Aug 12 - Walking Tour of St. John's

A bit about the city: St. John's (metropolitan population about 215,000) is the capital and largest city of Newfoundland and Labrador and is the easternmost city in North America (excluding Greenland).

Its name has been attributed to the belief that John Cabot sailed into the harbour on the Nativity of John the Baptist in 1497, although it is most likely a legend that came with British settlement. A more realistic possibility is that a fishing village with the same name existed without a permanent settlement for most of the 16th century. Indicated as São João on a Portuguese map from 1519, it is one of the oldest cities in North America. It was officially incorporated as a city in 1888.

St. John's, and the province as a whole, was gravely affected in the 1990s by the collapse of the northern cod fishery, which had been the driving force of the provincial economy for hundreds of years. After a decade of high unemployment rates and depopulation, the city's proximity to the Hibernia, Terra Nova and White Rose oil fields led to an economic boom that spurred population growth and commercial development. As a result, the St. John's area now accounts for about half of the province's economic output.

After lunch we headed downtown with lots of time to spare before our walking tour at 2:00 p.m. We sought out the very evocative Terry Fox Memorial – the point where Terry started his Marathon of Hope on April 12, 1980.

A large section of the main street of St. John’s is closed to car traffic during the days in the summer months to encourage pedestrian traffic, and to accommodate the large number of cruise ship visitors who flood in and support the $2 billion tourism industry in Newfoundland. The downtown is full of interesting buildings, quirky laneways, colourful paint jobs, huge churches, and lots of history.

I found the big quilt store - it's an amalgamation of two stores. It had a wonderful selection, but this quilter does not need any more fabric. I kept my hands to myself, but only with great effort!

Our tour guide, Dave Peters, skillfully and humorously wove together elements of history, indigenous concerns, politics, the arts, architecture, religion and economics over the course of 2.5 hours. If you are ever in St. John’s, it’s a must-do activity: https://stjohnswalkingtours.com. We learned about the contribution of the Chinese and the Irish to the development of St. John’s. We learned about the three disastrous fires almost demolished the entire city. The last one in 1892 profoundly affected the architecture landscape of the city. We saw lots of Jelly Bean houses, painted all sorts of bright colours. The reason that houses are painted so colourfully is to dispel the gloom of the 180 days of rain that St. John’s gets. You can paint your house any colour you want as long as it’s different from the houses on either side. More cities need this approach to house colours!!

Did you know that the Mary Brown's Chicken franchise is owned by a Newfoundland company? The big arena here is the Mary Brown's Centre. There are t-shirts available with pictures of Jesus, Mary Brown and Joey Smallwood on them - yes, that makes Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

Our last stop was at the National War Memorial of Newfoundland and Labrador. Just a few months ago, in a moving ceremony, the body of an unknown Newfoundland soldier was placed in a tomb at the foot of the memorial. Only one other unknown soldier tomb exists in Canada, and that’s in Ottawa. A very thought-provoking end to an excellent walking tour.

We had dinner in a pub and did some great people-watching from our window seat. We trudged home on our tired dogs and are now curled up for the night. We were champion tourists today!Läs mer