Sun July 14, 2024Hi Folks! Today we were in St John’s Newfoundland. It has a population of 200,000 people and is the Capitol of Newfoundland. In 1497 Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot) founded St John’s. He was hired by Henry the Navigator from Portugal to look for a route to China to find spices. But he found Newfoundland with its tons of cod fish in the waters which he realized was better than spices since it can be dried and stored without spoiling.
We did an excursion that took us all over the area. Our first stop was to the statue of Terry Fox who was a young man who developed cancer and had to have an artificial leg. He wanted to raise money for cancer research so he planned to run all the way across Canada. So he dipped his artificial leg in the Atlantic Ocean on April 12, 1980 and started his run and made it half way across Canada but sadly cancer got into his lungs and he died before finishing the run. But to this day, they have a Marathon of Hope for Cancer starting at what they call “Mile 0” which is on the shores of St John’s.
After that we went to Signal Hill which is famous for many things. In 1919, the first plane left from here to go to England. Lindbergh left from here to fly to Paris. And even Amelia Earhart flew from Signal Hill. There was a cable laid across the ocean from England to Newfoundland and Marconi sent the first radio signal from Signal Hill to Cornwall England in 1901. As I said this was a famous place!
Our guide also mentioned a small island off the coast of Newfoundland that’s owned by the French called St Pierre. It’s where a lot of the liquor was smuggled into the US during Prohibition. Al Capone made a lot of his money bootlegging here but the interesting story was that the term “The Real McCoy” came from St Pierre. A gentleman named Bill McCoy was selling bootleg rum from St Pierre island and people said it was the best and if you could get his rum it was “The Real McCoy”! Wild!
After that we visited this cute little fishing village called Quidi Vidi. It felt like we stepped back in time. Everyone there is a cod fisherman.
We then went to Cape Spear, which is the most easterly point of North America. They said there were no paved roads out to this point until then Prince Charles and Dianna visited. There was an old lighthouse and a fort there. From 1941 to 1945 troops were stationed here to protect St John’s harbor.
After that we went to another cute little fishing village named Petty Harbor/Maddox Cove. It seems like these quaint little places are all over Newfoundland.
After our excursion we played trivia (just Kathy and I) and did not do great. We got 7 and the winner got 14. Ouch! Oh well, it was fun!
That’s all for now. I’ll post an update after dinner. Hope everyone’s having a great Sunday!
The Wandering Italian 