The Republic of Newfoundland

Tuesday morning and early afternoon was a relatively quiet sea day filled with our usual sea day type activities which you are all probably bored about reading by now. The fun started when we entered through the Narrows in to St John's Harbour. They really are narrow and the Harbour as a result is well protected. St John's as you will see in the pictures below is a city of brightly painted houses. Also famous for Newfoundland dogs.


St John's claims to be the oldest city in North America dating back to 1497. It is the centre of Newfoundland government and has about 200,000 people in the metro area. The economy was largely focused on the cod fishing industry until the early 90's but now supports the off shore oil and gas industry.

Our previous plan for Tuesday night had been dinner in the Canaletto restaurant on board with our Happy Hour couples. That was quickly revised to dinner in one of the many pubs on historic George Street, the most densely
pubbed area in North America and certainly a hot spot.


The bottom image shows us at Bridie Murphy's enjoying a brew or two. Abra tried Screech and coke. When the music wasn't to our liking we moved further along to O'Reilly's Pub . There we had dinner and enjoyed the local traditional music.

When we returned later to the ship they had on the Lido Deck their dessert extravaganza. I was too full to actually eat anything but did get a good set of pictures.


Wednesday saw us out and about in the city. Deen went shopping and I took a taxi up to Signal Hill. This is the spot made famous by Marconi in the early 1900's when he accomplished the first wireless signal to Europe. It is also the site of The Queens Battery which served to protect St John's and the Harbour over many years of warfare.



We met up later in the morning for some wandering then met Bonnie and Geoff for lunch at The Duke of Duckworth Pub. This pub has been made famous to many Canadians who are fans of the TV series The Republic of Doyle. Before I was allowed to come in for lunch I was sent on a mission to photograph the house where the Doyle family lives in the series. This is the green house in the collage.Deen and Bonnie were both hoping for an Allan Hawco (Jake Doyle) siting while I was looking for Sgt Bennett.

After lunch we went in to a nearby store that had anti-Harper T shirts. They were very funny . The store also had small signs and pins ,one of which said "Being Old doesn't seem so Old now that I'm Old ". Well at least I thought it was both funny and appropriate. Eventually we boarded the ship for sail away. As we passed Signal Hill they had a ceremonial firing of the cannons and the ship horn sounded a number of times. Very cool moment. Again I tried to capture The Narrows in a photo as we left and the bottom picture is Cape Spear, considered the most eastern point in North America .



All in all a great trip to St John's. It was nice to be back in Canada,use my cell phone to call the kids and g-kids , and not have to calculate currency conversions. The Newfie $ is at par .....

Tonight was dinner in the Canaletto with Bonnie,Geoff, and Dianne (or Lady Di as I call her). The three of them have a lot in common from Whistler and Vancouver. Geoff and I went to the show which featured a comedian, a magician, and a rock singer. Quite a combination.

We also gain another 30 minutes back so we're one hour ahead of Eastern Time. Thursday will be a sea day as we head to Bar Harbor,Maine. Thursday will also be the start of packing the suitcases.

Location:St John's ,Newfoundland