Roci and I – Oh, Canada!

Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island (maybe), and Newfoundland. Bien sur, Saint-Pierre et Miquelon, aussi!

While I did mess up a bit the timeline in the French Canada blog, here the first pic from Labrador:

Can you tell what’s the give away for being the first Labrador pic? 😜

The beginning of the Labrador part of the trip was surprisingly pleasant – the road quality was awesome, especially after the last gravel portion on QC 389. The view as you approach Labrador City is to die for, and I kick myself for being lazy and not stopping for a pic. Although, it kinda gets tiring to stop more often than a mail truck…

Perfect beginning.
But…

Here’s what hundreds of kilometers of Trans Labrador looks like:

It’s becoming monotonous fairly quickly, and the hardest thing is not to fall asleep.
And for you, the more observant observers, you can see what rush hour looks like on Trans Labrador (and if you’re not one of the observant observers, please note how I am not in the car, while taking the pic in the middle of the lane).
Literally, this is how the road looks like, punctuated by small accents of beauty when there’s a river of a lake:

or

So, in order for Roci and I not to fall asleep, we’ve devised a strategy, to make things interesting for us, no matter what.

And as a result, we went:

1. Pretending we’re an electric car

2. Orienteering on a side dirt road

3. At a native art exhibition

We also stopped in Churchill Falls, hoping to see the underground Hydroelectric plant. Alas, they temporarily stopped doing tours. So, whoever says time is relative, it is not when you want your tour… Damn! as in dam with n…

And finally arrived in Happy Valley – Goose Bay. Huge improvement over Churchill falls.

Very pretty wooden boardwalk in the Birch Island… Boardwalk. It goes for 4 km all-inclusive and I did at least 6-7. I get lost easily, I guess.

There were also signs how to interact with bears, in case you run into one. Basically they say, be polite, only speak if you’re asked and do a Japanese bow upon meeting Mr or Ms Bear. I have – alas – not encountered one. Same for more than one.

Fun fact about this part of Labrador I’m in. It’s an hour ahead of East Coast from a time zone perspective. My biological clock says screw the time zones, as it’s sleep o’clock…

Well, up to this point, Quebec has the upper hand on prettiness. By a huge margin, IMHO. But I hear the South side of Labrador will be much prettier. We shall see…

Friday, Oct 4th, Anno Domini 2024.

Today’s blog is dedicated to Il Capo Dei Tutti Capi, my avid reader and critic, my best friend, the one and only, Radu, aka RDK, aka “too secret to share.”
Well, the day started bright and early, as the room above was inhabited by elephants. I wonder how they’ve got to second floor, as the stairs were fairly narrow. Anyhow, they woke me up at 7, local time, so I’ve started my glorious adventure on the Trans Labrador. Not before the semi-customary stop at Tim Horton’s for a big black coffee (great) and a croissant (good).

I was anxious to tackle the Trans Labrador, as it’s one of the most remote roads in Canada, and there’s no cell service.
I am prepared, Roci is in top shape, and we carry a Jerry can with another 100 miles in the trunk (in the form of 20L or 5 gallons of premium gasoline). Best investment ever, this one, and the plastic floor mats.

Well, driving the Trans Labrador is a terrifying adventure, and one’s life is in constant danger…

BS, it’s been a complete letdown as an adventure. It is boooooring…

The same view keeps repeating, and contrary to the boooring drive across Iowa or Nebraska, the road has many curves. Everyone of those curves is making you think “now something will happen, finally! Maybe the scenery will change, maybe I finally get to see a moose in the middle of the road, perhaps a bear, or god damn, at least give me anything else but green and yellow trees all-the-f..g-time!”

This is what I’ve see. For 450 or so kilometers, randomly energized by passing views of rivers and lakes. Some of those are pretty, but the green+yellow gets old very quickly. Trans Labrador is only a challenge as not to fall asleep.

Wait… is this the Matrix?!? Deja Vu? Didn’t I post the same comment the previous day?

Yep, but let me explain, s’il-vous-plait.

Trans Labrador highway is the name for two distinct highways (not distinct scenery-wise, but you knew that already). 500 goes from Labrador City to Mary’s Harbour, and 510 continues to Blanc-Sablon.
Now you understand my repetitive comments apply to the second part of the Trans Labrador (510).

