Saint John's

I am finally able to include some pictures now.   So, for those of you who are scoffing at my yellow streak with regards to Cape Breton I am enclosing some photos of the road.  These are not my photos.  I am not sure how I would get into a position to get these photos and if I did the pictures would only be a shaky blur.  Ok, I am a wuss.

The road.  Seriously!

I never claimed to be otherwise.

We have made it to St. John’s Newfoundland.  It is not that easy to get here.   The only way to get to Newfoundland is by ferry.  This is not your BC ferry where the trip lasts one and a half hours and you barely have time to finish your coffee.   The trip from North Sydney Nova Scotia to Argentia Newfoundland is sixteen hours.  So, since it was rainy, windy and cold and since the car does not float well, we took the ferry. 

We might have better off swimming.

Marine Atlantic is the Air Canada of ferry corporations.  “We are not happy until you are unhappy”.  As I mentioned before they bumped us by 2 days so that we had to kill 2 days and, since we did the Cabot trail, those 2 days nearly killed me.  When we got to the ferry terminal at 4 pm they told us that they had just called for boarding.   I thought that was peculiar because the ferry did not leave for 2 hours.  When we finally boarded the ferry it was almost 6 pm.  2 hours to load the ferry??   We had booked a cabin to sleep in since the ferry was running overnight. No one had told us which cabin was ours so we went to the purser’s office to find out.  Well, since we had been bumped from a previous sailing our cabin had been cancelled and we were put on a waiting list. No one had told us that!  I was a little bit rude to the gentleman who was dealing with us.  I don’t think that put me in their good books.

Telen was trying to calm me down and sent me down to the car to get some pillows and a blanket so we could try to sleep in a chair overnight.  I was not looking forward to trying to ride into St. John’s with no sleep.   We decided to get some dinner and paid an exorbitant amount of money for the buffet.  I thought that might calm me down a little.  The ray of light in this buffet was the roast beef.  I saved a few slabs of it to use as soles for my bike shoes.  Far better than the carbon fibre they came with.   Periodically there would be announcements of people who were on the waiting list to come and get their cabin.  About halfway through dinner our name was called and we scurried to the reception to get our cabin assignment.  $189.00 for a cabin.   It had better be good.   I went down to get our toiletries, clothes etc from the car.   Sorry, once the vessel is underway your are not allowed to access your motor-vehicle, sir.

So now we had a cabin but not even a toothbrush!  We ended up buying travel toothbrushes and a disposable razor from the gift shop and retired to our cabin.  The cabin was the size of a closet with 2 sets of bunks in it set amidships so we did not even have a window.   For $189.00!

To compensate us for our two day delay Marine Atlantic was mailing us vouchers for $200.00 to be used on our next trip with them.  Mailing them to Victoria!   So, we went into the ferry terminal in Argentia to see if we could get the vouchers directly and use them on our trip back.  They pulled the “not my department” trick on me and everyone gave me another person to phone but “Dey won’t be in ‘til Tuesday, sor.  It’s a long weekend, ya know.”

There is no way off of Newfoundland except by Marine Atlantic.  I think they are a secret department of the federal government whose mission is to keep Newfoundlanders from spreading their subversive good natures to the rest of Canada.

In spite of our rude introduction to Newfoundland we love it here.  Mind you, we are here in the summer when the weather is good.  There is so much energy and life in this place and the city itself is beautiful.  And no one can top the Newfies for warmth and humour.

Telen dipping her wheel in the Atlantic

me too!

Well, I made it to the other side of the continent and climbed Signal Hill.  I did it!  I lifted my bike up for the traditional “end of the trip” salute on the top of Signal Hill with some very mixed emotions; elation that I did it and sadness that the cycling part is over.  There was some pride in that I rode most of the way and humbleness that I did not ride the whole way.  I know that Telen is proud of me and that feels good but I am not completely proud of myself because I had to ride in the car some of the time.

The Traditional Cyclist's Salute

We celebrated with lobster for dinner.  I am actually getting kind of tired of Lobster.  We went to a café today for lunch that served traditional Newfoundland food.   Telen had cod tongues.  Apparently that is very popular here.  I had cod au gratin.  Interesting taste sensation.  Cod and cheese…  Maybe I will stick with lobster.  

This trip has shown me how amazing Canada is.  And how big!  It has shown me how the culture changes as one travels across the country.  It makes me proud to say I am Canadian.

Telen writes:

Being here in Newfoundland has brought back fond memories of how warm and gentle the Newfies are.  I lived here for a year in 1988 completing my internship.  St. John’s has grown in size and prospered into a quaint metropolis.  There are various coffee specialty shops, even a Starbucks and a selection of ethnic cuisine restaurants.  None of these was available 24 years ago.  After the collapse of the cod fisheries in the early 1990’s, the oil industry from Hibernia has gradually helped the recovery of the economy.  The locals said that they are pleased to see people returning to the Rock.  How can you not love this place when a sentence is often finished with “mi darling”, “mi dukky” or “mi love”.

Yes, I do like eating cod tongues!

I feel a twinge of sadness that this portion of our journey is near the end.  Each place we have visited and all the people we have met will be in our memories for a long time to come.