L’Anse aux Meadows

On Wednesday, we drove up the western coast of Newfoundland all the way to the top. We drove through oodles of little fishing villages as the Gulf of Saint Lawrence narrows to the Strait of Belle Isle and you can see Labrador across the strait.

When we arrived around 2 pm, we quickly set up our RVs then headed over to L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site and were able to catch up with a guided tour that had just left the building.

Hey guys...check out that beautiful land o’er thar.

This was our guide who walked us through the sites of the archeological dig. He was there when that was happening. He said he used to play, as a kid, in the holes, etc., left by the Vikings. They all used to think it was just native Indian relics. There was some of that, but little did they know it was the Vikings who had built the houses of sod. You can see the shape of one in this photo.

They have reproduced the “buildings” in another section of the same materials.

When we were done with the archeological finds, we went into the reproduction area where they have people in costume interpreting what would have happened. This guy is making a bowl out of a hand-made lathe.

This guy was in the living/kitchen areas, and in fact, people would have slept here too. They are all quite informative.

This symbolized the stand-off the Vikings had with the native Indians. There were 4 attempts by the Vikings to settle here, and every time they were fended off by the natives. After the 4th attempt, they just gave up. They were outnumbered by a long shot and didn’t stand a chance.

The other thing this sculpture represents is the "circle of humanity". Humans started in Africa, they moved north to Europe and spread out east and west from there. The eastward migration resulted in the native Indians ending up in North America. The westward migration resulted in the Vikings ending up in North America, thereby completing the circle!