St John’s, Newfoundland

The last province on our trip was Newfoundland. We flew into St John’s for a whistle stop tour of the main city sites.

First stop was Signal Hill from where you get a spectacular view of the city and the coast. Not surprisingly, it is the historic site of St John’s harbour defences up until the end of the second world war. Signal Hill was also the reception point of the first transatlantic wireless signal by Guglielmo Marconi in 1901. Waiting to meet us when we got off the minibus was a rather ‘hairy’ local. He was very cuddly!

Next, we went to Cape Spear Lighthouse. Constructed in 1836, Cape Spear is Newfoundland’s oldest surviving lighthouse. This is as far east as you can get on North America – next stop across the Atlantic Ocean is County Clare, Ireland. It is a great location for onshore whale watching from mid-May to September. Unfortunately, the weather was against us, some of the group heard a whale breach but it was too misty to see it.

From there we went to The Rooms - Newfoundland and Labrador’s largest public cultural space. The Rooms unites the Provincial Archives, Art gallery and Museum and is a great place to spend a wet morning or afternoon. Unfortunately, we only had time for a very quick tour.

On the way to Quidi Vidi Village, we stopped to take pictures of the colourful ‘Jelly Bean Row’ houses of St John’s. Quidi Vidi Village is a quaint old fishing village that has been left virtually untouched. After making the most of the phot opportunities, we sampled an iceberg beer at Quidi Vidi Brewery. The ice is harvested from 10,000 year old icebergs. It was very refreshing!

Our last few hours were spent dining at the Gypsy Tea Room. The food was delicious and the evening a fantastic finale to our trip. I really liked St John’s and hope it won’t be long before I can go back and explore further.

The people of Newfoundland are very welcoming and hospitable. The small town of Gander opened its’ doors and hearts to 7,000 passengers and airline crew from around the world when their planes were grounded in the wake of 9/11. The musical Come from Away tells the stories of some of the townsfolk and passengers. It is a fantastic production which I highly recommend. It makes you laugh out loud as well as reach for your tissues. I’ve seen it twice!