L’Anse aux Meadows is the archeological site of a very early (1000 A.D.) Viking settlement. The site was discovered in 1960 when a Norwegian explorer realized there might be a settlement in this area after reading some old Norse Sagas.
The age of this site makes it the earliest known European settlement in North America, predating Columbus by almost 500 years.
The tour was in two parts- the first one showing the actual archeological site where the original Viking buildings stood, and the second part was a living history area in reconstructed buildings.
There was a lot to be learned in the museum as well. For instance, we refer to the Viking age in European history, but a Viking was, specifically, a raider or pirate, and most Norse people of that time were traders and explorers. Still, we use the term, just as we use the term “space age” to denote recent history, but not many people are actually astronauts.
…Adventures in Labrador…
The trip to Labrador was….well, it was a lot of things. Stressful, frustrating, wet (it rained the entire time we were there) and a bunch of other adjectives too. But at least we can take it off our bucket list!
Our original idea was to spend the night in St. Anthony’s on Newfoundland, then take the ferry over to Labrador for the day, just to say we went. Instead, we finished touring L’Anse aux Meadows early enough that we had time to drive to the ferry and catch the last one to Labrador. Once we had a hotel reservation, we headed for the ferry terminal. If you don’t have a ferry reservation, it’s first come/first served for the 1.5 hour trip. After purchasing tickets for ourselves and one truck, we waited for an hour or so and did manage to get on the ferry.
By this time it was getting late. Sort of. We found out that we would actually land in Quebec, where the time is an hour and a half earlier. Great! Now instead of having a pretty late dinner, we’d have an early dinner. Nope.
Once we landed, we drove the 15 minutes to our hotel in L’Anse au Clair (L’Anse means cove, FYI) and by then we were in Labrador, not Quebec, and we were back on Newfoundland time- even though most of Labrador is in yet another time zone. Anyway, we figured we wouldn't be there long enough to worry about figuring it out!
After checking in at the hotel, we headed to the hotel restaurant. I’m not even sure there is a second restaurant in town- many of the towns in Newfoundland don’t have restaurants, and many only have a convenience store, not a full grocery store, and Labrador is more remote than Newfoundland.
The dining room was occupied by people on a bus tour, so we had to wait quite a while for dinner, but that was fine. Of course, when we went down for breakfast in the morning, the same people were eating breakfast. No big deal, but it seemed like we kept bumping into this bus tour everywhere we went!
We tried to go online and book the return trip on the ferry, and ran into a potential glitch. The woman who sold us our ticket over from Newfoundland didn't actually sell us the correct ticket. Apparently, any truck over 3/4 ton is considered to be a commercial vehicle. That would be us. Unfortunately, all the commercial spots on the ferry are already taken..for the next 3 days! Oops.
At that point, there was nothing we could do except try to go on standby again so we spent the morning driving along the coast of Labrador. We couldn't see very much because it was raining.
We made it as far as the small town of Red Bay, where they have a pretty interesting whale exhibit, but we only had 20 minutes to look around before we needed to head back to get in line for the ferry.
We made a quick stop at the Visitor Center, where we were told we’d better get to the ferry ASAP since on Saturdays the standby line can be long. So off we run, to the ferry office, where we waited for 45 minutes for them to open. But we had our spot in line! Paul, being very clever, had brought the receipt from the previous trip with him. When she asked us what type of vehicle we have, and Paul said “ a truck” she asked how big a truck and he just handed her the other receipt. “Well” she said, “If you came over non-commercial, I guess you can go back non-commercial.” Whew!
Of course, by now the wind was whipping the rain around, and the seas were looking pretty rough. We figured we could handle it for the short hour and a half ride, but since we weren't sure we’d be able to actually eat on the ferry, we ate whatever we could find in the truck before we got on it. It turned out to be fine- the wind was not from a direction that would affect the ferry much.
The 4 hour drive back to the trailer was accomplished almost completely in the rain. Dinner time arrived halfway through the drive, so we detoured a little, over to Port au Choix, because it’s a big enough town to have restaurant options. We were glad we did- this restaurant had some of the best food we've had in a long time! We picked it the old fashioned way- it had a parking lot full of cars.
The delay caused us to finish our drive in the dark, something you don’t really want to do on Newfoundland- there’s one moose for every 6 people on the island. There are several things about moose that make an encounter with them while driving at night an unhappy event. First, they are hard to see- they are dark brown, and are so tall, their eyes are not usually caught by a car’s headlights, plus they don’t tend to stare at cars, like deer do. Second, they have long legs and big bodies, so if you hit them with the car, you knock their legs out from under them, and their bodies come flying through the windshield. Then, there’s their size. If they do come flying through the windshield, you lose. Lucky for us there was a big rig in front of us most of the way, and we didn't see any critters on the side of the road!
