Day 14 – July 17th – Holyrood & St. John’s Touring

Day 14 – July 17^th – Holyrood & St. John’s Touring

We departed our campsite assuming it was going to be a relatively overcast day as it was very foggy and windy. Typical NL weather proved us wrong again!!  St. John’s was a little overcast when we got to the city but this soon cleared off and it was gorgeous for the balance of the day. 

Our first stop (after finding a parking spot) was to walk along George Street, as it was just after ten in the morning it was not too busy, but a few of the bars were open.  We passed by them and went to the tourist information office to get a map and a young lady was most helpful in suggesting places to go and things to see.

Well by that time it was getting pretty close to lunch and we wanted to beat the downtown office crowd, so we walked down to “Rocket Bakery and Fresh Food” (as recommended by the tourist office) for an excellent lunch.  We found out the owner was from Manitoulin Island!!  She had been opened about three years ago and just loved it.

The remains of Fort Amherst

"The Battery" just below Signal Hill

Our next stop was to drive over to Fort Amherst (it is on the opposite side of the harbor entrance to Signal Hill).  This was a little disappointing for me as the area has been allowed to fall in disrepair and the old gun emplacements from the second world war were hardly visible and because of the crumbling walkways and stairs you cannot walk around the area safely and they have been closed off.  We were able to take some area pictures including some fairly large ships entering St. John’s Harbour. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Amherst,_St._John's

 

An Oil Rig Resupply ship coming back to port

Off to the next stop was the Railway Coastal Museum at the west end of the harbor.  They have done an excellent presentation of many old artifacts and storyboards from the days of the Newfoundland Railways.  They packed a great many things in a relatively small building.  We really enjoyed the exhibits. Right outside was the start (Mile "0") of the Trans Canada Trail System, neat! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_Canada_Trail

Vance and the Ladies :)

We decided we wanted to see St John’s Harbour from the ocean side as well as Cape Spear and try our luck at getting some more whale pictures and maybe even see some Puffins.  We took the Iceberg Quest Boat Tour from St. John’s Harbour that took us out and south past Cape Spear.  The narration was very good and they played Newfoundland music for most of the tour.  The wind was up so we were bounced around a tad but nothing too serious and no one felt ill or queezy.  While on board we met a group of young people about (7 of them) from Dublin, Ireland (they had come over for a friends wedding).  To give you an idea how far east we are, it only took them 4 to 41/2 hours to fly to St. John’s from Dublin – direct!.  Big difference than from Toronto.  They were having a great time here.  They will be here another 5 days.  We did see some Humpback whales but not too close, a little disappointing for us. Vance seemed to be enjoying himself :)

Our final stop for the day was at Costco.  What a disappointment this store was.  Boxes in the produce area that were empty were just strewn over the floor, staff had not kept the place very tidy at all.  Selections were very limited (can understand some limitations as everything has to get here by ferry).  They didn’t even have bottled water!!  So disappointing.

Following Costco we headed back to the campsite to prepare ourselves for the next adventure.