MERRY CHRISTMAS RAY!! This trip was Ray's Christmas 2015 gift request. It is a part of his native country that neither of us have ever seen. We arrived in ST JOHNS , NEWFOUNDLAND on the afternoon of September 14th, just in time for a late lunch. We checked in at the Sheraton Hotel and struck out to see the town on a glorious, sunny afternoon. We found a Gastropub and feasted on the best Fish and Chips EVER! Amazingly Crispy and light washed down with a good local beer.
Then we strolled all over the central part of town and down by the harbor where a huge cruise ship was docked.
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| A view of St John's from our hotel Room at the Sheraton |
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| A Residential street in St John's.... we did a bit of walking around town and saw many colorful houses. |
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| These are the hard working supply boats in St John's Harbor..... |
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| This was our first glimpse of the ship we will be cruising on. It looks very small compared to the monster sized cruise ship that was here on the night we hit town. |
Dinner that evening was at a local Chef owned place called "CHINCHED". This is slang for
"stuffed" as in overly fed. The hostess is co owner with her chef husband, and she was very friendly. Told us all about their career paths and their years in the restaurant biz on Nantucket.
Thursday the 15th was rainy. Luckily there was a bus tour of the town available to us as a pre cruise event. WE did that, and then were escorted to the ship. Our boat looked very small compared to the huge thing of the day before. We boarded around 5pm and settled in our cabin. Quite spacious for a boat like this and even has a nice veranda. YEAH!! This ship has 80 cabins and a capacity of 140 passengers. On this trip, we have about 120. The crew is very organized and several naturalists, historians and photo experts on board to inform and mentor us all. WE WILL HAVE TO POST OUR PHOTOS WHEN THE TRIP IS OVER..... THE INTERNET SERVICE IS WAY TOO SLOW ON THE SHIP.
WE cruised all night, and docked the morning of the 16th at the French Islands of ST PIERRE AND MIQUELON...... These two small Islands are almost 100% French, but the place does not look like France at all. Just a simple small Canadian town. Population 6,000 on St Pierre, which is the island we visited. Miquelon is much smaller. The history goes back to 1500 when the French and Basque Fisherman used the island as a stopover. The highlight of the visit was a scenic lookout high on a hill with Miquelon and the vast sea beyond. Dinner that night on the ship was local lobster, and nice wines. They have a pretty good list on board.
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| As we departed the ship at St Pierre, Ray shot this image of "Ile Aux Marins". Its a tiny island just next to St Pierre. |
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| Hilltop on St Pierre. Old boat pullys in the foreground |
After Dinner that evening, our professional actor performed an edited version of the one man play he co wrote with Jim Lehrer on the Life of Alexander Graham Bell and his inventions. This was to get us in the mood to visit the Bell Museum.
Saturday , The 17th we docked at CAPE BRETON ISLAND, on the North end of Nova Scotia. Morning stop was the historic town of LOUISBOURG. Ray and I had been here 36 years ago on our Honeymoon. It was very nostalgic to go back again. Founded by the French Military in 1713, Louisbourg served as a fortress ( fortified town) until its final capture by the English in 1758. The Brits demolished it in 1760 and there was nothing there for a long time. Then in the 1960s , guided by massive amounts of maps and drawings, the Parks Canada folks reconstructed about 25% of the town. It then became a National Historic Site of Canada. It now attracts thousands of visitors annually. If you ever travel to Nova Scotia, this stop is well worth it.
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| The town of Louisbourg today. We landed here and took a bus to the historic fortress. |
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This guide at Louisbourg is giving us a presentation about like in the town in the 18th Century, when the place was
a well inhabited French Fortress town. She's holding a ball of sugar . We also got a tour of the vegetable gardens and the sheep pen. |
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| One of the reconstructed buildings |
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| Louisbourg rooftops |
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This is a woman acting the part of a French soldier and telling us what life was like for them.
