St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador [DAILY PHOTO THREAD]

[SignalHillHiker]

St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador [DAILY PHOTO THREAD]

I want to maintain a single thread for my St. John's (and surrounding areas) photos. If we have a daily photo thread section in the future, I'll move this there - but, for now, it belongs in this section.

I won't update it every day - but I will keep all of my photos from this region in this thread.

Here is where we are located:

St. John's has a Metro population of just over 200,000 people and claims to be the oldest city in North America (though, in reality, it is simply the oldest European-founded city in North America - and even that is contested by others who want to debate what constitutes founding. Europeans first came ashore in St. John's harbour on June 24, 1497.).

My favourite line to describe the city is from a Jann Arden song: "I am not lonely. I swear to God, I'm just alone." We are a very old, very isolated city. We have our own dialect of English, our own history - we were a national capital as recently as 1949, before joining Canada. We have our own music, our own fashion. It's impossible to be from here and not be of here.

It's that type of city. The type that you feel sad knowing it will outlive you, and you won't get to experience its entire life together.

June 15, 2013



June 18, 2013













June 20, 2013

[easy as pie]

man, such a nice looking little town you have up there.

[SignalHillHiker]

Thanks, easy_as_pie.

*****

June 21, 2013

First official day of summer - woot!

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351 and Fortis Place under construction.





MIX Condos, which will replace the long-vacant Newfoundland Telecom Building.



TD Place - recently reclad. It was one of many "Canadian red brick" buildings following our joining Canada in 1949, much to the dismay of locals who considered them out of place. It blends in much more nicely now.



Garrison Hill.



Pennywell Road. The curved windows are the original ones - the others have been renovated to a more modern style of the years.



One of the many peel-away intersections. Harvey Road (left) continues at more or less the same elevation, while Long's Hill (right) drops steeply off down to the Queens Road.





The Roman Catholic Basilica of St. John the Baptist.





For many residents of downtown St. John's, this constitutes a significant backyard.



Put on a happy face.





Victoria Street.









We love windows.



Prescott Street.









Gower Street.







A traditional storm door, and enduring British pride.





Water Street East.



Harbourside Park, where Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed Newfoundland for Queen Elizabeth I in, I believe, 1583. Up until that time, it was predominantly Portuguese. Most of the earliest references to St. John's are Portuguese, who called in Sao Joao (among other things).

[ozone]

Gorgeous! I always wanted to visit St. John's. Hopefully on my next trip to New England I will.

[pdxtex]

i have never been east of montreal (in canada) but holy ffffudge, st. john's has always looked awesome.its like the last outpost of humanity, or the first depending on which direction you are coming from. and dense! and wooden! and maritime! and rocky!!! its awesome.

[SignalHillHiker]

Thank you, guys.

*****

June 22, 2013

It was a beautiful afternoon so I went for a drive from the northern tip of the St. John's Metro at Pouch Cove and Flatrock to the southern edge at Bay Bulls. I spied more than a few tourists, and even a few whales.

This is the shortest distance between the two, at 65 km (40 miles):



A happy, brainless summer song for the drive...

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In most areas of Newfoundland, the seagulls are, for the most part, dependent on people. They've learned to hang around garbage dumps and McDonald's franchises rather than fish. But, for some reason, the vast majority of seagulls around the capital are still all but completely wild. Watching them dive for fish is hypnotic.



The walking trail along this cliff is especially thin with a steep drop to death on either side. I love it.



The Town of Torbay, which celebrated its 450th birthday to great fanfare last year.



There's a reason our nickname is The Rock.



Many of the best views are accessible to those who don't particularly care for hiking.



Many of the wealthiest families on the island have their homes in the amalgamated town of Lower Cove-Middle Cove-Outer Cove. You can tell when each family became wealthy by the style of its home.



Torbay from behind.



Flatrock, one of the very few predominantly Roman Catholic towns north of the capital city.



