While we could talk about getting up from an amazingly comfortable bed and looking out our motel window at the growlers and bergy bits (small icebergs and even smaller icebergs), we will instead talk about two events of the day.
We spent a considerable part of our day at L’Anse aux Meadows; a National Historic Site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. First the name: the earliest recorded name for L’Anse aux Meadows appears on an 1802 French chart as Anse a la Medee (sorry about the lack of French accents as I am not sure how to do these in OneNote) – this means Medee’s cove and may well come from Medea (remember your Greek tragedies), as many ships of the 17th and 18th century were named after her. Now about the site. Over 1000 years ago a Norse expedition from Greenland landed on Newfoundland’s Great Northern Peninsula. Following the coast around the North Atlantic they arrived at a strategic location, within the site of Labrador, near the entrance to the Strait of Belle Isle. They set up an over-wintering base for exploring to the south via the gulf of St. Lawrence. There would have been around 60-90 people who set up this encampment using turf walled buildings.
Over approximately a 10 year period successive expeditions travelled here to what they called Vinland, mainly searching for lumber. It is thought that they reached NB as it is the nearest place one would find wild grapes (hence the name Vinland). There is also some speculation that they would have gone further south to the eastern US. The cost of operating the base at L’Anse aux Meadows proved not sustainable and was abandoned. It well may be that the Vikings continued their journeys to North America for centuries. What is interesting is that we didn’t know all this until the 1960s when a Norwegian explorer and writer Helgel Ingstad came upon this site.
A local fisherman led Ingstad to what the local people called the “old Indian camp”. The rest is history. Ingstad spent 6 years excavating and archiving the indisputable proof that the Norse were on the North American Continent 500 years before Columbus. There is a rumour here on the peninsula that Columbus actually used Norse maps. The govenrment of Canada then took over the site and continued the process for another 4 years. It’s an interesting observation that the time it took to unearth this amazing find was about equal to the time it was occupied by the Norsemen.
It turns out that Vikings and Norsemen were not exactly the same. All Vikings were Norsemen, but not all Norsemen were Vikings. To be a Viking one had to have been a merchant, explorer, warrior or pirate. The ruins and artifacts are the only recognized authentic Viking site to date in North America.
They have preserved the remains of three halls and five smaller buildings where the Vikings lived and worked. One of the Viking re-enactors did ask me if I could cook and make beer and, if so, there might be a place for me in the settlement. While I considered this carefully, the fact that I couldn’t make beer did me in so I am staying with Greg.
Our second highlight was a visit to the most northerly part of Newfoundland, near Cape Onion. Rocky coastline, waves breaking over the rocks and a few icebergs floating by. What was also wonderful was that the sun had come out, the fog had lifted and we could see forever. We had once stood on the very most northern tip of Africa and marvelled that on our right was the Mediterranean and on the left was the Atlantic. Here we marvelled at what the Vikings must have thought when they first saw this land. Wind is back, fog has rolled in again, temperature has dropped again. Time for a hot chocolate and Baileys.
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https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew-recipes/ Marion, in case you want to expand your skill set…. This place sounds fascinating.
That’s a lot of beer. I’ve belonged to a beer making club for many years and I don’t think we are even close to making a scratch on that list. Marion said that she will get right on it, oh, after we get home.