Category: St Anthony

We awoke to another beautiful day in Newfoundland, great for the first full day of autumn. After breakfast in St Anthony we packed up and visited another Viking village recreation called Norstead. This time it was typical of the more permanent sites in Iceland. The buildings were constructed of timber rather than peat blocks but no less spartan.

Wood lathe

Tools of the day

Textile making

Ocean Cargo vessel 65 feet long

Church

Boat house

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It has been another beautiful day, sunny and bright all day and very calm seas for the ferry crossing from Labrador to the Newfoundland coast. We took the longer route from St Barbe to St Anthony. It was not a complicated route but we set the GPS for our destination about 150 km away. “Penny” acknowledged the 150 kms but estimated our travel time to be 4 hours. Seemed strange since the speed limits were 80 to 90 kph but she was insistent until we were within 50 km at which time she began to catch up with reality. Morale, don’t always trust the machine.

We actually arrived in St Anthony about 2 PM, had lunch and visited the first Timmy’s since Deer Lake. After we checked into the motel we set off to L’Anse aux Meadows, the 1.000 year old Viking settlement. It really was worth the modest $10 admission. We recalled seeing the Viking long boats at museums in Oslo but really did not think of them as vessels that would take them as far as Newfoundland.

Coastline at L’Anse au Meadows

L’Anse au Meadows original Viking village

The remnants of the original settlement are still visible and there is a reconstruction of some of the buildings. The sod of which they are constructed is harvested only a few kilometres from the site.

L’Anse au Meadows

I was fascinated to learn that the area is considered sub-arctic climatically. A look at some of the vegetation, however, confirms this. There are fully mature balsam trees complete with cones but they are only three feet tall.

Tomorrow we will do a little more sightseeing and then move to Corner Brook for the night.

100 year old Balsam 3′ tall