Soooo… Roci and I devised a cunning plan! In order to get self-entertained, we’ve made stuff up.

Now, seriously, I’m not a complete idiot, so I’ve been very careful with these pics. I guess that probably makes me a half-idiot? Do not do this!

Note for the Labrador police: these pics are photoshopped, and that shit never happened!

So what else have Roci and I did to entertain ourselves?

• We’ve listed to a lot of music, and Rhiannon by Fleetwood Mac is awesome in the rain (never noticed that before)
• Eating a lot (me a ton of cashews and figs, Roci a ton of premium)
• Thank god for Tim Horton coffee! I know it’s repetitive, but that stuff’s good!
• Found a solution for LA commuting complaints: in case you want to have an easier commute, move to Labrador City, and work in Mary’s Harbor. Give it 1-2 drives, and you’ll scream you want back in LA!
• Counting cars – I honestly thought we’ll see less than 20 the entire drive today. We’ve seen a lot more, but there were minutes and minutes without any (once we even saw a convoy of two cars!) Btw, when I say cars, I mean trucks, SUV and a few crossover SUVs. No cars at all, almost like Roci is an alien species here.
• Listened to more music. Thankfully had some Chez Kane to keep me awake. If you drive TL, do yourself a favor and get all Ramstein albums. Ramstein + Tim Horton’s black coffee = stay awake
• Figured out silent retreats are not for me. I am not the talkative type, but 450 km without any other human to talk to is too much of a silent retreat for me…
• Tried to drive speed limit + a certain undisclosed percentage to stay out of trouble with RMCP (or is it the RCMP?). My friend Adrian told me to always obey the speed limit while in Canada, as they take it very seriously here. But the only police car I’ve seen the entire TL was in Mary’s Harbor, parked and looking rather sad/abandoned.
• Listen to a great sound system: Roci’s Bose sound system rocks. Literally and figuratively.

If you think I’m exaggerating with the boring drive, here’s an example when even the GPS fell asleep (tracked like that for almost 2 km):

That being said, I felt a lot more at ease to approach the high speed limit in Quebec, as per Jack Sparrow, here the laws feel more like guidelines. Compared with Trans Labrador, 389 (Trans Quebec) is waaaay more entertaining. And as they’re in the process of asphalting the remaining portions of gravel, do yourselves a favor and drive on it now (just get supplemental windshield insurance).

Well, we’ve survived TL, and the afternoon got a lot more entertaining.

And talking about luck… ok, I wasn’t, but here it goes anyways. I stopped for a minute at the Red Bay whaling museum to check the schedule for tomorrow, and this dialogue ensues:

Hello!

Hello! (with Canadian accent)
What time do you open tomorrow?

Oh, we’re closed, eh.

Oh, so Saturday you’re close?

No, in 15 minutes we’ll be closed for the season, eh.

Ah, so I have 10 minutes to visit then?

Yes, go for it, eh!

So I went on a whirlwind tour of the very nice museum.

The very nice curators told me they’re building a life-size replica of the 15xx ship (can’t remember the year exactly) that was build in the Basque region of Spain, and sunk here (Red Bay) in 15xx + 2. And the cool thing is they’re building the replica in the same Basque port (forgot that name, too).

Quit complaining about being forgetful, I had 10 mins to do the visit, talk (a lot) with the curators, make some new friends (see below) and get a dignified pic on the museum interior stair case.

Tomorrow (if I wake up early enough) I may try to get on the waitlist for the ferry for Newfoundland, but it’s likely I’ll spend the day sightseeing and relaxing here in South Labrador (I’m in L’anse-au-Loup – Wolf’s cove), and there are a lot of nice mini-villages on the coast. In 99 km I can enter Quebec again, so I may do that just because😜.

Food related tip: avoid Dot’s Cafe. They suck.

One last fun fact for today. Labrador is mostly 1 hour ahead of Eastern time zone. Where I am now, they increment that with another 30 minutes. Weird.

