August 22, 2023 St. John’s, Newfoundland
Just after 9 a.m. Zuiderdam was entering the narrow 90 meter wide St. John’s channel into the harbour. To add to the challenger it was a rainy day, but no fog. The temperature was 18° C and wind SSW 19 km/ hour. The all aboard time this evening ts 10:30 p.m. Late in the afternoon and into the evening, the rain was lighter, almost drizzle, and there were times when it stopped.
Tjalling announced that there was a delay in the gangway placement and it would a little after 10 a.m. before it would be ready. There were excursions that were to meet on the pier at 10:15 a.m. and participants were getting a little impatient. Cee Kaye and Brad told us about the impatient participants at dinner since they had an early excursion to Cape Spear and the area. It rained most of the time. They even had fog flow in and out.
We had breakfast in the dining room as the ship was passing into the narrow entrance. Then we read in our stateroom until the excursions had left, before leaving the ship ourselves. There were four ambulances lined up to take patients to the hospital, one of the patients was Helen who we had met on the Westerdam when we were in Japan. Her friend Debbie had told us in St. Anthony that she and Helen would be leaving today because Helen had a medical problem.
As soon as we stepped off the gangway we had our umbrellas up. Just out of the port gates was Clift’s Baird’s Cove street and at Water Street stood the stone Court House built between 1901 and 1904. We walked a few blocks over to the War Memorial, but the landscaping around it is being renovated. Across the street, at Harbourside Park, was the Newfoundland and Labrador dogs which are one and half times larger than life created by sculptor Luben Boykov. They were cast in lead-and-zinc free Everdur Silicon Bronze.
Next we climbed uphill for several street passing many colourful townhouses along the side streets, still holding our umbrellas. At the top on Military Road was the Basilica Cathedral of St. John the Baptiste. We went inside to view the beautiful interior including the stained glass windows.
One block away was The Rooms. The building was built over the foundation of the former Fort Townsend which was built form 1773 to 1779 as the headquarters of the Newfoundland garrison to guard against any American forays into British territory after the American Revolution. There was a road from it down to Fort William below. The fort was abandoned in 1871 when British troops left the island. The Rooms houses the Provincial Archives, an art gallery and a museum. The museum covers the cultural and
Natural history of Newfoundland. There are four levels, we started at the top and worked our way down in about two and half hours. There is a restaurant in a section of the top level with the gift shop in the main level. It was great to get inside and dry off, even though we had waterproof jacket and umbrellas, we had been out in the rain for 45 minutes. There was a exhibit in the art gallery of an Indigenous artist’s prints. Our favourite was Ktaqmkuk Life Givers by Jerry Evans. It depicts the three big providers – salmon, caribou and seals with accents of waves, spruce trees, antlers and Labrador tea. In the history section it told about the election of Patrick Little to the Newfoundland House of Assembly in 1850. Then of London’s recognition of the House of Assembly as the voice of government in 1855 and Little becoming the first Prime Minister of Newfoundland. There was a gallery on the military history of Newfoundland emphasized its contribution to the two World Wars. The Rooms had free Wi-Fi which we used before we departed.
It was not until the early 1960s, that Norwegian archaeologist, Anne Stine and her husband, Helge Ingstad, assisted by resident, George Decker found L’anse aux Meadows. They used Norse sagas and information of Leif Erikson’s voyages. It is close to St. Anthony on the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland.
By mid-afternoon we decided to take a coffee break at Tim Hortons which was visible from The Rooms. We walked back down the hill along Carter’s Hill and Queen Street to George Street which is only a few blocks long, but full of pubs and bars. At Beck’s Cove and George Street is a sculpture by Morgan MacDonald called A Time that was commissioned to celebrate the contribution of the Arts to the City of St. John’s. We didn’t walk all that far to and from the ship, just about three and a half kilometres in total.
We were back on board by 4 p.m. We had dinner in the main dining room with Cee Kay and Brad. The ship stays moored until around 11 p.m.this evening so some people dined ashore this evening.
There was just a three hour movie playing in the World Theatre tonight – Avatar The Way of Water. We played a few games of Five Crowns instead.
Today’s steps 13,509
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