Our sleeping quarters for the 6 hour trip and the wakeup sunrise right in the face.
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Leaving the Rock
In the ferry lineup at Port aux Basques. The drive today was done in torrential rain and now we have a few hours to wait before boarding.
Road trip food
We are trying local dishes along the way and Newfoundland certainly has things neither of us has seen. Scruncheons, Toutons, eggs benny on cod cakes. Toutons are not pronounces the way you would think, as it was pointed out to me, the locals got a chuckle at my expense. What is it you ask? Deep fried bread dough, served with molasses, sometimes maple syrup. Scruncheons is a term for small pieces of pork rind or fatback fried until crispy. Didn't get to that one, but the toutons took me over the edge and now my clothes are tight, tight, off to superstore for some sweatpants.
We have left St John's
Cold today. Lordie, 10 degrees. We have begun the westward ho part of the trip. We spent the night in a place called Grand Falls-Windsor, 50km north of Gander. It is another 5-6 hour drive to Port aux Basques, where we are catching the midnight ferry back to Sydney, Nova Scotia. The trip could be done in a day, but with the moose problem on Newfoundland no driving at night. Painfully slow internet here, think it is dialup.
Signal Hill
This is where the first transatlantic wireless transmission was received by Guglielmo Marconi
Friday, September 6, 2013
Bus tour of St John
No internet the last couple of days so sorry about the no updates. Had our bus tour in St John's. Who would have thunk it. What an interesting place historically, beautiful scenery and like Vancouver, you never know about the weather one hour to the next sometimes. The forecast was for rain, but it ended up being a beautiful, warm, sunny day. The tour was for 3 hours or so, the guide was funny as I expect a Newfie to be. Learnt lots and lots of stuff. But I will just bore you with the pictures. First stop was Cape Spear. The most easterly point in North America.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Downtown St John's
We are back from St Pierre and hope to stay 2-3 days to rest up before heading out. Our room is good, looking over the harbour of St John, which is way smaller than I expected, particularly the entrance.
More things to wonder about
Funny room we had, at first look seemed okay but then found out tv didn't work, no internet and the water in the toilet was boiling hot.
St Pierre
Saint Pierre and Miquelon is the only remnant of the former colonial empire of New France that remains under French control.
St Pierre and Miquelon
We see Canada
We see France
We see.....somebody's underpants
Not quite sure how to finish that.
We are in France for the night. A one hour ferry ride from Fortune there are two little islands that belong to France. They are not obligated to speak English, even though the do. Had to get Euros and have our passport, went through customs, got our passport stamped. Due to the fact that we are flying by the seat of our pants we are only spending the night. We didn't realize that on a Sunday everything, and I mean everything is closed and the restaurants don't open for dinner till 7. No TV, no internet so I guess early to bed. We are catching the ferry back to Newfoundland at 1.30pm, there is only one sailing per day. Should have stayed a couple of days. Most things closed Mondays and what is open closes from 12pm to 1.30pm for lunch. We didn't see much except the post office, a bakery and the tourist office. We took a tour of the island which is very small and there are 6000 people living here. If we had stayed longer we could have taken a look at the other island, but oh well.
Now you see em, now you don't
Big moose problem in Newfoundland, not that we have see any. You can imagine my disappointment. They are not native to the island, having been brought over for their meat around 1904. I just read that the population of 120,000 is descended from just 4. Hmmph, makes you wonder, but they have hundreds of serious accidents every year and are always looking for a solution. There are some test sections along the highway that uses infrared scanners and flashing lights to warn about moose on the road and fencing sections, but they seem to be struggling to find the answer.
Things that make you go brrrr
Left St John's early to catch a ferry in Fortune, NL. Weather was charming. Cold, man. Like 10 degrees cold.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
St John's
Didn't expect the colours, all the houses are different. A lot of the tourist trinkets use this motif. We are only spending the night as we are off again first thing so not much to say.
St John's
After a 16 hour ferry on the Atlantic Ocean and a four hour drive from Argentia, we have made St Johns. Rained most of the crossing but calm, no big seas.
Monday, September 2, 2013
Fortress of Louisbourg
Oh, this was an interesting place and could have spent all day there and more. We took a guided tour that unfortunately took up our time and we didn't explore much on our own. Next time. What is so cool about this place is that it is in the exact location of the original settlement, the buildings are in the exact location they were and many are rebuilt on the original stone foundations from the 1700's. The French still have all the records of Louisbourg, the plans of the buildings and locations, inventory, everything. Even the windows were remade in the same manner by the same company that made the originals. It is currently 1/4 reconstructed with research and digging going on and they continue to find loads of artifacts, many of which are on display. It is a special site as when it was destroyed in the 1760's by the British the site lay untouched till this century.
Petitcodiac tidal bore video
We didn't see this, but we did stay in this area, happened shortly after we left. We missed all the hoopla. If we had only known. We watched it in Truro and this happened in Moncton.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Sydney, Nova Scotia
We dawdled a bit leaving Halifax and got in late to Sydney, where we are to catch the ferry. We don't like to drive at night as there is a lot of talk and many warnings about moose on the road at night. You know you are in Atlantic Canada when fish cakes and beans are for dinner.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)