Saturday, Oct 5th…

After sleeping on it, I believe I was a tad unfair with Labrador. The southern part is very pretty, and don’t let my comments about Trans Labrador being boring dissuade you from visiting…

Sooo… this morning I’ve decided to wing it, and see if I can get to Newfoundland before my ferry reservation for Sunday. And no, not by swimming. By going on stand-by for the Saturday morning ferry.

In this process, I’ve learned a few interesting things, and here’s my advice:

• make your reservation early as the ferry tends to book completely (since it’s weekend, perhaps it’s busier than normal, but I doubt it)
• I’ve reserved the last spot available on the Sunday morning ferry
• I came anyways today (Saturday), as they do reserve a quarter of capacity for walk-ins
• get to the last line (#9) and then get the permit from the ticket office. Saw a woman doing just that, and it’s smart. It is 7:30 am now (I think it’s an hour 30 less than L’anse-au-loup, which is a factor to keep remembering – TZ keeps changing here). I left at 8:20 am or so this morning and I’ve arrived earlier. Drove fast, but not that fast, so it must be the TZ😜
  And on that note, I’m back in Quebec for a couple of hours! Parfait!

I don’t get the timezone here… we left around 8:40 or so, when the schedule says 10:30. Well, if you travel in this part of the world, give yourself plenty of time to account for time elasticity😜.

Annoying they don’t let you on the bridge (fourth level, I’m on the third):

I’ve tried to commandeer the ship, but could not find my way to the damn bridge, so I’ve settled on comandeering this one…

Have I mentioned how cold and windy it was?? The wind was making impossible to stay straight for too long, all this while shivering uncontrollably. I went outside for maybe 10-15 mins, and I couldn’t feel my hands… a coffee from the ferry restaurant helped.

The crossing from Blanc Sablon to St Barbe in Newfoundland took less than two hours, but there’s a lot of time wasted waiting to embark. Disembarking is way faster. Organized chaos to my untrained ferry operator eyes…

One surprising thing is that I had cell signal the entire sailing trip. I wonder if they may have a repeater on the ship…

Since Roci couldn’t come with me upstairs, in the passenger area, she stayed in the cargo hold for the entire trip. She took this pic, looking towards the front of the cargo area:

After touching ground in Newfoundland we’ve drove away South for a bit, and then found this road to nowhere…

We took a lot of side roads to explore, and most of the time the roads went somewhere… this particular one didn’t. Maybe it was designed by the same fellow that designed the famous Alaska bridge to nowhere?

The coastline is gorgeous, and we’ve enjoyed the ride tremendously.

Here’s Lobster Cove lighthouse, where I went 10 minutes inside the quaint museum, and then just under one hour of hiking.

And a few more pics from the hike and subsequent drive:

And now I sign off for the day…

Today’s another day, and the weather seems to hold. Ish.

50 degrees with clouds. We shall see.

Looking at the 200 pics taken yesterday (deleted 195 probably), I found two more worth posting:

Jason, the Fearless Leader, adviced me to go do stupid stuff, and get arrested in the process. I went to turn myself in with the RCMP, but they said “we’re too nice to arrest you, Mr Fratian, eh.”

At which, I retorted: “Oh, behave!”

I’ve got nothing in return…

How can you not stop at a restaurant with this name?!?
I went in, and asked for a whale burger. The woman looked at many in a funny way, and she counter proposed a moose burger, to which I said “sold.”

A bit of a life insight here… I discovered the most peculiar difference between Americans and Canadians! Other than the slightly funny accent (look who’s talking!), and the eh’s (which tbh, are almost inexistent), Americans and Canadians are pretty much the same. With a huge difference. The way we do sandwiches and burgers in the two countries is hugely different.

This is how ‘Merica does burgers – with all the juicy trimmings!

And this is how Canada does it:

C’mon Canada, let’s make the burgers great again! This is not the way to prove you’re different than the U.S.!

Second time I’ve got a “burger” with literally the patty and the bread. And ketchup, as supposedly doesn’t interfere with the moose taste as mustard does. The fries I’ve ordered on the side were great, btw.

The nice woman, all beaming and proud of her moose recipe, comes and asks “was it delicious, eh?”

I agreed reluctantly, as I don’t like lying.

If you ask me how was the moose, I’ll say eh. TBH, can’t compare it directly with a regular burger, as the ones I had came with all the trimmings, so who knows what the patty tastes by itself?

