Blow me down St. John's

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The weather forecast for today was for overcast and a chance of some showers. Before we left our suite, I checked the radar forecast and figured we would be good to go and do some hiking at Signal Hill. Well, that idea quickly vanished when we stepped out the door and noticed how windy it was. We still drove on up to Signal Hill to check the view but we were only able to spend about 5 minutes ouside of the car fighting the wind before we had to retreat. Chris almost got blown away over the cliff so she retreated to the safety of the SUV while I tried to grab a few quick photos. Really difficult to hold the camera but I got a few shots.

We also got had our first iceburg sighting althought it was a small one and quite a way offshore.

Hopefully its a bit quieter tomorrow and we can return. I checked the weather station at the airport and they were getting gusts to 80 kph. I'm sure it was 100 kph on top of the hill.

Time for plan I (indoor), we drove to Quidi Vidi and toured an artisan village.

The harbour at Quidi Vidi is very quaint.

Then a quick walk around the harbour to sample some local beer at the Quidi Vidi Brewery.

A quick consult with Trip Advisor and we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon at "The Rooms", a modern Museum with the story of Newfoundland depicted in some interesting collections.

We did the guided tour of the WWI exhibit and found it very interesting hearing the story of the Newfoundland Regiment.

It was still too windy to do some sightseeing on foot so we retreated to our suite and got caught up on some tasks before venturing out to find a place with some local entertainment for supper.

Arrival in St. John's

We drove off the ferry at 10:00 am for our first visit to Newfoundland and Labrador. A province the size of California with a population of a half a million people.

From the ferry port, we had an hour and a half drive to St. John's, one of the oldest cities in North America. (A couple of qualifiers on this claim, it was not officially incorporated until 1888 and the city was rebuilt after the 1892 fire which destroyed most of the buildings)

The fog we had encountered as we approached the harbour had partly dissipated and by the time we got to St John's it was partly sunny. We found the place we have rented for three days and parked nearby (too early to check-in). It is walkable to the downtown core and the harbour. There sure are some steep hills here!

In the older part of the downtown, there are streets of what they call the Jelly Bean Houses. Have a look at these photos and it's easy to see why.

We stopped for lunch at a bagel place that seemed to be packed with locals. Some good local flavour in this all day breakfast eatery!

We quickly concluded that St. John's has the highest pub density index of any city I have ever been in! The George St. area reminds me of what Pt. Dalhousie in St. Catharines used to be like x10.

The downtown streets are all torn up for a modernization project and it should look good once its done.

We wandered around the waterfront and found a park to take a rest in. A nice view of the harbour and Signal Hill.

There were a couple of bronze statues of the Newfoundland and Labrador dogs along with a description of their history as a breed.

It was nice just watching what was going on in the harbour. This is one of several supply ships we saw.

The weather was really variable, one minute it was 22C and then the wind would shift a bit and it was 15C!

We walked back up the hill to the place where we will be staying for three nights. An old mansion that has been thoroughly renovated into suites. Very nice after spending the night on the ferry.

We were pretty tired after walking around all day and not much sleep on the ferry so we decided on a nearby pub (top rated on Yelp) and early bed. Best Fish & Chips ever.