St. John’s and surroundings

It’s been a great holiday so far and we may have saved the best for last.  St. John’s is not a big city compared to Montreal or Toronto, but it has a lovely charm to it.  First off, the harbour is itsy bitsy compared to Halifax.  And the narrow entrance to the small harbour is so well hidden that you can easily imagine it being a strategic port.

St. John’s has lovely, colourful houses, known as Jellybean Row, which line the streets in this hilly city.  We walked along Water street (harbourside) and then George Street (the party street with all the pubs) and tried to see as many of the landmarks as we could.  We got hung up at the old Masonic Temple where we got “screeched in”.  The building is now owned by the Spirit of Newfoundland theatre company.  They have done a fabulous job of restoring the building with a great bar and screech room, a dinner theatre and soon, a large theatre in the upper floor. 

A screech-in involves the following:  first you must learn the traditional words, then kiss a cod, down a tot of screech (which is really smooth dark rum, by the way) and finally have a piece of Newfie steak (bologna).  All tasks easily accomplished!!  So now, Leon and I are honorary Newfies!  We had so much fun that we decided to come back the following evening for a dinner and show.

We stopped on George Street for a before dinner drink.  Dinner was a great salad, a cod and salmon tournedo and a really tasty screech rum cake.  Yum!!! The show was 3 women performing songs from some of the most popular male artists ever.  It was called Women doing Men!  What a fantastic evening!!

Of course, during the day, we had visited Cape Spear, the easternmost part of Canada and Signal Hill, where wireless communication got its start. And let’s not forget the beautiful village of Quidi Vidi (no one knows how it got its name). The local brewery, its namesake, make Iceberg beer, made with real iceberg water. A fantastic day of touring combined with the warm hospitality of terrific people!!  You gotta come visit Newfoundland!!  Tunderin’ Jaysus, it be the best vacation ever!!!