St. John's, Newfoundland

Yea! Finally another port which did not require tendering. We were docked right in the heart of the historic district. After breakfast in the buffet Carol and I walked ashore. This is a beautiful town and, like a classic New England town, everything is distinctly and steeply uphill from the shore! Since we were walking around on our own, I stopped to ask one of the police officers at the exit if he could tell me where to get my glasses fixed. I lost the screw and after finding nothing on board, sewed the temple on! The closest place required a taxi ride to get to or a bus ride to the mall. I will try in Halifax. Harbour Drive ran a short ways along the shore. When it ended we climbed up to Water Street. This seemed to be the heart of the historic district. Boutiques and restaurants lined the inviting avenue. Restaurants had staked out space with wooden rails to define their outdoor dining. Many tables and chairs were already occupied with ‘boat people’ enjoying a morning coffee in the bright sunlight. Mostly the men were sitting and gently kvetching about their wives who were window shopping. Most stores weren’t open yet but the street was already so lively it was fun to stroll. The colorful houses in their pastel paints cling to the cliffs above Harbour Drive Water Street. The area is known as the Battery. Some of the more Avant Garde buildings were cleverly painted with things like sleepy eyes in the upstairs windows and smiling mouths in the lower one. Some even had slogans inscribed on them. Not exactly graffiti, more like a statement of belief in the good life! It is very reminiscent of San Francisco in the Hippie days. We continued on toward a lovely little park honoring the dogs this for which this area is famous.: The Newfoundland Hound and the Labrador Retriever! The Newfie and the Lab are smart, loving, protective family pets around the world. They can be trained to do so many jobs to help their humans with everyday life. Larger than life sized statues were in one area with literary words of praise even back to Lord Byron! At the Waterfront it was great fun watching the little children climb up on the dogs. One little girl loved putting her hand into the Newfie’s open mouth and laughing as she pretended that it was biting but she could get her hand away before it did. Theodore, about 2, laid on the decking to watch the Jelly Fish. Mom held a tight hand on his shirt as her tried to reach for them far below the dock. He moved on to the dogs, then to run along the paths. We all knew Theodore as we heard his name often! Children are the same everywhere! The real purpose of the park is to honor the men and boys who lost their lives in the Royal Navy Flying Service during WWI. In both of the Great Wars Newfoundland was critical to the supply chain of both men and goods for the wars in Europe. There is a beautiful statue illustrating how fishermen became sailors. The Fishermen who lost their lives to the sea are also honored. The park provided a peacefully restful respite with lots of benches to sit and enjoy the view, the children playing, the colorful flower beds, and the sail boats weaving in and out of the Narrows! We climbed up past the monument, through the park to Duckworth Street. On Duckworth Street it was strictly residential. We were surprised to see that some of the homes even had single car garages. I don’t know why that was a surprise but it was. Still the San Fran feel was real. Narrow townhouses with their windows open to the warm sea breeze perched on the hill side. It seemed that everyone had a dog of some kind to walk and all were well behaved, both the friendly people and the dogs! We walked at a leisurely pace stopping to take pictures of pretty buildings and signs. Many of the houses are painted in pastels with bright trim. Most of the doors have entryways to allow you to take off your boots and to prevent snow or nor’easters to blow into the living room when you open the door. They also have steps, 3 or 4 or more, from the sidewalk. Raised porches which have room for but one chair – maybe. A lot are like row houses, attached, tall, and narrow. These are very steep hills up from the bay! But the killer is the sidewalks! There are rough bands of cement across them. This is to allow water to run off. Before that will be rough rectangles to allow for drainage to maybe prevent ice forming. The sidewalks become built in staircases! Cement steps that had no railings made me happy to have my walking stick with me. We ventured higher up Victoria Street to Queens Road. Here the Basilica Cathedral of St. John the Baptist dominates. The grey fieldstone façade was set off twin square towers with clocks set in them and a plain cross over the doorway. I have not seen clocks on Roman Catholic churches before. We were lucky that the church was unlocked and open to visitors between 11 and 1:00. Their were several tour guides inside who were happy to answer questions or walk you through the church to point out some of the unique features. In front of the alter was a glass ‘coffin’ containing a pristine white marble statue of the recumbent St. John. The guide said they did not have a relic, unusual in a Cathedral or Basilica to not have. But they did, over at a side altar dedicated to St. Theresa of Avila, known as The Little Flower, a relic of hers … but was not sure what it was. Carol and I continued to walk around on our own. When we left we were stopped by a man who wanted to know if we were “from away?” he was great to talk with because it was especially interesting to try to discern what he was saying with his broad accent! He had been a fisherman for many years but when the cod was fished out it became harder to make a living because of the strict limits on the crab and lobster. He confirmed what we had learned from our cruise director and our speaker: the money is in the lobster and limits are chasing fishing boats out of the market. We continued our walk and found ourselves at The Rooms. This modern building houses the Provincial Archives, the Newfoundland Museum, and the Art Gallery of Labrador and Newfoundland. If I had been with Elva we would have spent several hours here but Carol and I were so enjoying the bright sunshine and jacket free weather we kept going. At the Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Baptist we also found willing guides to lead us through the dark, musty church. Stained glass windows here were being repaired making for a lot of noise and dust. It was an interesting place in direct but not complete contrast to the Catholic Cathedral. It seemed sterner. But they had a children’s play area right in the cross of the church just before the altar! Surprising to see a Fisher Price Farm and pulpit in the same glance. Route or trail signs were posted at some street corners. We had found ourselves on the ‘church route’. Six major edifices were in the trail and each was interesting in its own way. Another route led to specific homes of historic personages. The town is very walker friendly … as long as you can handle the steep inclines. We did not go up to Signal Hill and Cabot Tower although we had a beautiful view of them from our balcony. I had done that when I was here ten years ago. They are very interesting and you can read about them. It is here that Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless signal. On our way back to the ship we learned that at two o’clock there would be a parade on Water Street to celebrate Stanley Cup winners, the Colorado Avalanche, and hometown boy Alex Newhook! I was going to walk the block back up to watch the event just because my new son-in-law is from Denver and a big fan. No need. From Deck 3 of the Nieuw Statendam forward I had a perfect view up the side street, past the Murray Premises, of the parade route. So yes. I saw the Stanley Cup and got pictures and video to share. Since the beautiful day continued I took myself to Deck Nine Aft to enjoy the view from the pool and hot tub! I haven’t taken enough advantage of that. Back in the cabin a hot shower felt great after the uphill hiking. Since we were in a narrow bay the ship had to turn around to leave and our balcony was the perfect place to enjoy the sail away. High above on Signal Hill the sailing seemed timed to the daily cannon salute. Lots of people were waving at us from the heights and from their homes and from what seemed to be evening picnics on the hillside. Deb, Carol and I enjoyed dinner on the Deck 3 level of the dining room and were quickly served when we let the staff know we wanted to be at the 7:30 show. Comedian Andrew Grose returned for a second show that was maybe even funnier than the first. We were laughing out loud so hard that at one point we had tears in our eyes! After that on Deck 12, Crow’ s Nest, we joined 11 year old Mylee, her grandmother Lynn, Sharon, and Rita for another rousing game night. It was the longest game of CLUE ever! We had a great day that ended with some quiet reading in bed. Carol is almost finished with her Janet Evanovich novel and I am midway through my second book this trip – How Iceland Changed the World!