Voyage of the Vikings Redux – St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada

Cruise Day 32

Tuesday, August 22, 2023

We are visiting St. John’s today another Newfoundland town.  This is our second visit to St. John’s, and we really enjoyed our first visit.  Unfortunately, when we got up this morning it was raining, and the weather forecast says it will last all day.

Here is some information on St. John’s from Google.  “St. John's, a city on Newfoundland Island off Canada's Atlantic coast, is the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador province. Its harbour was settled by the British in the 1600s. Downtown is known for its colourful row houses. Above the city is Signal Hill with walking trails and the site of the first transatlantic wireless communication, Cabot Tower, which commemorates John Cabot's discovery of Newfoundland.”  St. John’s population is 114,000; that is quite a bit more than some of the places we’ve visited recently.  We also found out today that the island of Newfoundland is the 13^th largest in the world.

The Island of Newfoundland.  St. John's is the red marker on the right, the lower blue marker is Corner Brook and the upper blue marker is St. Anthony where we were yesterday.

 

St. John's Newfoundland.  Its natural harbor with its narrow opening makes it easy to defend which has historically made it a very strategic location.

We are about to 

enter the St. John's harbor to the left.

This is Signal Hill with Fort Waldergrave at the top guarding the harbor entrance.  This is one of the spots we'll be visiting today.

This area near the harbor entrance is another area we'll be visiting today.

The town of St. John's

Just after we docked, a Canadian Navy ship came in and docked across from us.

We didn’t arrive in port until 10:00 AM so we had a leisurely morning.  We are on a tour organized by Bob and Joan from our Cruise Critic Roll Call.  It will only be Bob and Joan and us so it should be a good tour.  We hadn’t heard anything from them and started to worry a little about the tour status.  We didn’t know their room number and the ship won’t disclose room numbers, so we had to have the Neptune Lounge Concierge call them and then hand the phone over to us.  All was well and the meeting time hadn’t changed so the tour was on.

We are docked today so there is no tender to deal with which made things a lot easier.  We were supposed to meet on shore at 11:00, so Val and I got off the ship and found Bob just outside the terminal gate.  It was still raining so we were in our rain gear and getting a little wet while we waited for our guide to show up.

She soon drove up and introduced herself and we were on our way.  Her name was Mary and although the Honda CR-V she was driving was a little cramped, we all fit in reasonably well.  She seemed very nice, and we all hit it off right away.  Val and I had done a taxi tour when we were here before and expected to see some of the same things, but the taxi driver was not a guide so this would be much better.

St. John's is located on the eastern side of the Avalon Peninsula.  We spent most of today's tour in the town of St. John's, but we did visit Cape Spear the red marker with camera and had lunch at Portugal Cove, the red knife and spoon marker.

Our first stop was one of the oldest areas in town that we had seen as we entered the harbor.  It has colorfully painted houses on the side of the hill running down to the entrance to the harbor entrance. It was once home to the local fishermen, but now it is mostly made up of vacation rental homes as the views are spectacular from there.

A view of the harbor entrance.

Some of the homes perched on the hillside overlooking the harbor entrance.

A look at the St. John's town center from across the harbor.

It looks like this cannon is aimed at our ship.

The area across the harbor entrance.

Next, we went up to the historic Fort Waldergrave at the Signal Hill National Historic Site, a strategic point high above the harbor entrance.  The views are spectacular from up there, but unfortunately, because of the rain, the views were a bit obscured, but we didn’t let that deter us and we went ahead and explored the area.  Mary had timed our arrival for the traditional noon cannon firing which, back before modern clocks and watches, was the way they were able to synchronize their clocks and instruments to the right time.

Part of Fort Waldergrave

This cannon is fired every day at noon.

From there it was back into town into an area called Jellybean Row.  Back in 1892 most of the town burned down and when they rebuilt it, supplies were hard to come by in this remote area, so whole blocks of houses were painted exactly the same color.  This caused some confusion and as paint became more readily available, people added colorful trim and even changed the color, so instead of a single-colored area, there are now a mixture of brightly colored homes and buildings.  The effect was a little subdued due to the dark skies, but it was still very colorful and unique.

