An Evergreen Life: A Rare Combination

We are in a campground in Springdale NL, an RV campground. In a small site with a ton of people around, near the highway and next to the bathrooms. Have I mentioned before how our standards are slipping? The big draw tonight is that this spot is near the hike we did today and it has have both power and wifi at this site. So much for views and privacy. But this will fit our needs for the night. Maybe an all night wifi session on Pinterest!
After a few days in St. John's we are back on the road heading east and will make our way back to
Port Aux Basque to catch a ferry back to Nova Scotia. But we saved a few things to do on the way.
St. John's is an old city, John Cabot sailed into the city in 1497. There was a settlement bu 1620, but the city burned down twice, most recently in 1892. The harbor has a very narrow entrance and the city rises up steeply from the docks. Georges St. is famous for having the most bars and pubs per square street than any other street in North America. It looked like one big fraternity party!

Yellow Belly Brewing near George Street. Great beer and food.

Typical colorful row homes.

Next day we hiked up on Signal Hill. Cabot Tower sits there above the harbor a reminder of the days when the French and the English were fighting over the port.

St. John's from Signal Hill

Cabot Tower at the top of Signal Hill

My favorite part of the visit was the combination art/history museum The Rooms. A beautifully designed building far more friendly than the museum addition in Denver with some wonderful exhibits.

The interior has large windows that face the harbor.

The design is to represent the traditional fishing buildings.

We saw an exhibit of David Blackwood, a master print maker from Newfoundland.
http://www.therooms.ca/exhibition_events.asp His are is amazing!

Quiddi Viddi

We also visited Quiddi Viddi a small community just outside of St. John's. They have a brewery there where they make beer using ice berg water. We had yet to try it and so decided to do the tour. Untill we found out that they charge $11 per person to tour, and that includes 1 bottle of beer! Not even draft!
We couldn't do it. Not when we know that we could tour many breweries at home for free! Still haven't tried the beer either. At about $19 a six pack I am having a hard time. Their other beer is lower in price but that ice berg water commands a high price.

The next day dawned rainy and foggy so we left St Johns and put on some miles. We are now on the Baie Verte peninsula. We did an amazing hike today on the Alexander Murray Trail. The young woman at the visitors center explained that the trail had been built with the hopes of attracting tourists and took 5 years to construct. 8k and over 2200 steps, whew!