Day 19 – July 22nd – Touring Around St. John’s

Day 19 – July 22^nd – Touring Around St. John’s

Very calm morning in Holyrood, NL

We wanted to complete our touring of St. John’s area with a visit to the small fishing village of Quidi Vidi.  A unique step back into time.

We first did a walkabout of the harbor and visited the Quidi Vidi Village Plantation.  This building at the end of the harbor contains a seasonal visitors information centre on the main floor and craft and artist studios selling their arts on the second floor.

A Pan of Quidi Vidi Harbour

Very Narrow Entrance To Quidi Vidi Harbour

As it was getting close to noon we decided to take in the tastings at the Quidi Vidi Brewery.  A unique older building that was originally a fish processing plant until the Cod Moratorium in 1992.  In 1996, Dave and Dave (2 friends from university) decided to open a microbrewery at this location and have provided their tasty offerings ever since.

Beer Tasting Time!

Vance Playing Suckface with the Cod

We had planned on having a bite to eat at “Inn of Olde” a very small locally owned pub and eatery.  Unfortunately, it was closed and Mallard Cottage was not open today either; so we decided to go into St. John’s to George Street to have lunch and get Joan and Vance “Screeched In”.

Hmmm, Joan Seems to be Enjoying This :)

Two of the Latest Honorary Newfoundlander

We decided on O’Reilly’s as this was the same place 18 of us were screeched in five years ago on our first visit to “The Rock”.  Our waitress was from Ireland and had a wonderful accent.  She had only been in St. John’s for 3 ½ weeks and already had a job!  Because of very cheap airfares (about $250.00), it was easy for her, and her sister, to come to St. John’s to find summer work.  Following lunch she performed the ceremony of having Joan and Vance kiss that butt ugly cod (I think it was the same one from five years ago) and have a shot of screech.  Joan and Vance are now Honorary Newfoundlanders!

Just as we were finishing up lunch our waitress told us about the local Anglican Church having “High Tea” with desserts every afternoon from 2:30 to 4:30. It sounded like a fine idea; so off to “The Crypt” at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.  The Crypt at the Cathedral had not been used to bury people but for storage in the past so no ghosts were hanging about.  The Earl Grey was very good and we had a taste of Bakeapple, a local berry of Newfoundland.  The taste was hard to describe but very nice.

Time to head back to the campground, refuel the vehicles and prepare to leave for Fortune, NL in the morning.  It was a very good day.