More Vikings, and on to St. Anthony
On Friday, June 12th, Day 15 of the trip, the weather was dramatically better! Our planned destination, St. Anthony, was only 35 km away so we had time to do more exploring at the northern tip of the island. I really wanted to return to L’Anse aux Meadows to get a bunch of photo of it in the sunshine, and after a lot of discussion after reading mixed reviews, we decided to also go to the Norstead Viking village, which is basically a locally-operated version of the national historic site.
Arriving at L’Anse aux Meadows.
The same steel Vikings looked over us as we started walking to the Visitor Centre…
…but the trail up to them was much more inviting than it had been the previous day.
Yes, coming back was a good idea. With the sun, though, an extremely strong wind had also arrived, and it was a cold north wind.
From up there you can see how small the parking lot is. That’s ben the case pretty much everywhere we’ve gone on this trip.
The site looks very different in the sunshine.
Anne Stine and Helge Ingstad, the first people to understand the significance of the L’Anse aux Meadows site. This sculpture is a copy of the one by Nils Aas at the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo. It was a gift from the people of Norway, and was unveiled here on May 11, 2002, by Norwegian King Harald V.
As well as seeing places I had already seen, I also wanted to hike the coastal trail.
The wind was a challenge, but the trail gave some excellent views.
This is where I quit and turned back – the wind was simply too strong for this to be enjoyable.
I went over to the reconstructed buildings and took several exterior shots, but didn’t go inside again.
It’s only 2 km from L’Anse aux Meadows to Norstead, where the parking lot is huge.
A full-scale replica of the Viking ship “Snorri” is usually said to be the main attraction at Norstead, but it’s in a pitch-dark building so you can’t really see it. My camera shows far more than my eyes could.
The Snorri is an open-deck boat 54 feet long, 16 feet wide and 6 feet deep. It is constructed of oak, pine, tamarack and locust woods, and iron rivets.
I had a vague hint that there were some wonderful details here, but needed the camera to confirm that.
This would be quite a coast to sail, even today!
Although these pens apparently had animals at one time, it doesn’t look like that’s been the case for quite some time.
Cathy and I both felt that the quality of the site was every bit the equal of the Parks Canada site.
The interpreters are the key to the success of a project like this, and all three we talked to were excellent. The fires here are real – at L’Anse aux Meadows they’re propane-fuelled.
The wood smoke rising up through the roof made quite a difference in the ambiance of the building.
I’ll need to do some study to understand the significance of this “chapel.”
The knitter had lots of information and personal commentary to share.
I thoroughly enjoyed the time we spent with the blacksmith. He was energetic, outgoing, and very knowledgable about his craft.
A few of the blacksmith’s products. He had shown us how one was produced – the way he handled the double bellows, I thought he should have massive shoulders 🙂
So, the question debated online is whether or not Norstead Viking Village is worth paying $14.40 for ($12 for seniors), or is it just more of the same? Perhaps it depends on how interested in the subject you are. Norstead and L’Anse aux Meadows are the same but different, and Cathy and I were glad that we experienced both.
I was pretty bummed when we got to St. Anthony – the wind was bad at L’Anse aux Meadows but it was unbearable there. My Facebook post said “We’re just parking at the rec centre in St. Anthony tonight. The sun is wonderful but the screaming wind makes it impossible to do anything outside, so after visiting the Grenfell museum in the morning we’re heading south. Too bad – lots of icebergs and great hiking here.” We spent a few minutes out at Fishing Point where there’s a lighthouse and a highly rated restaurant (and some icebergs), then got some grocery shopping done and spent the evening listening to the wind howling.
We went to bed with the idea that we would just see what the next morning looked like, but our planned two nights at St. Anthony was unlikely.
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