Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Day 14- St. John's


Driven today 60 km
Total driven:  4270 km

We started the day with a drive to Cape Spear,  just 20 minutes from downtown St. John's.  The cape is the eastern most point of North America.  Just short of 2000 km from Portugal.  And accross from the cape we could see Signal Hill, the place we visited yesterday



At top if the hill there is a lighthouse




There is Brenda as far East as you can go in Newfoundland




Lots of different kinds of birds






There is a battery that was installed in world war two to protect the coast from German submarines.  The soldiers stationed here complained of the fog, the winds, the cold and the weather in general.  It is after all North Atlantic Newfoundland weather



The guns had a mechanism that would bring them up to fire and then lowered them and hide them while they were reloaded.


The views of the ocean are amazing





The is the lighthouse


And on the way back we saw a beatiful and friendly Newfoundland dog

After the cape we drove back downtown to take a whale watching boat.  We were told we are too late to see icebergs, best time is the spring.  We also learned that we are late for whales but there is still chance.  Well, we did see a whale and we followed her for a while but it was to fast to catch for pictures.  We also saw a puffin fairly far from land doing some fishing.. (the puffins are very cute Newfoundland bird - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffin)


This is our boat

We got to see all of St. John's waterfront with all kinds of ships.










We also saw the colourful hoses typical of this area



We went out to the ocean thru the narrows







And we went by cape Spear





After the boat trip we stopped at a pub for dinner of fish (fresh Newfoundland cod) and chips.  Delicious.

 
And then we walked up to the Rooms, Newfoundland Museum.





The museumhas an exhibit on the story of the Newfoundland Regiment in WW I.  This was their pet.




The Museum is a very modern building


with nice views of the city and the narrows.


The caribou at the entrance of the Museum is one of the symbols of Newfoundland



The Museum also has an art gallery (modern stuff) and another floor on the peoples and fauna of Newfoundland








Then we walked back down the hill to the car passing in front of the Catholic Basilica of St. John the Baptist


And a monument of the Canadian troops that have served as peace keepers with the UN and NATO


And this is the end of our visit to St. John's.  Tomorrow we drive to Argentia to take the ferry to Nova Scotia


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