Clotheslines are still all the rage in Newfoundland, even in the capital city. While it's now illegal to string them between homes, over the street, most city blocks are still a tangle of clotheslines in the back.



The Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto in Flatrock is a popular pilgrimage site for Roman Catholics.



Newfoundlanders tend to live along the coastline - and not on the shores of interior lakes as is the case in most of mainland Canada - but new subdivisions around highland lakes are popping up all the time.



Bay Bulls.



Bay Bulls is quickly becoming one of the more popular communities in the commuter belt around St. John's.



And it's also a popular stop for tourists.



The amalgamated town of Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove is not only part of the St. John's Metro, it's part of the City itself.



The whale-watching tour boats didn't have to stray far from the shore of Cape Spear today.



And neither did the tourists. The collective gasps whenever a whale would emerge from the blue was fantastic to hear. The farthest-from-home license plate I saw in the parking lot was Chilean.



This tour boat is heading back to the city, which is just around the next hill.



The switchback roads are a joy to drive, especially in Newfoundland where the normal traffic flow on roads with a posted speed limit of 50 km/hr is usually closer to 80 km/hr.



There she blows. This whale was one of a group of three enjoying the feast of fish just offshore.

[Martin Mtl]

Gorgeous stuff. St.John's has to be the most picturesque canadian city, maybe with Quebec City. Very colorful and appealing.

[SignalHillHiker]

I think Quebec City has us beat if you just say picturesque. You need a qualifier... say, ruggedly picturesque. That we take, for sure. And thanks!

*****

Here is what the seagulls look like diving:

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And here's a little sample of the roads I drove on today:

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[Danny]

Gorgeous thread and pictures! Thanks for sharing, SignalHillHiker!

Your trip of today was really beautiful. Incredible landscapes and cliffs. The colorful houses are very pretty, like those in Lower Cove-Middle Cove-Outer Cove. You live in a very nice place, indeed. I´d love to visit Newfoundland.

By the way, I applaud your initiative with your daily photo thread of St.John´s
and surroundings.

Congrats and greetings from Madrid, Spain!

[marcus]

Ugh. Stop making me salivate. Its down right rude!

Too pretty. Ill be there sometime this summer and I can't waittttttttt

[Rico Rommheim]

Having just seen this thread, I must say, It's one fine thread. Thanks.

[KevinFromTexas]

You have a nice town there. I bet St. John's is a fun place.

[SignalHillHiker]

Thank you, guys!

*****

June 23, 2013

Tomorrow is a holiday for many in Newfoundland - our 516th birthday. Happy Discovery Day, b'ys!

It's also the 125th anniversary of the incorporation of City of St. John's. That's not a lot of years for such an old city but for most of its history, St. John's was governed directly by the government of Newfoundland. An additional layer of government, in this case municipal, was only added in 1888. And, even then, we did it our way: for many years, there was no position of Mayor and the city was governed by a council of equals. During the worst of the First World War, the municipal government was scrapped and the city was again ruled directly by the Newfoundland government. And, with peace in 1918, we adopted the style of municipal government that we still have today. So, happy anniversary of your incorporation, St. John's!

I went back to Cape Spear today because yesterday was such a poor depiction of what whale watching here is like. You can always get up close and personal when you're out in a tour boat - but usually the views from shore are almost as impressive.

And today I lucked out. A mother and calf humpback whale were having a grand old time scratching themselves on the rocky shore and feasting on capelin. And they were just two of at least a half dozen whales inshore.

I couldn't use anything other than a traditional Newfoundland folk song for today.

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(31 years old and still tear up at the line, "Let me be a man and take it when my dory fails to make it.")

Tourists examine a whale skeleton on display near the parking lot.

