We travelled all the way to the northern tip of the island in search of icebergs and vikings to be greeted with a lovely June snow, sleet, and rain, all within one day. However, because the weather was poor, you felt a strange sort of kinship to the vikings who were explorers here 1000 years ago. This prairie girl got a eerie sense of being a stranger in a strange land in the wilds surrounded by the Canadian shield, icebergs, and the sounds of fiddle playing from the nearest kitchen party.
Our time with the Vikings was spent at L’anse aux Meadows which is a UNESCO world heritage site marking where the Vikings first touched down in North America. They actually reached the shores by accident with a boat that was blown off course near the coast of Greenland and ended up here 9 days later. After he found his way back to the colony in Greenland he told tales of land that had trees that was only 9 days away. Trees were hot ticket items and really in short supply in Greenland, they needed wood for their boats and for fuel. We were talking to an PhD candidate in archeology at the site and it turns out there is new evidence at the dig sites that the Vikings were likely inhabiting L’anse aux Meadows for likely hundreds of years longer than initally thought, so there may be some changes in the near future in our knowledge about Norse colonies and what they were used for/how long they persisted.
For a bit of fun we ended up at a Viking dinner theatre, which was actually a riot. My daughter hauled me up in front of the Viking court ( aka an ‘Allthing’) and accused me of busting in on her when she is on her computer. Personally I think I am just being a good parent and that argument won the court. My kiddo was brought up on false charges was sentenced to doing the dishes for 3 nights in a row. That seemed like justice to me. She, on the other hand, was not pleased.
One of our favourite places to eat in the St. Anthony area was in the Central United Church community basement, which is where Laura is chowing down on dessert. In addition to crafts, jams, quilts, and clothes for sale there is also lunch (aka nfld ‘dinner’) prepared by the fair hands of the church ladies. Over 3 days we ate meals like soup & sandwiches, fish and brewis, fish cakes, and chicken dinner, all meals were $10 and included coffee/tea and dessert. Home cooking was never so delicious or affordable.
Capping off the trip up north, and one of the big reasons we wandered up north, was the iceberg festival. These 10,000 year old beauties break off from Greenland each spring and make their way down iceberg alley for all of us to admire. The one above is about 100ft tall and aproximately 300 ft is below the waterline. We saw about a dozen of them throughout of 3 days in the area, but these ones we hopped on a zodiac to see up close, and up close they are even more majestic with rivers of water running down their cracks and the light green tint on the water showing some of the extents of the berg lurking below.
We have to head back eastward to get to our next destination, as the locals say ‘see you by and by’.
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