Wednesday September 7 – The Vikings & other explorations

Jim & the Viking sculpture

The weather was supposed to be terrible and rainy, but the morning was just overcast with minimal drizzle. The afternoon was much better, albeit in the high 50’s.  Newfoundland is known for being the site of the first European settlement in North America, where Leif Erickson brought his Vikings in the 9^th century from Greenland. In 1960, Norwegian explorer and writer Helge Ingstad and his wife Anne began excavations at L’Anse aux Meadows, a small French fishing village on the most northern point of Newfoundland (pronounced “Lan-za Meadows”).    They found unmistakable evidence of a Viking settlement there, and the result of years of exploring have produced the Unesco World Heritage site that we visited today.The Canadian government has done a wonderful job of preserving and expanding what was there, including re-creating Viking buildings that are staffed with re-enactors with a superb knowledge of what and how the Vikings and the local natives lived.  When you arrive at the site and walk in from the parking lot, you see a large metal sculpture on a hill top representing Leif and his band looking over their new home.  Jim joined them to see what they were looking at   

View of the Viking excavation site from Ranger building

  The main building is actually a nice museum explaining everything about the site, and they additionally have a great gift shop that we visited twice.  It was rainy and chilly out, and a long walk to the excavation site.  The walkways are well maintained, and as one walks out to the site there is a beautiful sculpture entitled "Meeting of Two Worlds," commemorating the first contact between Europeans and the aboriginal North Americans.  Some scholars contend that the Viking arrival to North America brought humanity full circle.  The theory refers to the nations of the world parting company out of Africa about 100,000 B.C. Some went north into Europe and others east into Asia.  The migration of the latter eventually crossed the Bering Strait and spread out across North America.  When the Vikings came to explore this part of the world they called Vinland, the two groups met again (wording from a Parks Canada press release from 2015).

Walkway from Ranger site to the excavated village

The "Meeting of the Worlds" sculpture

The entrance to the recreated Viking site

Peat Moss walls

Main Longhouse

This is the main longhouse, Becky going in the door.  It is very well insulated, as one can see from the closeup of the door with the huge blocks of peat.

Inside the Longhouse - our guide Ragnar

Other re-enactors demonstrated ancient skills such as weaving

Our "moose" siting at L'ansa Meadows

Norstead entrance and guest shop

As we headed back to the parking lot, we saw another moose in the wild!  Jim climbed up near the "welcome" structure to take a few photos of the large male without horns.


 A few kilometers away, there is a commercial “Viking village” recreation called Norstead, with a recreated and presumed typical Viking village from a few centuries later.  

Walking towards the recreated village

Viking vessel "Snorri" built in Phippsburg, ME

 The centerpiece of that exhibit space is the recreated 75 foot Viking ship “Snorri”, which was built in Maine at the Robert Stevens boatyard in Phippsburg! In 1997, Ten crewmembers recreated Leif Ericsson’s 1500 mile journey from Greenland to Newfoundland in 87 days.The site additionally has buildings with reenactors demonstrating skills such as sewing, blacksmithing, and basically how they lived and survived.   

The blacksmith shop and chapel

Showing off jewelry

Demonstrating sewing

The afternoon was spent doing what we love to do – exploring  place off the beaten paths where one normally doesn’t find tourists!  If you could drive on the local roads we’ve been on, you’d see why!  We went to several small harbors today, seeing such sights as the Leif Ericsson statue in the town of L’Anse aux Meadows; cemeteries and whale/iceberg viewing towns such as Ship Cove and Cape Onion; and Raleigh, where the community corporation offers adventure holidays such as working on fishing boats and curing salt cod.

Raleigh Harbor, where you can live like a native!

Typical rural cemetery, this one in Ship Cove

A Canso from the firefighting service

Fishing Point Emporium

 Fox Point near St Anthony, home of a small museum, a lighthouse, and a terrific place to view icebergs coming ashore-that is, if you’re there in the spring or early summer!  The lady running the store was most friendly and explained a lot of history of the area.  She gave us quite the background on the massive icebergs that come ashore here each year, and tales of the polar bears who show up fairly regularly on the ice.  We did a lot of walking during the day, and got back to the campsite late. 

Inside the Museum section of the Emporium

A Viking-themed restaurant at Fishing Point

Walkway at Fishing Point

One of the highlights of the day was seeing a large male moose in the wild, though unfortunately he appears to have shed his rack.  They have some excellent walking trails out at Fishing Point, which must be a great view to see the icebergs coming into the area in season!

Fox Point Lighthouse

    The one sad piece of news for the day was a fishing boat accident where 4 men were lost.  They recovered two of the bodies this morning, and the entire island community is devastated at  the loss of 3 generations in one family.