DAY 25 – ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND – SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2012 (after days 22-24 at sea)

After our longest time at sea, three days, we arrived on the North American continent again, and I have to say I am happy to be nearing home. For many travelers, cruising is the thing, and the ports of call are little side diversions to see a city or country briefly, then get back on board where the real fun takes place and the 4,000 calories a day are “free.” For me it is just the opposite, the culture of the country or city being visited is the main attraction. Perhaps I will do a blog post on the pros and cons of cruising, from my opinionated viewpoint. Or maybe not.

At any rate, I looked forward to being on land again and exploring our first “surprise” port of call, since Greenland had to be canceled. I knew nothing about St. John's, except that my brother, St. John Traxler spent time here (or was it nearby Labrador?) in the Army during the Korean Conflict. Fortunately, there was no conflict here. Since neither Princess nor St. John's knew we were coming until three days before, both scrambled to arrange tours, etc. The Emerald Princess has 3,080 passengers and it just so happened that another cruise line was in port the same day with maybe 2,000 passengers, meaning that a town of 100,000 had its population increased by 5% that day!

We decided to explore the town on our own, armed with maps and a little internet-based research. However, the research did not show that everything is up steep hills, not the best for Karen's stamina. We walked three blocks uphill to look at St. John the Baptist Anglican Church with its beautiful stained-glass windows, then decided we needed some help to get around. St. John's tourist bureau had red-vested folks on the dock and around town to answer questions and provide help. (As far as I know, none of them were Dixieland musicians.) Imagine being besieged by hoards of tourists wanting all kinds of information and wanting to book tours, taxis, and boat rides. The good people of St. John's took it all in stride, never losing their cool.

Discussing the people of the town with our dinner tablemates in the evening, we were amazed at how nice everyone was, absolutely wanting us to have a good time. Then we remembered that these were the same people who, when inbound international flights on 9/11 were diverted here, and thousands of stranded travelers were taken into homes all over Newfoundland, fed, lent clothes and other items if necessary, for several days until they could reboard their planes for destinations in the U.S. These are some great people!

We managed to book a bus tour in the afternoon, so with time to kill, we wondered up and down Water Street (which did not change elevation!) and found a great place to eat called the Gypsy Tea Room, although I didn't see any gypsies, and we didn't have tea. But we did have fantastic cod chowder with mussels.

Boarding the bus (which was actually a city transit bus pressed into tour bus service) our first stop was up the hill overlooking the city, the narrow inlet from the sea, and the Atlantic Ocean. This was the site of Cabot Tower, perhaps 300 feet (my guess) above the city. The tower was built in 1897 on the 400^th anniversary of John Cabot's discovery of a “new founde lande” in North America. What impressive views! The hill is call “Signal Hill” because on this site in 1901, Marconi received his first wireless transmission from Europe, a single letter S. Probably at about the same speed as our onboard internet today. :-) More about Signal Hill later.

The view from Signal Hill, St. John's, Newfoundland

From here we went down the hill (well, where else, come to think of it) and outside the city to a picturesque fishing village, Quidi Vidi, which means... well, no one knows what it means. Then back to the city along the streets with so many colorful houses, actually low rows of tenements. The guide explained in answer to a question that the town was 60% destroyed by fire in the 19^th century and had to be rebuilt in a hurry, so long rows of identical tenements were constructed. A rule was passed at that time that no two tenements in the same block could be painted the same color, hence the very attractive houses that would otherwise be dreadfully boring. Also, drunk citizens could find their home (as long as they were on the right street and block!).

Quidi Vidi - with Jimmi and Kareni - and no jackets! First warm day in two weeks!

I did not realize that until 1949, Newfoundland was a country, a British colony. That year they had a referendum with three choices: Remain independent, join in an economic union with the U.S., or become a province of Canada. The U.S. union was not at all popular, so it was dropped from the ballot and the citizenry voted by a narrow majority to become a Canadian province. Its history in the world wars was important, too, as the easternmost point in the continent, and thousands of British and American troops were stationed there as a first line of defense for the Western hemisphere. However, there was no invasion, of course, although German U-boats were in the area.

Our last stop was another St. John the Baptist church, this time the Catholic Basilica. We could not get a tour of the church, as there was a wedding in process, but we were able to peek in and see this beautiful church, also with incredible stained-glass windows like its Anglican cousin down the hill.

Back on the ship we went on our balcony to watch this huge vessel go through the narrows, with very little clearance on either side. As we made this passage, up on Signal Hill, hundreds of feet above us, there were a hundred or so citizens of St. John, waving goodby. Apparently this is a tradition in this town that does not get a lot of cruise ships. Again, we were impressed by these impossibly nice people!

As we cleared the narrows with the sun setting over St. John and we sailed into a dense fog, I had a foreboding feeling as a knock came on the door and a darkly dressed person entered, waving a pistol in my face. I immediately threw myself over Karen to protect her, and...

Oh, wait, that's a novel I'm writing. Never mind!

Jim