St. John’s and North

Today, Saturday, we went out to explore the area just north of St. John’s.  Our first stop was Signal Hill.  This is it from the harbour.

And this is St. John’s Harbour from up there.  Beautiful view.

There is a low fog, but not enough to obliterate the city.  We were going to do the trail down in this area, but the fog really was blocking views, and it was raining and REALLY windy at the time.

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So this is Cabot Tower.  If you don’t know about Signal Hill, you should.  It’s where Marconi first received a trans-Atlantic wireless message from England.  He was pushed out of Newfoundland by the cable companies at the time (who owned the rights), so he set up shop in Nova Scotia and the rest is history.

There’s lots of stuff about Marconi and the story in the tower and all around.  Signal Hill was also important in the protection of Newfoundland and Canada during WWII.  German U-Boats were all around.  So there were cannon garrisons set up on the Hill to protect the harbour.

And everyone thought Toronto was the centre of the universe!  Not so.  It’s Newfoundland!  It’s kinda confusing because the land is white and the oceans are yellow.

This is just outside the channel into St. John’s Harbour.  They now rent out the lighthouse buildings as B&Bs.

Down at the visitor centre is a tribute to the dogs of Newfoundland and Labrador.  The Newfoundlander and the Labrador, of course!  Both beautiful dogs.  The Lab came from the Newfoundlander, bred with European breeds, such as the setter, which made them such great retrievers.  Both are gentle mannered.

So we carried on up the coast in the rain.  The first spot to check out was Quidi Vidi.  They have a brewery here that produces pretty good beer sold all over Newfoundland.  And the harbour is a tiny little place, but so pretty.

We saw this sign on the way, which we thought was pretty funny.

We arrived at Flatrock where the rocks are exactly flat, going into the harbour.  A natural boat launch.

A few other shots from Flatrock.

And, of course, it wouldn’t be Newfoundland without these.  My gosh...potholes upon potholes.  There are the signs, then there are the painter guys.  The ones that come out before the pothole filling to circle the potholes.  We met one of those.  And we never really saw anyone repairing potholes.  Usually if these signs were there, they had already been filled.  It’s the surprises that really affect your vehicle.  And I don’t just mean on the smaller roads...they’re on the Trans-Canada too!

So we went back to our RVs to take a break.  We had plans to head into town later to check out a restaurant and George Street.  Our cab driver was very helpful and we ended up at a good restaurant for some pub grub, recommended by the cabbie.  He also recommended the best place to go for some music.

This statue is at one end of George Street, the most famous street in Canada for bars.

The street has an association for promoting entertainment, etc.

We took a walk around the area.  Saw this little cherub at a bar nearby.

We spent the rest of the evening at O’Reilly’s.  This guy (I think Kelly was his last name - not surprising).  He was very good.

And these guys were at the bar.  It was tough to find a seat anywhere.  The guy standing was just another customer.

The bartenders wore these shirts.

It was a fun night.  The band (of whom I have no picture) was VERY good.  6 of them playing different instruments, and 2 main singers.  We didn’t get back until midnight, which is really late for us while we’re RVing.  Good night...not so good in the morning :(