After Jellybean Row, we drove around to the other side of the harbor and out towards the entrance where we could look across the harbor entrance at Signal Hill and the homes on the hillside we had visited earlier.  Despite the rain, Bob and I decided to walk further out towards the beginning of the harbor while Joan and Val opted to stay with Mary in the car and keep dry.  At this point, despite our rain jackets, we were beginning to get a little damp.

Looking back across the area we had just visited.

We next took a drive out of town to the Cape Spear National Historic Site.  It was out of St. John’s town area, but we were still in the St. John’s city limits as it has a very large footprint.  Cape Spear was a military installation during World War II and also has a lighthouse.  It actually has two lighthouses, one new one and an older historic one that is no longer used.  The drive was very beautiful through some very scenic countryside.  Mary said she had to be very watchful as there are many moose in the area.  Moose were not originally on the island of Newfoundland, but they were brought in as a source of meat for the inhabitants and because there are no predators on the island they have flourished over the years and now there are too many of them.

Cape Spear would have some beautiful views in clear weather, but today it was shrouded in clouds and a light fog.  The rain had picked up, so Joan and Val only got out for a short time and then they returned to the car, while Mary led Bob and I down to see what was left of the old military installation.  We also stood on the eastern most point in North America, but Mary said that wasn’t strictly true as Greenland is considered part of North America, but Greenland is an island so I’m still sticking with it being the eastern most point.

It was rainy and overcast so the views were mostly obscured.  This is the easternmost point on the North American Continent (not counting the island of Greenland).

The Cape Spear Lighthouse.

The barrel of one of the guns left in the gun emplacements.

One of the bunkers behind the gun emplacements.  We were able to walk in the tunnels between the different bunks and found it dark and damp.

After an interesting, but damp visit to Cape Spear we headed back to St. John’s and to a lunch stop.  Before we went to lunch though, Mary wanted to take us to the highest point in St. John’s.  We had assumed it was Signal Hill, but that was not the case.  We got a full view of the town all the way to the mouth of the harbor including Signal Hill, but once again the rainy weather made the views a bit hazy.

Now it was time for lunch, and we headed off to the town of Portugal Cove on the other side of the Avalon Peninsula for fish and chips at the Landings Eatery and Pub.  This was a little, out of the way place that served delicious fish and chips.  Val and I made the mistake of ordering a two-piece plate each as we had no idea of how big each piece of fish was.  They were actually a full half a cod, and way too much for us to be able to finish.  The “chips” were served Canadian style of being covered in gravy, but they added a Newfoundland touch buy laying them on a bed of bread dressing, very good.  Despite having more fish than we could eat, the meal was delicious; the cod was fresh caught this morning and very tasty.

I took a picture of our group while we waited for our fish and chips.  Going around the table there is of course Val, then Bob and Joan who invited us to join them on this tour, and our wonderful guide, Mary.

It was a late lunch so by the time we finished eating, it was time to head back to the ship.  Despite having a very damp day, we had a great time.  Mary was a fifth generation Newfoundlander and a great guide; she was knowledgeable, funny, and most importantly, she gave us a real idea of Newfoundland life and people.  If you are ever in St. John’s, Newfoundland, I highly recommend Mary and Just Landed Tours.

We were back on the ship by 5:00 PM and immediately got into some dry clothes.  We both had wet shoes and our clothes were damp down to our underwear.  To make the best of bad weather is essential if you are going to enjoy travel.  Today wasn’t the best weather, but we had a great day, and it is always interesting to see how things look when the sun isn’t shining with blue skies.  That said though, some of the views we saw today would have been spectacular under clear skies, but maybe that will be for another visit.

 

One last look at the harbor entrance.

We relaxed for a while until dinner, but we weren’t very excited as we were both still pretty full after our large late lunch.  We ended up just ordering an appetizer and dessert and then called it a night.  There was no casino tonight as the ship isn’t leaving until 11:00 PM.  We will get even more rest tonight as we gain back another half hour and set the clocks back again.