Now I’ll know to ask for all the trimmings with my burger. Or maybe ask for an “American style” burger, the only burgers with style?

Will put that to test later today. Probably.

And yes, it’s Sunday night and no, I haven’t tried my burger theory. Yet.

I had Taiwanese for lunch (Geo says his Taiwanese friend says that’s not Taiwanese food – whatev’) and lobster roll for dinner.

Taiwanese was close to Walmart, where I went to buy a replacement Apple Watch charger, as for whatever reason instead of taking the original one with me, I took a cheapo Temu (I think) chinesium device. Of course it died… Lesson learned, maybe.

The lobster roll was at Pier 39, from where we left from quite satisfied.

Me, because the lobster roll was quite filling (great quality, Pier 39 recommended by the B&B owner). Roci because she just had a fill-up with Premium (it seems Newfoundlandese like Premium more that Labradorese people, who are partial to Regular gas).

The owner tried to explain where Pier 39 is, and I respectfully declined, as I only do gps. So, I’ve put Pier 39 in Maps, and it says 7048 kilometers. WTF?!? I’m going to die of hunger first.

Of course, the gps was trying to take me to San Francisco. I respectfully declined by telling it, “fuck, no,” and I searched the next entries for Pier 39, until I found the NL variety. As you saw in the previous pic, found it successfully.

Newfoundland is terrible for driving without interruptions. Seems like every minute there’s another view worth stopping for. It is very pretty here, and different than Quebec. Very coastline pretty. The linked video is Crow’s Head park, and I’ll have a few pics later, too.

Went also hiking, and I had the pleasure of being the sole human at the Twilingate Lighthouse. Until I came back from the hike, I haven’t seen any other soul. Wait… do birds have souls? ‘Cause I saw quite a few birds…

The hiking wasn’t massive, but boy, it was pretty.

Here’s a video taken with my phone’s cinematic option (no idea what that means, but looks good to me). You may want to minimize the sound, as there’s a lot of wind buffeting. When I was taking pics, there were moments I had to step away from the cliff’s edge as the wind was trying to test my flying abilities. Since, alas, I have none, I had to step away.

Gorgeous views here, and here are a couple of pics in addition to the above mentioned video.

And moi, selfieing (is that a word?) with the Twilingate Lighthouse in the background.

I think I’ve impersonated a dog while hiking around the lighthouse… went everywhere seemingly at the same time, and just having fun in the process… And I know you can’t tell, but underneath the sweater, I have my Corgi surfing the Great Wave of Kanagawa tshirt. Kind of apropos…

On the way back from the Lighthouse, I stopped at Crow’s head park, where I found interesting art thingies.

After conquering the not-quite-the-Everest, I found the original Enterprise, where I have cornered my inner Picard for a grandiose pose:

When I came back from the park, I felt Roci is annoyed with being left behind (not much a hiker / offroadie, per se), so we took a pic together:

She was purring like a kitten afterwards…

Scientific tangent. Interesting way of doing poles here. I assume it’s because the ground is rock, and this is how they put up poles, including the ones on the side of the highway:

A final note, on the B&B I’m staying in. If you’re in Twilingate, book this place. It’s awesomely cute. I’m in Minke Whale room, and it’s super nice.

Cheers for today!

Well, a new work week has started. Wait, I don’t work. Whew…

Joking aside, today was a looong day. I planned to drive about 4 hours, and after I’ve run into Kevin White from Newtown, I’ve added another 3-4 hours. Tiring, but worth it!!

Btw, this is Kevin’s view from his house:

The family statues and the Canadian flag are in his backyard. Wow, what a view to look at every day!
Kevin added to my list of sites two more, and boy, is he right or what?!? You’ll see😀.

In deleting hundreds of pics, I stumbled onto two I forgot about.

One for my SoCal friends that complain about traffic. Newfoundland’s rush hour can be pretty bad, too:

I guess on the lower res pic on the site you can’t see it well, but the beautiful drawn red arrow points to an incoming car. Bad traffic today!!

