Bus Tour Day

 Lucille, our MC from last nights entertainment and ‘Screech In,’ picked us all up this morning in a motorcoach for a tour of the St. John’s area.  She has been a tour guide for 22 years and was born and raised here,  she did a great job!  She is of Irish decent, which there is a lot of in this area, and sometimes her accent was a little hard to understand.  One of the interesting things I noticed was how she pronounced Newfoundland.  I expected to learn the correct pronunciation from locals once we got here, and I’ve heard conflicting ways to say it.  I even asked Chat GPT and google, and got different answers.  Anyway, Lucille pronounced it like Newfie-land.  Some people say ‘Newfin-lin’.  Others, ‘Newfin-land.’ Perhaps it has to do with your ancestry?  Anyway, I plan to start asking locals directly how they say the name of this wonderful province.  

We started our tour with a drive around the city.  She pointed out important buildings and shared a lot of history.  She spoke positively about the relationship Newfoundland had during WW2 with the Americans, and said there was a time when there was a consideration of joining the U.S.  We were all pretty surprised to hear that.  If they had, I might be living here now! One of the places we visited was the Lt. Governors residence.  I don’t exactly understand how Canadian politics work, but the Lt. Governor represents the Crown and is appointed by the monarch, not elected.  The current Lt. Governor is a woman, one of only two in the history of Newfoundland.  They fly a flag outside of her residence when she is present, and today the flag was absent.  We got to tour the downstairs, but did not see the private residence upstairs.  We heard some great stories about the building and the people who have lived there.  

Most of the artwork was very traditional… lots of portraits of the monarchs.  There were a few modern pieces, and there was one that caught our eye.  It was a mixed media piece called ‘Secret of Carpet’ by Nasim Makaremi Nia and it was made out of tampons. 

We also visited Signal Hill which has a spectacular view of the city and has been the location of forts, a hospital, a gallows, and the location from where the first telegraph was sent over the ocean.  

Lucille

We also drove through the area of homes called jellybean houses… I’ll let you decide why.  I downloaded an internet picture as it was too hard to take pictures out of the bus window.  

We then headed to a local restaurant where all of us managed to remember what we had ordered.  😉 We overheard someone asking about dessert when we were done, and our guide, Penny, said no dessert.  Evidently, Lucille felt like we should all have that carrot cake and somehow convinced Penny to let us have it.  It was delicious, and did cause a few eye rolls.  We happened to be in the hall when Penny was paying for our lunch with the company credit card.  I guess I thought all that was paid for ahead of time, but it makes sense that it wouldn’t happen until they knew exactly who would be showing up. I do wonder if there is some benefit to limiting what we can have.  The meals are all budgeted ahead of time.  

After lunch we drove to Cape Spear, which is the eastern most point of North America.  It is a spectacular area with views over the Atlantic Ocean and the surrounding cliffs and coves.  It is also the location of an underground fort the Americans built during WW2 and was hidden from German U-boats.  

Our last stop of the day was the obligatory souvenir shop. I picked up a couple of items and then it was back to the campground.  I had hoped to do laundry tonight but this campground doesn’t have washers and dryers.  Tomorrow is a free day, and although we plan to do a last bit of exploring before we head to our next destination, we will find a laundromat in the morning.  The rest of our destinations in Newfoundland are all much smaller and rural.  That will be awesome, but we will be limited on things like large grocery stores and laundry facilities,  it’s all part of the adventure, right?