She even shot off her rifle for us. |
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| A domestic scene in the Governers home. |
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| They were ever so French..... And Ray is a wonderful photographer. |
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| The light was perfect that day to capture these images of a great historic place. |
Our afternoon stop was the town of Baddeck, also on Cape Breton. Its a charming town with a good harbor and a very nice museum devoted entirely to Alexander Graham Bell, His wife, and his inventions. He's famous for the telephone, but was also into flying machines and hydrofoil water travel. They had a home in Baddeck. Our afternoon ended with a fun fide on a schooner, a sailing ship of about 100 feet. Big enough to hold about 30 people, and a very entertaining guide. We were lucky to see several bald eagles. A couple came right up to the boat to pull fish out of the water that our guide tossed in..... wow. Beautiful Birds!
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| Our Schooner in Baddeck. It was a glorious afternoon and a beautiful sail. |
Our talk that evening after Dinner was by our guest speaker, Robert MacNeil, the writer and TV Journalist.
Sunday, Sept. 18th we landed on the Quebec Islands of the ILES DE LA MADELINE, a group of small islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence which are Part of the province of Quebec. Population about 12,000, and many more in Summertime. Sadly, we got a rainy day for this visit, and the visibility was poor. But we had a lively local named Sylvie as our guide and she brightened our day. We visited a herring smokehouse and learned a bit about the fishing culture in this region. Shopping was at the Sand museum in an area called La Grave. Most stores were closed on this Sunday morning in the rain. Ray and I bought 2 shell shaped bowls of glazed ceramic as a souvenir. The Church we visited was all in wood and one of the very oldest around..... Lunch was in a dining hall at an old convent. The ones we felt sorry for were the biking group, but they seemed to have a good time... soaked to the bone.
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| These figures are moulded from sand. Everything in this shop was a sand creation. It was like a museum. Perfect stop on a rainy day. |
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| Inside the French Catholic church. This must require a lot of maintenance. It looks beautiful! |
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| In the old days before GPS , people found addresses by describing house colors. It also perks up the landscape when its dreary, right? |
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| With it's steep cliffs, Belle Anse is one of the most beautiful sightseeing points on the red sandstone cliffs. Situated on the North side of the islands, it shows us the effects of erosion on the archipelago over the years. |
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| Sylvie, our local guide, in her raingear. She was a lot of fun. |
Monday the 19th was a stop back on Newfoundland on the West side at the UNESCO World Heritage Site called Gros Morne. Newfoundland's geological history comes alive as we wander the 3 km path
along the Western Brook Pond on our way to the raised inland FJORD that was carved by the sea and filled by the ocean about 15,000 years ago. Part of the scenery is the GROS MORNE mountain . The wind was blowing awfully hard, and I only made the walk halfway, then turned back to cower in the warmth of the bus. Ray and the rest of the group returned an hour later, hardier than I was.... We had the afternoon to rest and do NY Times Crosswords.
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| Western Brook at Gros Morne. |
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| This path goes on for a long time. Until you approach the Fjord. It was a windy day and pretty chilly. |
A real highlight to this tour was on the 20th, Tuesday.... we cruised overnight to the Northernmost tip of the Island to a place called L'ANSE AUX MEADOWS, ( Another UNESCO Heritage Site).....and the recreated Viking village of Norstead. This was a fascinating look at the world of the rough and Ready Norsemen who traveled from Greenland to Newfoundland in search of supplies for their settlement in Greenland. They built a temporary camp of timber and sod buildings there over 1,000 years ago.
They were discovered in the 1960s by a team of archeologists and later reconstructed by the Parks Canada crews to be a pretty accurate representation of what the Norse Explorers build and lived in. WE learned that all Vikings were Norsemen ( from Scandinavia), but not all Norsemen were Vikings. You were only a Viking if you fought and killed and destroyed the towns and farms of those whose land you wanted to take over. Many Norsemen were peaceful , and traveled to discover the world and fortify themselves.