And the second pic is with Roci on Trans Canada. I kinda wanted to drive longitudinally across Canada, irrespective of eastwards or westwards, but not sure if it’ll be that exciting. I think I’d do Trans Quebec one more time before they finish asphalting it first. I’m thinking to post something like the “In defense of Boeing’s Starliner.” Give how well received that article was, perhaps that’ll only speed up asphalting…

I had an idea about another Olympic sport to propose (can’t be worse than curling, eh?):

It shall be called “rock kayaking,” and it’ll consist of dodging rocks, in a kayak. Sounds exciting (to me)!

The advantage in doing a no-schedule trip is that if you see something on the side road, you can just turn left (or right, if Republican), and follow your instinct. For me, it’s interesting names more than anything else.

Sooo, when I saw Cape Freels, I said to myself “what an frelling interesting name. It was meh (compared with other awesome views), but we found an accessible beach with compact sand, so I thought “how hard can it be to drive with Roci’s Quattro here?”
Usually that kind of question, followed by action, doesn’t end well, but here’s Roci on the beach, so we’ve made it:

I initially scouted the beach for soft sand areas, and they were minimal, mostly at the entrance on the beach. Roci had no issues whatsoever driving on the compact sand, but when we left, I thought for a few seconds that we’re stuck (at the entrance that became exit now). Quattro eventually saved the day, and we were back on the dirt road we came from. The reason I scouted the type of sand first is because many, many years ago I was part of sinking a 7 series on the beach at Mamaia… It was not my idea, and it took a lot of effort to get it out. Soft sand = no bueno.

What I had no idea is that this part of Newfoundland has polar bears. I soooo wanted to pet one!

Alas, polar bears were in the same number as people. As in zero. What a bummer!

Lumsden beach was recommended upon arrival in Labrador, by the very nice guy with a private island (same one that recommended all that good food, if you remember).

So, Roci and I went to Lumsden. Twice. First, because there was only one road, and I said to myself “how hard would it be to just follow the road and don’t mess with the gps?” 10 kilometers later, I see another name that I vaguely remember was after Lumsden. It turns it is hard to just follow the road without gps. For me. So we went back, and I think I may have heard some grumbling from Roci as in “boy, what a s..d.” It’s definitely my imagination, as Roci tends to be very polite. Usually.

Lumsden, being the face gathering place of the rich and famous, was completely packed.

The other direction was similarly occupied with flocks of tourists as behind me.

Roci and I took some pics in the huge car parking lot that hosted one car, albeit a most pretty one.

And then I ventured on the above mentioned beach. When I could open my eyes, in between bursts of wind throwing sand at you, I noticed the beach has hard, packed sand for the most part. So I immediately thought “how hard could it be to do donuts here?”

Alas, Roci and I went for a couple of kilometers trying to find a way onto the beach, but no luck. The Lumsford people idiot-proofed the beach pretty well, it seems.

Note: it is annoying to hear your best friend saying, “man, you behave like a toddler.”
I definitely think I behave at least as a six years old! Maybe even seven…

In the process of finding a breach in the Maginot Line of Lumsford, we did find other pretty places, including this gorgeous house on the beach that was for sale. Since we have not heard anything from the house we’ve put an offer on a few days ago, we decided to put an offer on this one as well.

As they say in real estate, “location, location, location.” A new coat of paint and some LED lights and it’ll be as new. Hope they accept our offer!

And since Newfoundland is quite British in many aspects, Roci and I decided to stop for a cuppa.

Since we had no tea, we’ve pretended to drink some, and then we left completely satisfied. Ish.

I went on a 6 km gorgeous trail in Greenspond (Kevin recommended), and after maybe 1 km, rain.

After Roci grumblingly got some regular, I found Amy’s Place, and I’ve got fish and chips:

I’m sure it happened before to leave some fries on the plate. Probably. This time, I left… gasp… half. It helped that they were good (equivalent to Roci’s regular, I guess), but not great. For people that do not believe I left fries on my plate, I have photographic proof. It may not happen again, so better document it now.

C’mon, Canada, let’s make the freedom fries great again!

Ssshhh… let’s make sure Roci can’t hear us, but I think she is getting her German composed behavior behind… She’s not behaving like a 21 years old proper German luxo-barge (pardon, luxe sports sedan). She’s behaving like a six year old VW Polo GTI!

