Thursday, June 10, 2010

The End of our Viking Saga!

Here we are on the map...L'Anse aux Meadows and St. Anthony right at the tip...

L'Anse aux Meadows is the only known Norse site outside of Greenland and represents the farthest known extent of European exploration and settlement before Christopher Columbus came along 500 years later. It has been dated to approximately 1000 years ago.

Low tide again! It's a chilly day, but so far the rain is holding off.

Dark Tickle...they make jams, sauces, teas, chocolate...all from local berries...

We have never seen so many woodpiles along the side of the road as there are in Newfoundland.

At first I thought this moose wasn't real, but we turned around and came back and sure enough, she was having a nice snack. Hard on the knees!!

The Viking industry is alive and well...

J&K! Just for us...

Icebergs ahead!

This one is not that far from shore. I think these are the grounded ones that the lady at the hotel was telling us about. She said they will just stay here and eventually break up.

A couple more off in the distance...

Beautiful and secluded...you really are in another world here.

It's so hard to get perspective on how big they really are...

This is a recreation of the settlement that was found in the 1960s. The remains of eight buildings were uncovered.


It's amazing how big it is inside with three separate rooms. These Vikings are here to answer questions and tell some amusing stories. This Viking was right into it!

One of the other rooms that would have been used for spinning wool. These houses would have had about 30 inhabitants and would have been very smoky with the fires burning inside.

Some of their handiwork...there would have been 2-5 women on each ship and it would have been their job to look after the home.


Brrr...I hated to leave the snuggy house! We decide to do a walk with the Parks Canada employee out to the original site.

This is the Visitor's Centre which is currently closed while undergoing a major renovation. It's a shame we couldn't get in as there are alot of artifacts and a movie with the original archeologists that would have been interesting.

These indentations are the original sites which were excavated, and once any significant artifacts were uncovered, they were covered over again so that all the timbers and walls are still intact. The fact that they were built so close to the beach is one of the reasons it is believed that they never intended to settle here. In all, the Vikings were probably here for about 10 years, and over several voyages.

Here is our guide who is a very proud Newfie. He did a great job. It was brutally windy right off the water.

Some of the outbuildings around the recreated site. As we were waiting for the shuttle to take us back to our cars, the two Vikings who had been inside, came out walked over to their car and drove away. That's just wrong!! Ha ha...talk about blowing our image of them!

Another iceberg in a bay not far from the site.

We stopped at the Norsemen Restaurant for lunch and to get warm. By now, it was raining quite hard. We timed our visit just right!

One white berg and one blue berg...

More teepees of wood...

We can see why Newfoundland is known as The Rock...

We had a bit of a nap...ahhhh...and then went to the Lightkeepers for dinner. Jim had the best cod he's ever had and I had a yummy fish chowder...

This sod house next to the Lightkeepers houses a restaurant where they put on Viking feasts and recreations...might be something to check out!



After following the Vikings from Norway to the Faroe Islands to Iceland and Greenland, it was great to see where they finally ended up. Tomorrow is supposed to warm(er) and sunny, so we're planning to take a whale/iceberg boat tour...

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