New Found Land - Day 6

Impressions

1. Driving is much easier than walking.
2. GPS systems that are lost aren't a lot of help.
3. The Kia Rio (my rental) might just be the worst car I've ever driven.
4. Archeological digs are cool.
5. Lighthouses are cool.

Picts

Dig.

Dug.

Dig.

Road to the lighthouse.

Lighthouse.

They really should put a fence up around the entire island.

The pool at Ferryland.

New Found Land - Day 5

Impressions

1. Railway museums should have trains.
2. The North East Harbour Walk is a long freaking way to the top of Signal Hill.
3. I'm in great shape for an 85 year old Swede.
4. Seven degrees in a blowing wind tends to be a might cold, except when you've hauled your 85 year old carcass to the top of the world again.
5. There's not a single pub between the top of Signal Hill and my B&B (without going massively up hill again). Life is so cruel to me.

Picts

This was taken from the boat the other day. If you look closely (click to embiggen) you can see the trail and stairways along the the edge of the precipice of death.

Looking back to where I entered the trail.

Back along the trail into the harbour.

No fucking kidding.

A long liner.

When I crested a brow and saw this, I said, out loud: Fuck me!

Approaching doom. It reminds me of the staircase leading to Dr. Witty's mansion.

You're killing Chris. You bastard!

Ha ha ha ha! Beat you!

New Found Land - Day 4

Impressions

1. Rain is wet.
2. The Rooms (the provincial museum and art gallery) is very good, especially on a rainy day.
3. The cafe in The Rooms has very good food.
4. The cafe in The Rooms serves Iceberg beer...made with iceberg water apparently.
5. The Liquor Store attached to the Sobeys, just up the hill (of course) from the B&B has a better selection of, well, everything than almost any LCBO I've been in.
6. You can get a lot of writing done on a rainy day. You can....doesn't mean I did.
7. Iceberg beer is the closest I'll get to an iceberg. They're all lingering up north still (icebergfinder.com).

Picts

Basilica, with street lamp and walk sign

The place

The living room

On the stairway

New Found Land - Day 3

Impressions and Picts

1. Escalators. Think about it people.
2. When you have your glasses hanging by a string around your neck, make sure you bob when the boat weaves, else, the glasses hit the rail and you watch as one of your lenses goes flying overboard.
3. Once you have one lens in your reading glasses, you have to close one eye to use them, hence looking like some stupid pirate.
4. Pirates, contrary to popular belief, did not lose an eye....they lost a lens in their reading glasses. As such, it was easier to wear a patch than close one eye when ordering dinner.
5. Arrrrrr mateys is the natural utterance of annoyance when trying to read a menu with one eye closed.
6. "Thar be dragons there" was in reference to Dragon Optometrists and not a mythical beast.
7. Long John Silver didn't have a wooden leg. He had a wooden lens (not very effective).
8. Never eat dinner at a place known for being a party bar. 
9. Whale and iceberg cruises aren't as good when there are no whales or icebergs. However, being on the water is far better than being on land (there are no hills).
10. The US Open starts really late when you're on NL time (but that's OK because it makes a great sleeping pill).
11. Time for a glass of wine.

Picts

I thought this was funny. A bit of electrical tape and there you are.

My destiny.

Following a working boat out of the harbour.

Me. The door to the head was open. There was a mirror. I took advantage of that just like some pro photog (we call ourselves photogs).

Does it look rough? It wasn't really. Windy, but an off-shore, so not really.

But tourists can always get wet.

Who's driving the boat?

Now if only Quint were balanced on the mast? It would be a great shot instead of a picture of masts and radar.

New Found Land - Day 2

Impressions and Picts

1. Signal Hill is at 10,329 m., dwarfing Mt Everest and making Edmund Hillary a sissy.
2. My knees are now hippies (see day 1 if that makes no sense).
3. My Dr. is a pretty good cardiac surgeon (see day 1....).
4. The wind can blow hard enough to knock me off my feet, almost.
5. The stuff they make flags out of for Cabot Tower on Signal Hill? That's what the Enterprise needs for shields.
6. The stout at Yellowbelly brew pub is still excellent (3 pints proved that).
7. The fish&chips at Yellowbelly are excellent. And that's not just the 3 pints of stout talking.
8. In My World, all pubs will be at the top of the hill; all B&B's will be at the bottom of the hill. So there.
9. Signal Hill took all day so the railway museum is tomorrow. Happily, it's just down street from Yellowbelly (sadly, downhill from the B&B).

Picts

From most of the way up Signal Hill.

Zoomed in. If you draw a line straight down from the left tower on the Basilica, across the road from the church below that is my B&B. Those giant houses on the left are a Provincial Museum.

The lighthouse on the south shore of the Narrows:

Yeah, St John's again (I have hundreds):

Cabot Tower. Wind blowing.

Told you it was windy.

It's a small world afterall.

But this week, Newfoundland is the center of the universe.

My friend on the bench. (Just can't keep the birds away.)

Oh. Canada. Bright sunshine and blowing wind.

New Found Land

Impressions from Day 1

1. Well, there are a lot of convertibles here. Miatas, Porshes, Solstices, Mercs, etc. I think this is hope beyond hope because...
2. The fog here seems to actually be rain. Either that or it is a very thick fog.
3. There be hills here. Big hills. Streets end in stairways. I'm either going to survive or call a cardiac surgeon. Not sure which yet. Next year: Saskatoon!
4. The smoking laws in pubs are much the same here. So, when the two middle aged women (I'm so kind) wanted to duck outside for a smoke, the bar tender asked them to pay their tab ($54.50) first. I can understand that at 11:50AM. (I was just seeing local colour and accidentally drifted into the bar).
5. They don't curb their dogs. The sidewalks are a minefield.
6. Perhaps drivers have the right of way at all times. Or perhaps when making a left turn into me, they just want to honk to ensure I know they are there for my protection. (Side story: the cabby picking me up at the airport left his car in neutral, which then rolled forward and ran into the cabby ahead...you know...the guy loading baggage into his trunk. Fortunately, I think he wasn't hurt badly because of the V-shaped nose of my cab. But he was not uninjured and not happy.)
7. Yellow Belly brewery/pub makes great stout. Mmmmmmmm. Will be back.
8. Oh yeah....it's time to regroup and plan the rest of the day. OK....it's time for my afternoon nap. Want to make something of....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Images
Iconic...

Symptomatic...

More Impressions from Day 1

1. These hills will put hair on your knees.
2. Excellent Indian food. Second port I know of with great Indian.
3. Just when you think it's really raining, it clears off and there's a rainbow at the mouth of the harbour. Of course that also means you left your camera back in the room.
4. I want to open a Mr. Clutch franchise (although since stop signs are just a suggestion, maybe it wouldn't do so well).
5. St John's Basilica is a beautiful building, but like the Notre Dame in Montreal, it's missing the grave stones in the floor. In fact, St John's is carpeted. It just doesn't feel quite the same.
6. Fog is quiet.

Pict to try to get hills across