Kevin’s other recommendation was Salvage. He tried to make me pronounce that three times, and since he was still laughing after the third time I said, “whatev.” The Newfoundlandese pronunciation was akin to “Sauvage.” As in the famous Pascal Sauvage, of course.
Irrespective of pronunciation, this place is stunning. Pictures are not even close to its beauty, and it reminds me of the scene in Contact when they test the alien machine in Hokkaido. Btw, this is my fave movie, and not because of Jodie Foster. Although that helped.

And this was taken on another long hike, shortened by heavy-ish rain. Wasn’t completely soaked, but pretty wet. Worth it!

Thank you Kevin for the recommendation! I think Salvage/Sauvage is my favorite view up to this point.

Tuesday, the eight day of the month of October, Roci and I reached a low point in our travels. I would explain in detail what transpired, but a picture is worth 1000 words.

The literal low point was a street that had no other appealing (to me) but its name.

Today I saw a side of Canada I haven’t before, the love and sexual innuendos side.

One (or many) Newfoundlandese founders (pun intended) had let’s say an interesting sense of humor.

Towns were named as Heart’s Delight, Heart’s Desire, Heart’s Content and La pièce de résistance, Dildo. You do not believe me? See this irrefutable photographic proof I have taken at Roci’s insistence:

There’s also a South Dildo. Just sayin’.

Unfortunately it’s off season in Canada, and the brewery and museum (great combo, btw) were closed. So no tshirts for my boys from this town.

I kinda like the new Roci, with her developing sense of humor. She also wanted to stop here, and get a pic. Who knows, she may become religious?

Upon leaving the very pretty town of Dildo, we saw a reenactment of “The Birds.” With ducks. Not the same effect, IMHO. And no Tippi Hedren look-alike anywhere in the… picture.

We have again stopped more times than a school bus pulling double duty, but it was worth it.

Here are a few more pics from the Dildo area (sorry, had to say it one more time).

And talking about Roci, one of her rear twilight bulbs is burnt, and I’ve tried to find a 5007 (or maybe 7005) replacement bulb.

Man, Canadians are sooo nice. Not efficient, but nice. I went to a Canadian Tire (kind of a Discount Tire plus NAPA in one), and they sent me in four places before they figure out they don’t have it. Another NAPA store figured out faster they don’t have it either.

Going on a bit of another tangent here, this country is soooo pretty. It’s so interesting that even in these coastal areas there are really nice houses, and then literally next door there’s an abandoned one (like the ones Roci and I put offers on). Tempting to get an ocean view house here for a fraction of the SoCal price. But then, winter… And distance. I guess if you have a good reason, there are awesome deals here. I should check Salvage!

Hmmm… 5 minutes later, I checked Salvage (pronounced Sauvage, remember?). At first blush, not cheap at all. Well, inexpensive compared with San Diego, for sure.

There’s one property for sale in Salvage, per Zillow. And it’s $1.2M, inexpensive compared to San Diego, but not cheap.

Wait, that’s Canadian money. So it’s like $20 real American bucks, right? I wish…

After reading the description, I’m moved to tears. I think half of the $1.2M went to the guy or girl that wrote it: “Their key principal was the avoidance of conspicuous design gestures in favor of exercised constraint, gently reinterpreting and enhancing original design elements to meet contemporary tastes and domestic comfort. The balance deftly preserves the facades of the houses long standing presence on the iconic landscape. Interior plans were informed by the simplicity and honesty of the white original shiplap resulting in crisp contemporary design.” Read the rest on Zillow, and prepare to shed tears…

I still dig the property, but it’s actually in Eastport, and not Salvage-proper.

Now I’m in St John’s and it’s pretty here as well (although a tad overrated if you ask me). Very English looking B&B, and it’s very cute inside. The house is probably 100 years old, which in European terms is like 27 months or so. Kidding aside, it’s old, and has character. All the modern amenities, too. A bit difficult to operate the whale oil lamp, though.

I’m in Princess Mary room, as King George was alas, not available.

And to classify this occasionally rambling blog as ‘educational,’ here’s some historical information.

