St John's

We had an uneventful trip to St. John's on Saturday and took a cab to our Air BnB which is in a modern condominium in an old school. It is quite nice and very quiet. There is a 3.5 hour time difference with Edmonton so we didn't go to sleep until 12:30. Of course we didn't get going in the morning until 10:00 because of the jet lag. Our first stop on our Sunday agenda was the Rooms which is the name of the provincial museum. It is a modern museum that from the outside looks like two huge outpost houses joined centrally together by modern glass. It had a museum, natural history museum, a museum of the 1st Newfoundland Regiment and art galleries. Cheryl made a beeline for the 1st Newfoundland Regiment. Newfoundland during WW1 was essentially it's own country and fielded their own soldiers and sailors separately then Canada. The Newfoundland Regiment is best remembered for the Battle of Beaumont Hamel on July 1 which was part of the larger battle of the Somme. Of the 800 Newfoundlanders who took the field that day, 740 were killed or wounded. The museum really tried to personalize the soldiers many of whom died. The art gallery was quite good with a mixture of current painters and historical painters. A Y Jackson loved painting in Nfld. There was some great indigenous art including a large sculptured whale skull. After the Rooms we wandered the streets, checking out the beautifully coloured wooden houses affectionately known as Jellybean Row houses. We walked the length of Water street which was mostly restaurants and bars before heading back to our accommodation and a salmon supper.

Today Monday we picked up our rental car. Fortunately I had booked it months in advance as when I initially starting researching Newfoundland the advice I read was book your car first. A driver picked us up at 9 and all went smoothly. The car rental agency had no cars left other than our rental, a little Hyundai Venture. Chat GPT suggested a day trip to Bell Island on the west side of the Avalon peninsula 30 minutes from St. John's. We missed a sailing of the ferry and had to wait for an hour for the next ferry. Talked to a local who reminded me of Relic from the Beachcombers a TV series set on the west coast. He complained about island life, the ferry and too many tourists. We saw only a few tourists on the island so I wondered if he was prone to over exaggerating things. We went to the local museum to do an iron mine Tour. Iron mining on the island from 1905 until 1966 was the main employer and created great prosperity. Think Fort Mac Murray. It was interesting to learn how the mines went way out under the water of the Cumbrian strait. The tour recently had become a video as the mine had been deemed unsafe. Fox our guide start and stopped the video multiple times to embellish it with his own stories. Fox had grown up on the island the son and grandson of miners only forced to move away for employment when the mine closed. Interestingly many people moved from Belle Island to Cambridge Ontario to work in a factory that made mining equipment. Some of these people including the guide had returned to Belle Island in retirement.The museum also had local history exhibits and an exhibit about 5 iron ore transport ships that had been sunk by a u-boat in WW2. Interestingly the captain of the u-boat' s family in Germany had donated all of his medals and military records to the museum. A letter of commodation signed by Adolf Hitler was on display. I would not have realized that if the guide hadn't pointed it out to us. We drove around the island stopping at a Greebe nesting area requiring us to walk through a tunnel whose roof was shored up with wood. It looked more dangerous than the mine we weren't allowed to go in. We continued around the island to the beach off which the ships were sunk and finally to the lighthouse before driving quickly to catch the 3:45 ferry. Monday evening we drove up Signal hill for some spectacular views of the ocean and harbor. We watched a large Ship enter the narrows and proceed into the harbor. Both days we have been blessed with sunny 20 degree weather.Read more