St. John's, Newfoundland

Newfoundland was discovered by John Cabot in 1490, was settled by the French, fought over by the British, then the French and eventually the British won out in 1853.  Our bus tour took us around the town where we saw some beautiful Victorian and Gothic homes as well as the Jelly Bean Row or Crayola Corner houses.  They love the bright colors in St. John’s.

We stopped briefly in Quidi Vidi (pronounced Kiddy Viddy), a quaint fishing village on the Quidi Vidi harbor. They used to fish for cod but about 25 years ago, due to over fishing of the North Atlantic, a moratorium on cod fishing was put into place and over 35,000 fishermen lost their jobs.  Today they fish for lobster, crab, squid and a few other fishes.  As we passed by Quidi Vidi Lake we found we had just missed the oldest sporting event in North America - the 200th Rowing Regatta was held last Wednesday.  

As the bus took us up to Signal Hill, our guide told of the legend of Hanging Hill where the dead were placed in lead boxes and rolled down the hill into the Bottomless Dead Man’s Pond.  Signal Hill looks out over the ocean at the head of the St. John’s Harbor.  Men used to spy ships coming in to port and determine if they were good ships of supplies or pirate ships or war ships and then signal the harbor defenses to let them pass or not.

Some more Newfie sayings: ' My Hair is like a birch broom in a fit!' (wind blown) and 'I look like a streel' (messy or unfit) and 'I’m chinched' (full)!

Our guide was going to show us just the foyer of the Governors Mansion but they let us go inside to see the dining room, parlor and receiving or presentation room. The walls are covered in local artwork as well as portraits of kings and queens.  The painted ceilings were done by an artist who had been arrested for stealing and sentenced to prison.  In exchange for an early release he agreed to paint the ceiling in the mansion as well as in the convent.  Beautiful work.

The Basilica - Cathedral of St. Jon the Baptist sits on the top of a hill and can be seen from most anywhere in the city. It was started in 1841, first services were held in 1850 and it was completed in 1855.  It will seat 1700 people, has 66 stained glass windows which were shipped from Italy in molasses barrels, and was named a Basilica in 1955.  

Next door is the Convent Presention an active convent with about 40 nuns, where we admired the ‘Veiled Virgin” sculpture made from one block of marble by Giovanni Strazza in 1862.  Unless you get up really close, you would swear it had a piece of sheer cloth covering the face but it is all marble.  

Our last stop was at the most eastern point in all of North American - Cape Spear National Park.  Unfortunately fog had moved in to a point where we could barely see the top of the lighthouse let along the Atlantic Ocean. Despite that, it was a beautiful place and as we drove away and out of the fog, the landscape opened up to high cliffs and crashing waves.  We then drove through Petty Harbor where Alan Doyle, musician in “Great Big Sea” and author of the book “A Newfoundlander in Canada” lives.