Day 11 –St. John’s

Today we are touring St. John’s with a city tour guide and our first stop is the south side of The Narrows.  The Narrows is the entrance to St. John’s harbor.  Here looking back towards the city we can see a number of boats at dock. 

The colorful boats sit idle as we look out to the end of the Narrows and we can see the fog is definitely rolling in.  Maybe we will not head up to Signal Hill after our tour of the city. 

St. John’s from the opposite side of the harbor.  You can see all of the colorful houses going up the hill.   

While we were walking around the docks one of the oil rig supply ships was leaving the harbor.  Not sure if the boat color is for visibility while out at sea or company colors. 

Just before leaving the harbor docks, I happen to see this bee on some flowers that were along a chain-link fence.  

While driving through town along Water Street we pass the National War Memorial.   

We move along Water Street and at the St. John’s Port Authority we make a quick stop at the Terry Fox Memorial.  The memorial marks mile 0 and the beginning of Terry Fox’s cancer-fighting run to raise money for cancer research.  The statue represents the first steps as he draws his artificial leg from the Atlantic to begin his cross country trek. 

As we pass this building the city guide tells us that the building with the four apartments was built by a merchant to house his four daughters.  Apparently they would be more appealing of they came with an apartment. 

Now we are going to a little harbor named Quidi Vidi which is just north of St. John’s harbor.  After departing the coach we cross a foot bridge which crosses the brook coming from Quidi Vidi lake.  You can see small rapids and falls further up the stream. 

Quidi Vidi harbor from the village docks looking out towards the harbor entrance.  You can see how steep the rock side is and the buildings built up against the stone. 

A little house and fish shack near the end of the little harbor.  As you can see by the three boats in the water, transportation to and from the house and shack is by water only. 

Leaving Quidi Vidi we head north and go along the north side of Quid Vidi Lake where the park completely circles the lake.  We can see several rowing boats such as this one; some with four rowers others with one. 

We next stop at the Government House, the residence of the Lieutenant Governor.  We enter the grounds from Military Road and walk by a nice row of trees.

Walking up to the house we pass many different flowers, including this one. 

I like these flowers, but don’t ask me what it is because I do not know. 

And I also do not know what this flower is, but it almost looks like a poppy type flower.  I really like it because of the fluorescent colors in the center. 

Not able to go inside the house, I did take a look through the glass doors to get a view of the inside.  Look at the little kid’s car in the center of the hallway. 

Going by the greenhouse, we can see more flowers.   

Look at this flower, yes it is cultivated, but the symmetry is fantastic. 

Here we are in the back side of the house leading out to the rose garden.  You can see part of the greenhouse on the right.   

The rose garden is not very large, but the roses are perfect.  Look at these two rose flowers; absolutely gorgeous.  There are roses of different colors each looking as good as these.

As we were leaving the grounds at the Military Rd and Bannerman Rd corner to head back to the hotel, this totem was near this entrance; on it is a whale, seal, puffin, and on top a mermaid.

It isn’t long before we are back at the hotel and decide to walk downtown along Water St.  In one of the store windows was this dress made out of paper maps of the Island of Newfoundland.  What a fantastic idea, how great is that? 

Here are some of the brightly colored buildings.  The place to the left of the yellow bicycle shop is the Celtic Hearth.

Or how about this place I passed, a board game café; play a game with your coffee.  I wonder if you do not finish the game, do you leave it for the next people to sit down at the table?  Do they start where you ended and left the building? 

I didn’t have any of these fries, but I saw someone that had some and they looked good.  Asking him where he got them, he pointed down the street to here.  No one was around so I can not tell you how they were, but they smelled good. 

Alleyways like this one takes one from this street to the next street up which is George Street where a festival was going on. 

Before heading back to the hotel to pack for our departure tomorrow, we pass this great looking place, the Yellow Belly Brewery.  

This is the end of our trip and tomorrow we fly back to Halifax, Nova Scotia where we will pick up our car.  But tonight we are having our Farwell dinner.  We had very good entertainment with our meal.  

Some of the people we have been with on this trip.

 

 

 

Our driver, Rod, is standing first on the left and our traveling tour director, Lisa, is sitting first on the left.

 

Before finishing out the night, we became honorary Newfoundlanders by kissing the cod (a salted cod, not a fresh cod) and downing a quarter shot of Newfoundland rum.  This is Carmen's official certificate.

We have had a great time on this tour and would recommend it to anyone.  Tomorrow we leave Newfoundland and fly to Nova Scotia to pick up our car.  We'll then drive around the southern end of Nova Scotia.