I overheard a well-meaning local family telling a large group of German tourists about all the Nazi-era sites of interest in Newfoundland and Labrador. I cringed. They talked about Nazi weather stations in Labrador, about the movie theatres and other sites their soldiers frequented when they snuck ashore from Uboats (we know because we found their ticket stubs on the subs after the war. And they're suspected of setting the deadly Knights of Columbus Fire - which was at a dance broadcast live on the radio. People in town heard the teenagers screaming as they burned to death.). They even told them about the passenger ferries and other boats the Nazis torpedoed and how they can arrange to dive the wrecks. The Germans looked absolutely horrified - deeply offended this was brought up, but unwilling to express their offense, as a gracious guest wouldn't. I felt so bad for them.





St. John's is directly behind the hills in the background. You can even see peeks at the city between the peaks.





And what were all those tourists looking at? Whales!

[Canasian]

GREAT thread- I miss St. John's! I like the shot of my friends place on Kimberly Row!

[SignalHillHiker]

June 24, 2013

It was a miserable Discovery Day (Newfoundland's 516th birthday) - so we decided to do something indoors and check out the Petty Harbour Mini Aquarium.

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I got to touch SO MANY SEA CREATURES. And OMG, I was WAY TOO EXCITED ABOUT IT!

All of the creatures are found naturally along the coast of St. John's.

Flounder. These are really hard to catch because you need tiny little hooks to get into their mouths. Also, they're not worth catching because they taste like s**t.



Jellyfish.



Sponges.



Crabs.



Starfish.



Hermit crabs.



Sculpin and crab. These ugly fish are the ones most commonly caught for sport along the coast of Newfoundland. No one eats them, but they're easy to catch and a lot of fun because they're VERY strong.



An eel.



I'm not even going to try to spell it, but you know what it is.



Sea cucumbers! OMG, they feel so cool.



More hermit crabs.



Fish.



A rare blue lobster.



Starfish. Or fleshlight from hell.



It's as big as my hand.



More hermit crabs!



He's SO CUTE!



One fabulous dancing crab.



Sea snail. No idea why we specify sea in its name. Kinda obvious.



Fish heads, fish heads, roly poly fish heads. Fish heads, fish heads, eat'em up, YUM!





And the reason the Italians, Basques, Portuguese, French, and others first came over in the 1400s - and the reason the British claimed us as their first colony in 1583: Atlantic cod.

[SignalHillHiker]

June 26, 2013

Another grey, foggy day. BUT the capelin were rolling!

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A fellow SSPer and I took a friend from Kazakhstan and his friend from Montreal for a little tour of the northeast Avalon, all within the St. John's Metro.

We went to Middle Cove Beach to check for Capelin. The water was black with them - but they weren't on the beach yet and we didn't bring rubbers.



The appropriately-named town of Flatrock.





















Out in the cute little fishing village of Bauline.



And finally to Outer Cove Beach. The capelin still weren't on the beach, but they were close enough that people with rubbers could just catch them with nets. Everyone puts on clothes they don't mind getting dirty and heads down to get as many as they can. There are so many millions of them that some people even use them for garden fertilizer. People try to take only the ones that have already laid their eggs.

[SignalHillHiker]

June 30, 2013

A scorcher by our standards - 23C (with a humidex of 31C) at the airport, and even hotter downtown. A wonderful way to end the month of June.

I went for a hike around Signal Hill. Just about died from the heat.

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[SignalHillHiker]

June 30, 2013

I stopped by the museum, took a few shots with some additional historical information about Newfoundland.

[SignalHillHiker]

July 1, 2013

July 1 is Canada Day - but, in Newfoundland and Labrador, it is also Memorial Day.

It is the anniversary of the Battle of Beaumont Hamel, in which the Royal Newfoundland Regiment was all but completely wiped out. It was Newfoundland and Labrador's most devastating wartime loss in its history, dwarfing everything before and since.

For us, the day begins with a solemn Memorial Day Parade and ceremony at the National War Memorial.

It starts - as everything does here, even the rock concert below - with the singing of the Ode to Newfoundland, our national anthem prior to joining Canada in 1949.

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And here is what this year's Memorial Day was like...





I love the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary's uniforms.



























And a few more:

[SignalHillHiker]

July 13, 2013

A gorgeous sunset tonight in St. John's.

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