St John's Day 1

Despite our fears, we had quite a pleasant crossing to Argentia on the Atlantic Vision ferry. Our room with two berths was very comfortable and very clean. The food was good though pretty expensive. Here is shot leaving North Sydney NS:

We arrived at Argentia at around 10 in the morning. There isn't much to it but the ferry terminal.

We drove towards St John's about 150 kilometres. The land is rocky and quite hilly. It reminded me a bit of Cape Breton. The tree cover was mostly evergreen, fairly short and wind-swept. As we approached St John's we decided to take a bit of a detour to visit a picturesque village, Petty Harbour. We had been told ofa geat spot for lunch.

Petty Harbour is nestled in a natural harbour surrounded in hills and is an active fishing port. There is not much more than one street through the village and every foot of it was filled with parked vehicles. We saw the one restaurant but could not stop. Here is a shot from a lookoff some ways away:

We continued along the coast road to another historic spot, Cape Spear. The site of a lighthouse dating from the 1830's. The original lighthouse is this:

After the first keeper gave up in 1848, it was operated by 5 generations of the same family. Unfortunately, there was no food on offer there so we motored on to St John's.

The city is sighted at a very snug harbour with a narrow mouth and surrounded by higher ground. Lots of picturesque shops and houses. I would have liked to have proved pictures but I couldn't find parking anywhere. Then when I did a series of torrential down pours started. S and I managed to find a packaged lunch to share without getting to wet.

We gave up on the downtown and headed out to the airport where our hotel is located.

Bye for now.