sun had been out, but the views were still very nice.

We sail away from Corner Brook.  The smoke is coming from a wood pulp mill.

It is 22 miles from Corner Brook to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and open waters.

 

Our last look at Corner Brook.

We had dinner and spent another late night in the casino before returning to our room.  On this ship (the Zuiderdam) there is something called the Music Walk that starts with classical music in the Explorer’s Lounge, then a blues and rock and roll venue called the Rolling Stone Lounge and finally, next to the casino, there was an area called Billboard Onboard.  We really like the Rolling Stones Lounge as they have a good band playing good music, but while we are in the casino all we can hear is Billboard Live that is essentially two guys playing and singing at two pianos playing popular music from various eras.  That might have been alright, but in our opinion, neither of them can sing very well and the music is a little loud and grating while we are in the casino.  It seems to be a popular spot though and others like it so to each their own, but even though they are playing songs we like, they just don’t sound very good to us, so we spend our music listening time at the Rolling Stone Lounge, but we can’t help but listen the Billboard Onboard while we are gambling.

We were originally scheduled to be in Red Bay, Labrador tomorrow, but due to a problem with the certification of the tender dock, we will be skipping Red Bay and tomorrow will be the first of two sea days before we reach Greenland.  We have another time change tonight as we move the clocks ahead a half hour to get us on Greenland Time.