Labrador and Newfoundland were founded by two visionary dogs, a Labrador and a Newfoundland. The doggos saw the potential in this very nice part of the European overseas provinces of the British Empire (plus the other non-important European powers of that time). And they decided to incorporate as part of future Canada, and being good doggos, they also sworn allegiance to the English Queen. Or King (can’t recall the exact timing).

Btw, do you know how a Canadian dog barks?

”Woof, eh!”

The next couple of days I’m going to stay put in St John’s and do local sightseeing. I need that rest, as I think Roci and I drove around too much. I feel it, she doesn’t. And since I’m paying, we’ll stay put.

And Wednesday the 9th went by, and my St John’s impression went up big time. The city itself is still not a fave of mine, but the area is Uber-pretty.

My impression of St John’s is similar with what I perceived in Montreal earlier this year. It’s a city past its glory days, and in slow decline. Surprising number of homeless people here, given the climate. A lot of prime commercial real estate locations have for sale signs. It doesn’t compute for me… as Canadian social system generally thought as better than ours in the U.S.

Irrespective of the economic and social challenges, the St John’s area is gorgeous. I realize I say “gorgeous” too much, but it’s the truth, your Honor!

Cape Spear is the Eastern-most point in Canada, and if you like the ocean, this is a don’t- miss place to see. The ocean waves crashing on the granite cliffs is a sight to behold, and the ticket office Canada Parks ranger(?) told me today’s a very nice day, with no wind. Usually it’s stormier here. Especially on days with big wind, the waves must be a spectacle in itself.

The waves crashing were mesmerizing, and before the selfie I watched them for an eternity. Like 5 minutes, which was a very long time for me.

and same view as above, without using the 5x magnification on the phone:

Tomorrow is supposed to rain the entire day, so maybe I’ll visit Fort Amherst…

And talking about the weather, it’s no bueno.

Staring tonite, it’ll rain the entire time I have left in St John’s and it’ll rain a lot while in France (St Pierre and Miquelon), too. Ugh…

Well, let’s say, it’s only water…

Cape Spear has an interesting story. Mostly military related. The Brits developed it over a very long time, and it valiantly defended Canada from the Nazis in WW2. There’s a funny (to me) poster in the bunker under the hill with a huge (not to scale) Nazi destroyer coming towards the big guns installed on top of the mountain.

Signal Hill has a historical tie with the first cross-Atlantic radio communication, by Marconi. I took a bunch of pics, but since they’re not the greatest quality, I’ll link the story here.

I’ve found a pic that’s interesting with vacuum tubes used in the early 1900’s:

I kind of intermingled Signal Hill and Cape Spear together, but that’s okay, as the distance between them is under 15 kilometers (photography rules allow intermingled pics if the sites are under 20 kilometers, or so I hear).

WW2 Cape Spear guns we’re cleverly designed to disappear and I found this interesting, as I guess no Nazi naval gun would have been able to get into range without being obliterated.

The Cape Spear lighthouse dates from 1836, October 1st at 3:15 pm (kidding on the exact date), which makes it the oldest in Canada. The design is typical for Canada’s Eastern seaboard, by combining the light tower with the house for the light man is that the term??) and his family.

It’s interesting what they had in storage for those loooong winter months:

And there’s another light tower that was locked and no info was made available.

So I’ve put my burglar skills to use trying to get in:

Unsuccessfully so, alas.

They even had an art exhibition, and since I have a nose for art, I slipped by.

It was recommended to me to also visit Petty Harbour – Maddox Cove. Which I did, and while it was very pretty, I think Cape Spear is waaay better. So I stayed for an hour so in Petty Harbor, watching the waves and talking to Andrei about Formula 1 and with Radu about hurricanes and electricity.

Very intellectual topics, if I say so myself…

Coming back to the city, I run into traffic, but it wasn’t bad:

Finishing for today with Roci admiring the waves in Cape Spear:

As I’m waiting at the ferry crossing to France (arrived way too early), here are a few pics from yesterday:

And a view of the port below Signal Hill, from Fort Amherst:

On the way back to Cape Spear (so pretty there that I went a second time), I saw this sign. Interesting, moose (or is it mooses?) are speed limited to 50 km per hour. This means you can outrun them in any modern car!

And now we’ll move to French France😜.