On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Good morning, all, I hope this finds you well in this new year.
Today we’re off to Newfoundland, wahoo!
I spent two weeks traveling around Newfoundland in August. It wasn’t a place I’d ever planned to visit, but I wasn’t up to the Arctic trip I originally had planned, and stumbled across this Road Scholar tour when I was looking around for something less strenuous and closer to home. It turned out to be a wonderful trip, not remotely a consolation prize, to a quirky, rugged and beautiful island, and I would love to go back.
Quidi Vidi (pronounced Kitty Viddy, or occasionally, Kwydah Vyda) is an old fishing village now part of St. John’s. The greenish building in the back is the Quidi Vidi Brewing Company, creator of much of the beer for sale on the island.
St. John’s is famous for the bright paint used on the buildings downtown (they’re known as the Jellybean Houses.) You see some of this all over Newfoundland, but with a more limited palette.
The city of St. John’s seen from Signal Hill, which overlooks the Narrows, the entrance to St. John’s harbor.
Marconi sent the first transatlantic wireless transmission from Signal Hill — the easternmost point of North American, Cape Spear, lies just outside St. John’s, so “transatlantic” is a lot shorter from St. John’s than say, New York. For the same reason, Amelia Earhart’s 1932 flight across the Atlantic also left from here. It was also the site of the last battle of the French and Indian War (or for non-Americans, the Seven Years War) in 1762.
A sample of the magnificent rocky coast, near Elliston.
And they have puffins! I can’t compete with Albatrossity where bird pictures are concerned, but considering I was bouncing around in rough seas balancing the camera in one hand and keeping a death grip on the railing with the other, not bad.
More birds from Witless Bay. These are kittiwakes, an adult (on the left) and a juvenile.
The view from Terra Nova National Park, less rocky than most of the east coast of the island.
Baud
Very pleasant looking place.
Rusty
This brings back memories! The summer my wife and I were dating we went on a road and camping trip up through the Gaspe, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and two weeks in Newfoundland. We backpacked both Grosse Morne and Terre Nova, did a canoe trip in Terre Nova. We realized how remote these places were when we registered for one of the trips (so they would look for you if you didn’t return!) and the entire list of people that hiked or paddled to all their remote sites combined fit on one page of a ledger! We even made it to the northern tip, spent a night at a tiny place called the Tickle Inn (tickle being a Newfoundland term for the narrow stretch of water between an island and mainland) and even took the ferry and spent a night in Labrador. Beautiful province, some of the nicest people we have met. 30 years ago this summer, now I want to go back!!
p.a.
Looks wonderful
?BillinGlendaleCA
Photogenic place.
Just One More Canuck
Were you screeched in?
eclare
That looks so peaceful.
satby
My maternal grandfather was born up in that part of Canada but ended up in Boston as a young child. It’s always sounded beautiful, and now I can see how beautiful it is. Thanks arrieve!
debbie
Lovely!
Citizen_X
Sure, looks pleasant. But when you’ve got a howling blizzard in mid-May, well, as a native said to me, “Eh, it keeps the riffraff out.”
J.
Beautiful! Would love to go.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Lovely place
JeanneT
wow. I think I want to go there!
BruceFromOhio
I very much appreciate that the first photo includes the local brewery. That’s how I like to start any visit to a new place-where’s the (local) beer?
WaterGirl
I am struck by all the color in the first two photos. I love color.
And puffins! arrieve, I loved your “death grip” comment. What a great way to instantly convey how rough the seas were.
Aside: damn my computer for always trying to fix “arrive”, “omnes” and “satby”! And by fix, I mean fuck up.
Citizen_X
And here is their lovely “anthem,” the Ode to Newfoundland (which, after the first verse, brags on how shitty the weather is).
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8SpUmZtaRBQ
Amir Khalid
@Citizen_X:
If that’s all you got, that’s what you flaunt.
Denali
Great photos. We went there in 2018 and experienced puffins, whales, screech, and the warm hospitality of the people. A larger “rock” than we expected, but worth the drive to the north peninsula to the site of the the Vikings’ landing in North America.
arrieve
@Just One More Canuck: Yes, I am an honorary Newfoundlander and I have the certificate to prove it. I kissed the cod and drank the screech.
arrieve
@Denali: I have pictures from the Viking trail in the next batch.
Just One More Canuck
@arrieve: I’ve never been to Newfoundland but a friend is from a little village south of St. John’s. I’ve had screech with him – at least I think I did
Gin & Tonic
I was there many, many years ago. Rode my bicycle across. Pretty miserable place for that, frankly.
