Today started out cold and miserable. It was blowing a cold wind from the north with fog and rain dense around us all morning. Perfect ambiance for exploring the viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows. We headed there straight from breakfast and caught the first tour at 10am. We lucked out as with the visitor centre under reconstruction (i.e. it's not there), the entrance is free. Given that the best part of the experience is seeing the recreation and the actual ruins, we were quite happy to forego seeing the limited number of actual relics found - which we can see in St. John's where they are temporarily being stored in the correct climatic environment.
So in the single digit cold and wet, we travelled amongst the grassy mounds where the building skeletons were found. Guess the moose don't mind the weather though as one came out on a distant 
hill and watched us from afar. 
The sites were excavated first by the Norwegian archialogist in the early 1960's. It's amazing they found this place - they were looking for site somewhere in N. America - 
started in Maine by travelling around asking locals about strange landmarks. When they came to LAM, they were directly sent to check out the area where a local man had been clearing the wheat for his cattle and he knew that there were these strange mounds underneath. 
Locals assumed they were aborignal in origin - but when excavation produced iron working signs, pins of Norse styling and woods of European origin,
the Viking tales of these trips were verified. They believe there were 4 trips here from Greenland over a span of about 25 years - they were inhabited for maybe 10 years in total. The first 2 trips (first by Lief Erikson) were exploratory and they would take back wood since Greenland had little to no wood for boat building. The 3rd trip was for settlement - but when fights broke out due to the limited # of women, i
t was foregone. The final trip was by Lief's daughter who was a rather coniving wench. She had 3 ships with her - but proceeded to manage to kill the other women and then the owners of those ships so that she could take control of their cargo and gain all the proceeds of the return shipment. Seemed to have some of the fathers blood in her :-)
Our guide was excellent - a local man who was here as a boy and played on the mounds before the find was made.
He was part of the second excavation after the Norse left (Cdn government funded in the 70's). 
He also helped build the recreation site (after the ground beneath was excavated also to ensure it was clear of any relics) and has worked here ever since. He had heaps of knowledge of the locals, the history and could ans
wer any of the questions. We heard of the local mistrust in the entire concept of there being Vikings here at all, the stories of polar bears coming into the local bay and killing the sheep and even breaking into the houses, the stream that used to run so thick with salmon they could be caught by the wheel barrow full - now you will see small numbers coming up to spawn.
Then off to Norstead - another local recreation site of a viking village - not of the same make up as L.aux M., but more of the proper Norwegian style. 
They also had a recreated ship which was actually used to sail here from Greenland in 1998 (?year) The Snorri carried 9 men across on a recreation voyage. The character who showed us around the Snorri was quite the local. 
He has worked in Toronto as a nurse - so he has been around but is very much a local and was full of stories and character. 
Quite entertaining. The single needle knitting was also quite interesting - it ends up very thick and won't run even if ripped as each stitch is tied off.
But still it was so cold and the wind so biting that few of the demonstration sites were being run - even the staff had their mittens on.
So off to lunch at the Norseman restaurant - very nice - Mike had the baked Cod and I had the warm seared scallop salad and a trout and cream cheese with pickled onions sandwich. and dessert - Chocolate mousse cake for Michael and partridge berry pie for me. Very nice place.
The late afternoon we headed back to St. Anthony's
and low and behold the sun finally showed around 2pm. And then it was most pleasant for hiking and we took the 
hike around the cliff and up the top at Fishermans Point for spectacular views of the rich lush landscape. 
We are now getting in our share of hiking - the 476 steps up the main hill were even manageable!
Then to the market for some shopping for our 
long drive tomorrow and some more beer & wine(!) and a Mary Brown chicken dinner then back here for a much needed shower and here I am sipping my beer and finishing off today's blog. 
THink I might go get Michael from his photo editing and see if he wants to venture out to try to catch the gorgeous sunset we may just get.
From there
So in the single digit cold and wet, we travelled amongst the grassy mounds where the building skeletons were found. Guess the moose don't mind the weather though as one came out on a distant hill and watched us from afar. 
The sites were excavated first by the Norwegian archialogist in the early 1960's. It's amazing they found this place - they were looking for site somewhere in N. America - started in Maine by travelling around asking locals about strange landmarks. When they came to LAM, they were directly sent to check out the area where a local man had been clearing the wheat for his cattle and he knew that there were these strange mounds underneath. Locals assumed they were aborignal in origin - but when excavation produced iron working signs, pins of Norse styling and woods of European origin,
the Viking tales of these trips were verified. They believe there were 4 trips here from Greenland over a span of about 25 years - they were inhabited for maybe 10 years in total. The first 2 trips (first by Lief Erikson) were exploratory and they would take back wood since Greenland had little to no wood for boat building. The 3rd trip was for settlement - but when fights broke out due to the limited # of women, i
t was foregone. The final trip was by Lief's daughter who was a rather coniving wench. She had 3 ships with her - but proceeded to manage to kill the other women and then the owners of those ships so that she could take control of their cargo and gain all the proceeds of the return shipment. Seemed to have some of the fathers blood in her :-)
Our guide was excellent - a local man who was here as a boy and played on the mounds before the find was made.
He was part of the second excavation after the Norse left (Cdn government funded in the 70's). 
He also helped build the recreation site (after the ground beneath was excavated also to ensure it was clear of any relics) and has worked here ever since. He had heaps of knowledge of the locals, the history and could ans
wer any of the questions. We heard of the local mistrust in the entire concept of there being Vikings here at all, the stories of polar bears coming into the local bay and killing the sheep and even breaking into the houses, the stream that used to run so thick with salmon they could be caught by the wheel barrow full - now you will see small numbers coming up to spawn.
Then off to Norstead - another local recreation site of a viking village - not of the same make up as L.aux M., but more of the proper Norwegian style. 
They also had a recreated ship which was actually used to sail here from Greenland in 1998 (?year) The Snorri carried 9 men across on a recreation voyage. The character who showed us around the Snorri was quite the local. 
He has worked in Toronto as a nurse - so he has been around but is very much a local and was full of stories and character. 
Quite entertaining. The single needle knitting was also quite interesting - it ends up very thick and won't run even if ripped as each stitch is tied off.But still it was so cold and the wind so biting that few of the demonstration sites were being run - even the staff had their mittens on.
So off to lunch at the Norseman restaurant - very nice - Mike had the baked Cod and I had the warm seared scallop salad and a trout and cream cheese with pickled onions sandwich. and dessert - Chocolate mousse cake for Michael and partridge berry pie for me. Very nice place.
The late afternoon we headed back to St. Anthony's
and low and behold the sun finally showed around 2pm. And then it was most pleasant for hiking and we took the 
hike around the cliff and up the top at Fishermans Point for spectacular views of the rich lush landscape. 
We are now getting in our share of hiking - the 476 steps up the main hill were even manageable!
Then to the market for some shopping for our 
long drive tomorrow and some more beer & wine(!) and a Mary Brown chicken dinner then back here for a much needed shower and here I am sipping my beer and finishing off today's blog. 
THink I might go get Michael from his photo editing and see if he wants to venture out to try to catch the gorgeous sunset we may just get.From there
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