Day 13 - St. John's, Newfoundland

Driven today 32 km
Total driven: 5051 km   

We woke up to a rainy and windy day so instead of hiking we decided to do museums.  We drove to Signal Hill to check it out.  St. John's bay has a very narrow channel to enter from the sea.  Signal Hill is above the narrows.  A strategic place to protect the bay.  In fact English and French soldiers battled for this place over and over in the XVII and XVIII centuries, 

There are supposed to be beautiful views of the ocean, the city and the surrounding countryside from this place. This is what we saw when we got up there:

 
 Really, we could not see anything and the wind was brutal.

This plaque commemorates the first wireless transmission across the Atlantic by Marconi who took place on this place.  It is interesting to note that to raise his antenna he used a kite

More beautiful views of St' John's bay

The wind wass blowing hard enough to make it very difficult to walk

 The English and the French built several fortifications at the op of the hill.  This was also fortified during the second world war.  Newfoundland was still an independent country and were reinforced by Canadian troops.

This is the Cabot Tower at the top of the hill

Brenda went back to the car and had trouble walking back because of the winds

 We went to the small museum of the Hill, we watched a very interesting historical movie about this place

This is the  only moose i have seen so far

When we came out of the museum, the sun had come out and the fog was gone so we went back to the top to admire the views.  Still with strong winds

This narrows are the entrance to the bay

We saw this sign that says winds here can reach 200 km per hour

We came down a bit on the hill to visit another museum; the Johnson Geo Centre.  The whole museum is underground.  Pretty cool.  We saw a movie called Space Next.  It describes the advances  made in space exploration and what is coming in the next decades.

There is a large exhibit in the geology of Newfoundland and Labrador

 We also saw a very detailed exhibit on the history of the Titanic, from its construction to the fatal first voyage.

After that the last room has an exhibit on the oil industry in Newfoundland.  I took some pictures of the survival suits used in the ocen platforms

When we came back out, there were hundreds of birds around. I don't know what kind they are.

And suddenly the fog was back,  we could barely see the Cabot Tower.

But after 10 more minutes the sun was back

There statues of two dogs.  You guessed it; a newfoundland and a labrador

   
After that, we just went for dinner at a very Canadian Swiss Chalet.