August 31, 2018

     Today’s wakeup call was for 7:30, our luggage needed to be in the hallway for pickup by 8 a.m.  Breakfast was between 7 and 9. The sky was cloudy, the wind was calm and the temperature 10°C when we went for a 40 minute walk along the street running parallel to the shoreline in the village of L’Anse-au-Clair. There were tiny insects buzzing our heads making it necessary to use our hoods.  On the gravel street we saw several tiny orange or yellow shelled snails.    Steps 5,468

   Everyone was ready to depart at 9:15 a.m. for the Blanc Sablon Marine Terminal ferry terminal.  At the “Welcome to Newfoundland Labrador” sign, the coach pulled into the parking lot and everyone assembled under the sign for a group photo before continuing into Quebec to go to the ferry.  The McCarthy coach that had left the motel an hour before us was waiting in the line of vehicles for the ferry. Just like yesterday, our coach was signalled on first to the ferry. We played the card game 5 Crowns before buying a light lunch on the ferry ride back to St. Barbe.

   Today’s destination is the excavated site of a 1,000-year old Viking settlement at L’anse Aux Meadows National Historic Site on Medee Bay. In 1978 it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the first to appear on the Cultural List. The drive was about 90 minutes, there were lots of piles of logs beside the highway along the way.

   Archaeologists Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad, searching for the Viking Vineland, began excavations in 1960 to prove that the Norse people had settled at L’anse Aux Meadows. Parks Canada took over the excavation in 1970. The Vineland settlement has been mentioned in centuries old Norse sagas. The discovery of a 1,000-year-old nail indicated that ship building took place at the site and more evidence of forges and weaving was found.

    After a while to look at the exhibits in the Interpretation Center, the Parks Canada guide lead the group along a one kilometre boardwalk through the site. Not all of the people who lived here were Vikings.  Only Norse men who plundered the coastlines of Europe in the Baltic Sea, Mediterranean Sea and the shores of Britain were true Vikings. “To go Viking” was to go for a sail to raid and plunder others (perhaps raid a coastal village several days sailing away). 

   One of the leaders of the encampment was Leif Ericson. The Norse settlers came from Iceland and Greenland. Greenland’s west coast was a nine-day sail away. Leif Ericson found the location which was good for trade and settlement with nearby fresh water, salmon in the ocean and game in the forest. They built timber frame long houses with six-foot thick walls. The outer portion contained two feet of peat, from the nearby bog, then two feet of gravel then another two feet of peat. The wooden framed roof was laid with peat with a few holes for smoke to rise through.  From the sea they looked like little hills. 

  The men fished and cut trees to take back to Greenland. There were about 20 men in a 68 foot boat, two to five women to cook and housekeep and weave cloth to trade with the indigenous people. Some of the people were slaves from Ireland and Europe captured on raids. The Viking Age was from 800, after the Roman Empire collapsed, to 1050, when the Norse people no longer plundered.  They had established settlements in places such as the vicinity of the Irish city of Dublin and the English city of York, but also in Iceland and Greenland.  The L’anse Aux Meadows colony was abandoned after a few years, due to conflict with the native tribes. It is the first authenticated Norse site in North America.

   We were guided around the site by a Parks Canada guide and could go inside the replica long house that was furnished in the style of the inhabitants of long ago.  The chief and navigator and their wives had separate sleeping quarters as did any women.  The men slept on benches in the kitchen.  Slaves slept in a separate locked hut; today people can experience the hut as an Escape Room.  People with natural red hair can trace their heritage to the Norse people who raided Ireland many times in their heyday.

    We left the L’anse Aux Meadows site for tonight’s lodging in St. Anthony at the Haven Inn.  We walked down the hill to the mall and bought another bottle of blueberry and partridgeberry wine, a different blend than the Moose Jooce that we had purchased a few days ago.  We enjoyed a delicious buffet dinner featuring beef ribs, fried cod, chicken drumsticks, scalloped potatoes, salads, buns and ice cream topped with partridgeberry sauce.

   Final steps for the day were15,209.