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.
Elma
Another port that was new to me on the itinerary of the Ultimate Around the World Cruise on Serenade of the Seas was St. John’s, Newfoundland. (Be sure to remember the ’s or you are in a whole other province.) St. John’s is the largest city and the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada’s easternmost province. The Dominion of Newfoundland had been a separate dominion in the British Empire until 1949 when it became the 10th province to join the Canadian Confederation. St. John’s has a great little railroad museum. My brother-in-law is a rail buff, so we visited it. I don’t seem to have any pics from there, but I learned a lot about the history of Newfoundland at that museum.
The entrance to St. John’s harbor is very narrow. We were supposed to spend the day there and sail out in the evening. However, predicted high winds from the wrong direction made our captain decide not to risk it, so we had an overnight stay.
The enrichment lecture we attended the day before we arrived in St John’s concentrated of the effort the city has made to maintain the classic architecture.
There are at least 6 churches on the top of that hill visible in this picture.
Our Canadian tablemates told us that on your first visit the Newfoundland, you had to kiss a cod and drink Screech. We rejected the cod kissing, but did make an effort the find some Screech. At the historic Yellow Belly Tavern we had excellent cod fritters and found the Screech
From the description our Canadian friends gave, I assumed it would be serious rot gut. But it turned out to be a nice rum.
The Mounties were out for crowd control. Although, are they actually Mounties without their red coats and Smokey hats? I asked the officer who was responsible for cleanup and he said that he would come back later, after he stabled his horse, to pick it up.
The fact that the Ultimate Around the World Cruise was calling in at St. John’s seems to have been a local BFD. People asked us if we were from “that ship”. They had a gorgeous Newfie dog at the pier being an ambassador to those disembarking. I didn’t get a pic as there too many people giving skritches to the ambassador. And, as we finally departed the next morning, people lined up to watch and wave to us.
The pilot boat racing to come up and collect the pilot after the ship cleared the harbor mouth.
Newfoundland played a big part in the World War II efforts. The cost of that, following the hardship of the great depression, forced the province to finally join Canada. These bunkers, below the lighthouse at the mouth of the harbor, are remnants of the war.
Jay
rnc.gov.nl.ca/
Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, not RCMP.
J.
Thank you for sharing! Sounds like a great visit.
p.a.
Nice shots! Just checked a map because I can never remember which is Newfoundland (the island) and which is Labrador (the mainland) and noticed the 2 islands that are still France are just south of Newfoundland.
Ramalama
@p.a.: yeah going to France next to Newfoundland is my next trip!
Ramalama
Nice photos of description of St John’s.
Elma
@p.a.: We talked to a waitress at a pub who complained about how expensive it was to get off the island. A lot of the history at the rail museum was about the ferries to the mainland.
p.a.
@Elma: Guy I worked with was hunting in Labrador (caribou I think) on 9/11 when all air transport was shut down. His trip was finished, his dad had to rent a truck and drive from RI to Labrador & back to get him and his gear out. Can’t remember the whole story, but his father may not have had a passport and I don’t know what the border issues were immediately after 9/11, but I think the story goes it took a bit of pleading to get back across the border into the US.
Gin & Tonic
Many years ago I went to Newfoundland, partly because I wanted to be at Cape Spear to be the first person in North America to see the sun that day. I didn’t count on the nearly-constant fog.
eclare
Beautiful photos and stories. Thank you.
Trivia Man
Looks fantastic. My kind of beach instead of boring sand.
Trivia Man
@p.a.: I didn’t realize France was still up there. Fun fact: the longest land border France has with another country is with Brazil.
eclare
@Trivia Man:
Wait, what?
p.a.
@eclare:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Pierre,_Saint_Pierre_and_Miquelon
Tenar Arha
@Trivia Man: & @eclare: I believe that’s French Guiana. (This is all down to my youth reading all sorts of long novels like Papillon ;)
ETA rephrasing
pat
Well, I would consider moving there once Canada becomes just another state of the good ol’ USA! USA!
How about Make America Huge!! MAH!!!
I love the photo of all those buildings with white window frames, and the churches on the hill.
WaterGirl
Beautiful photos!
WaterGirl
Albatrossity, after the day we had yesterday, I thought a beautiful bird saying “WTF?” was just what we needed in the sidebar today.
Trivia Man
@Tenar Arha: exactly right!
Albatrossity
@WaterGirl: Yeah, the first of many WTF days to come, I fear…
MelissaM
I’d love to get to Newfoundland some day!
Apropos of your ship, after some cruise ship discourse, I ended up watching this 1 hour vlog about Symphony of the Seas (sister ship to your Serenade) in dry dock in Cadiz. Parts are the affable vlogger and his crewmates exploring Cadiz but other parts are interesting. Still don’t wanna cruise, at least not on a giant ship like that, but I’m curious how things work and what working on a cruise ship is like.
youtu.be/INu4A-3T0bU?si=UIOBIM7LcKgMh65c
Citizen_X
Actually, it was the debt from World War One that made Newfoundland join Canada.
I used to live there. You can see my house in that pic of downtown!
Next time, visit the Crow’s Nest. It’s a private club, but it’s open to anyone who’s a veteran of Canadian or allied armed forces and their friends. (Maybe go while we’re still allies, heh heh.) It’s easy to find: go to the War Memorial between Duckworth and Water Streets, and look for the building that looks like it has a working periscope from a captured u-boat sticking out of the roof. Because it does! It was an officer’s club during WWII, and it’s a reminder that, back then, the Battle of the Atlantic started as soon as you cleared the Narrows, because the u-boats would be waiting there.
Miss Bianca
@Albatrossity: Finally feeling in the mood to get back into the OTR posts, but just wanted to say your grumpy little bird as the featured photo yesterday made me smile all day!
WaterGirl
@Albatrossity: Get busy with that camera! :-)
You might need 2 new calendars this year – chunky birds and WTF?
KatKapCC
I love those old buildings with the name just painted right onto the structure itself. There’s something so…I don’t know, old-timey and charming about it. Especially if the building no longer houses that company but the name is still there.
Albatrossity
@WaterGirl: Here’s another WTF pose, a sparrow on our deck wondering if the snowstorm is over.
bsky.app/profile/albatrossity.bsky.social/post/3lf5ux3crfk2h
Netto
There’s a TV series set in St John’s called Republic of Doyle. I used to watch it just for the scenery and architecture.