And I had hopes of getting up to the Viking ruins, but had not realized that the road from Gros Morne up to L’Anse aux Meadows was (at that time) unpaved. I’ve gotten a bit smarter since then.
chris
Great pics. Funny, just the other day I was looking at the map wondering how I could swing a trip to NL. I’ve been to every province and territory except one. Kind of embarrassing when I’ve lived next door for twenty years.
sherparick
Thanks for the beautiful pictures. 2020 is not getting off to a great start, either for the NY Times or Australia, which the NY Times must now regard as just another “shithole” country where when disaster happens no one in Manhattan who matters cares. Go to the web NY Times page. Not a front page story, not a even story, about the fires that are destroying Australia right now with tens of thousands fleeing for the lives including water evacuations. At least the Washington Post puts the event on the front page. https://www.washingtonpost.com/
Fuck the Fucking New York Trump Times.
The Pale Scot
Did you go see any of the fossil sites?
And the florite deposits? God the florite deposits!
arrieve
@The Pale Scot: There are fossils everywhere. It’s also an interesting place geologically, one of the few places on the planet where the earth’s mantle is exposed.
Peking Man
@Citizen_X: The first winter I spent in Newfoundland there was almost no snow on the ground on March 1. Afterwards over 100″, including 4″ on June 6.
CaseyL
Oh, so gorgeous! I took a New England-Maritime Province cruise a few years back, and IIRC St. John’s was one of the ports we put into. That whole area is beautiful and (me being me) I immediately thought about moving there :)
@Citizen_X: … that may have been one of the issues that made me think, “OK, maybe I don’t want to move there.”
J R in WV
@arrieve:
Nice job, arrive, good photos of what look like a great place to tour. Thanks for sharing with us!
Jack709
I’ve been a lurker on this site for over a decade. I don’t think I’ve ever posted a comment before.
I’m from Newfoundland, and those photos are great! So glad to hear you had lovely time in the province. I encourage everyone to visit, just make sure it’s between June and Sept. The rest of the year isn’t exactly, um, tourist friendly.
Cathie from Canada
Thanks for this post – beautiful photos. Can you imagine what it was like to fight your way across the Atlantic in a small ship and then find that beautiful, peaceful harbour at last?
Newfoundland was an independent country until 1949, when it finally joined Canada. Still an independent breed, fiercely proud of their province even in spite of the weather.
Its one thing I always found remarkable about the Maritimes generally — how proud they are of their provinces and their heritage, in a way that has absolutely nothing to do with money. Coming from Saskatchewan, which has envied Alberta’s wealth all of its life, it was most refreshing to visit the Maritimes and see people who were simply happy to be what they were and didn’t apologize for it.
Ladyraxterinok
We spent 76-77 in St John’s, my niw ex had a sabbatical there at Memorial U.
I audited courses in the Folk Lore department and learned a lot about outport culture that way
Loved being able to just go out and pick as many blueberries as we wanted when they were ripe
In Quiddy Vidy we saw a dead shark that had washed on the beach
Did you go to Bell Island off of St John’s? Fascinating place.
Lot more photos please!!
Peggy Bell
@arrieve: As a huge fan of Come From Away I had to visit Newfoundland, and I too spent 2 weeks there in August. I was Screeched In in Gander, along with a gentleman from Ontario. The next day, over 200 km away in Elliston, I ran into the man and his family in a puffin themed gift shop! I want to go back in the Spring (though not 2020 ) to see the icebergs and whales!
Barry
Born and raised in Newfoundland before leaving to go to the mainland at 16 years old. I think it was the best place to be a child and grow up. Still visit from time to time. The scenery is incomparable. But the best that the province has to offer cannot be captured in photographs. The people and their culture have to be experienced.
WaterGirl
Welcome Peggy Bell and Barry!
Newfoundland must spark something for all who have been there, to have gained two new commenters in this thread.
Chris
@BruceFromOhio: Many unique local beers in Newfoundland, surprisingly, some of them from the larger brewers…ie. Blackhorse, India, Jockey, Dominion Ale, and Blue Star are just a few…
Carol
@BruceFromOhio: i love their Iceburg Beer
Margee
@Ladyraxterinok: I believe my cousin was a dean at memorial U at that time.
WaterGirl
@Margee: Your first comment on the site has to be approved before any comment goes through, so your comment went into moderation.
So did your second, which was a duplicate, so I deleted the duplicate for you.
Future comments should go right through.