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| A closeup of the sod exterior of the reconstructed Norseman shelters. |
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| HE looks pretty authentic...... |
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| We weren't sure about the cross. They were on this land in 1,000 AD so they could have been Christians. |
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| This was at Norstead, a smaller site than at L'anse aux Meadows |
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| The interior . And it shows the timber frame construction that is under the sod. |
I went back to the ship after this, but Ray stayed on for a Viking Feast, and a visit to a place called St Anthony. They visited the home of a famous Dr Grenfell.
Our final stop on the cruise, Wednesday the 21st, was a town called TWILLINGATE on the North East Shore of Newfoundland. WE hiked around Long Island Lighthouse Lookout point, A fishing village, where the local dude took us to his staging house where he cleaned his catch and prepared his cod for salting. We learned that in 1992, the island was advised that the Cod Stock was so depleted that they could no longer fish in these waters. This was a big blow to the food supply and the economy. But they recovered by turning to the shrimp and the crab populations for sustenance. They later depleted those as well. Then in about 2006, they were allowed to catch 5 cod per person per day, and they are seeing the cod populations beginning to grow again. So the fishing industry is not at all what it used to be
on these Islands...... We also went to AUK Island, a local winery to taste and buy wines made from local berries and fruits. Some of them were quite OK, if you remember that these are not made from grapes and really bear no resemblance to anything we know as wine.
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| A Chilly Morning at Lighthouse Point |
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| Isn't He CUTE? The Local wine store sold this stuff..... |
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| Tourist trap fishing spot |
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| HE's fished these waters for many decades and his dad before him. He talked about the state of Cod fishing today, and also how it was prepared for salting in the old days. He claims that cod tongues are a real delicacy. |
Most afternoons on the ship we had "recap" sessions with the expedition team. The naturalists, geologists, and photo experts all took turns giving us insights related to our journey. My favorite was Paul, the divemaster, and his sidekick, James. Every day we were in a good marine environment, they went down in that icy cold water and took photos of the marine life below the ship. Then they gave us all a slideshow. Oh, and there was also a videographer named Russ who filmed our trip and edited
everything. Of Course his DVD was for sale on the last day. I have one if you would like a peek.
Just let me know.
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| Rays photo of St John's houses as we entered the harbor and approached town on Thursday morning. |
This is a good cruise line if you are into the Exploration side of travel. All onboard entertainment is informative....
We departed the ship on Thursday morning, the 22nd, and rented a car to drive up to the North end of Newfoundland, and take a FERRY to FOGO ISLAND. WE had a room reserved there at the Fogo Island Inn for three nights. The drive took a good 4 hours with a stop for lunch, and we traveled a lot of empty landscape with lots of pine forest.
We checked into the Inn on Thursday late afternoon and tucked in to a lovely dinner with fun cocktails at the bar first, and a little local music after.
The next couple of days we drove around and explored the island, took a hike, and shot lots of photos. It's a charming place with little villages quaintly named things like Seldom, Deep Bay,
Tilting, Joe Batt's Arm, and Stag Harbor. the landscape is stunning in a barren, rocky, almost desolate way. The people are warm and friendly. And they have created a world for themselves that is full of arts and food and festivals.... all the simple pleasures.
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| The Fogo Island Inn Towers above the homes in the village of Joe Batt's Arm. The website shows a number of shots of the interior as well. |
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| Fogo Island fishing village |
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| This photo of a little cove gives more perspective on the Inn, in the background. |
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| The town of Fogo with a huge rock formation called "Brimstone Head" reaching out to sea. |
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| Fishing shacks in Fogo |
From Fogo Island, we drove Back to the town of Gander to catch a flight to MONTREAL.
We met our kids there, and joined in a big family reunion of the Barrette side of the family. We were all celebrating the 95th birthday of Ray's mom, Angele. It was a perfect way to top off a wonderful trip.
