We had a very pleasant day in St. John’s; the weather was good, and we were able to explore a bit. We walked from our hotel to Newman’s Wine Cellars by way of the Colonial Building (Newfoundland’s former seat of government) and the Gower Street Methodist Church (one of the many churches in the Ecclesiastical District).

We had a very informative tour at Newman’s and a tiny sampling of their port wine.

With our whistles wetted, we were ready for lunch; downtown St. John’s has many Irish pubs to choose from, and we chose Broderick’s (right behind the Visitor Centre). They had salads on offer, plus good beer and good Irish music – we chose wisely.

We returned to the hotel, packed up, and checked in for the real purpose of our adventure – a cruise around Newfoundland (with additional stops) on the National Geographic Explorer. It is a lovely ship, but has limited Internet connectivity, so I’m unsure how often I’ll be able to post.

Tomorrow we have a morning at sea and an afternoon in France – St. Pierre et Miquelon, to be precise. Bon soir!

The taxi driver who brought us from YYT (St. John’s International Airport) to our hotel early this morning kept us awake by giving us suggestions for places to go in our free time in St. John’s. I’d read about most of the places he mentioned, but there was one I hadn’t heard of which sounded intriguing – Kitty Vitti Brewery. At least that’s what it sounded like. I fell asleep wondering what he was really saying.

We slept fairly late this morning, but once we got up, we flung open the curtains and took our first good look at St. John’s.

After breakfast, we decided to walk to the Visitor Centre downtown to get some guidance on how to spend our day. Our mapping program said it should take about 20 minutes to get there, but we kept getting distracted by the scenery!

Andrew at the Visitor Centre suggested we visit Signal Hill (where Marconi received the first transatlantic radio transmissions) and Quidi Vidi Brewery Taproom (oh…that’s how it’s spelled!) today, and save some of the closer attractions for tomorrow morning. That sounded good, and we set out for the brewery (and lunch).

Quidi Vidi is a small village a couple of miles from downtown St. John’s. There’s a lot to see there, but we were hungry and went directly to the brewery.

There was a line of people waiting to be seated, and it took quite a while for our food to be served. The beer, on the other hand, arrived right away. I had “Iceberg”, their lager, which is made with water from icebergs found off the Newfoundland coast; Diane had “1892 Traditional Ale”.

The taproom is an interesting (and busy) place; they have great views, and there was a regular Sunday session of traditional music going on while we were there.

We finally left the taproom a little after 3pm and set forth for Signal Hill. The trail took us by Cuckolds Cove and gave us some great views.

We met a lot of people along the way, including a family who were out for a little hike in hopes of triggering labor for their third baby, who was a day or two overdue! The father took this photo of us in front of Cuckolds Cove.

We took the trail to Ladies’ Lookout and got to see Cape Spear, the easternmost point in North America. Andrew at the Visitor Centre suggested we go there, too, but it’d take a couple of hours and we’d need to take a taxi – maybe another time.

We followed the trail to Cabot Tower and the exhibits there. We could have spent a couple of hours exploring, but it was already after 5pm.

Marconi received the first transatlantic radio transmission on Signal Hill (in an old hospital, since demolished). There are exhibits in and around the tower telling the story (including the rise and eventual fall of the Marconi companies).

After we left Cabot Tower, we walked around the grounds and enjoyed more views.

We stopped at the Visitor Centre and then walked the 20 minutes back to our hotel.

We had a little snack in the Club Lounge at the hotel, where we met two other travelers on our cruise.

We took one more short walk (not shown on the map above) to The Parlour for ice cream. We passed yet more intriguing places (the Colonial Building and Bannerman Park, to name but two) along the way but resisted the temptation to explore. Tomorrow morning, though….