Komu Blessth! (Welcome!)

Wednesday, July 21—Day 24

We awake to beautiful sunshine and the promise of a glorious day. Thelma's hearty breakfast prepares for a day of hiking and sightseeing. After breakfast we head to the opening of the new L'anse aux Meadows interpretive center. We pull into the parking lot and the trailer that had been the temporary interpretive center is gone and the path to the new building is open. There are television crews setting up and there is a buzz of activity around the center. In the boggy area near the new interpretive center two moose munch their way through the tuckamore trees.

We enter the new building and the displays are still being put together, but the interpreters greet everyone warmly. We go out on the deck overlooking the archaeological site and the Viking cove and from there we can see the new boardwalk path going through the bog, past a new bronze sculpture, along the brook and over to the rebuilt long house.

After taking in the beautiful view we decide to walk to the long house and see what activities are going on there. The boardwalk is wonderful to walk on after our experience walking through the bog two days ago. Apparently there were some visitors on the boardwalk before the interpretive center opened this morning—Hilary points out muddy moose tracks on the walkway and the corresponding divots in the mud on either side of the walkway! It appears that even the moose like a break from the soggy mud and peat once in a while!

About halfway down the boardwalk we come to a striking bronze sculpture that arises from both sides of the boardwalk. The sculpture represents the coming together of humans from the two different paths they followed before once again meeting: through Asia and across the Bering Strait and through Europe and across the Atlantic Ocean. I am able to see the Viking ship and sails easily, but have more difficulty finding the faces that represent the aboriginal population of North America. I do eventually find them, but I believe that they could have been better rendered. It's almost as though the aboriginal population is being relegated to a subordinate place.

Moving down the boardwalk we pass the brook and make our way to the long house. We meet the Viking women docents we had met on Monday and they warmly welcome us back. Before long the Viking chief appears and introduces himself as Bjorn the Beautiful. He starts up a conversation with Hilary and Olivia and asks if they know anything about the Vikings. They tell him that they read Viking mythology before starting on our trip, so he quizzes them for a while and they hold their own pretty well!

Bjorn asks the girls if they would like to hear a story about Thor and the time his hammer was stolen. The girls immediately sit down on the bench and ask to hear the story. Bjorn is a colorful storyteller and it's not long before other people have gathered around to hear the story. Every once in a while Bjorn asks the girls if he is correct when he introduces a new character (Loki, the Ogres, etc.). They nod and add a few details now and then and Bjorn nods and says, "Yes, yes. That's correct." When Bjorn wraps up his story he tells the girls that they have studied well. They are delighted!

We say goodbye to Bjorn the Beautiful and stop by the blacksmith's hut. He explains how he makes forks and other items while he works on a marshmallow roasting stick for the grand opening bonfire scheduled for tonight on the Viking beach. Who knew that Vikings liked marshmallows? The blacksmith shows us how the double bellows work to heat his fire and iron. We bid him farewell and make our way back up the boardwalk to the parking lot. We'll return to the historic site tonight for the evening social, bonfire and singing, and fireworks over the bay.

We drive the short distance to Norstead Viking Village. We enter the village and walk past the pig pen where there is a very busy piglet rooting around in the peat. There is a sign that introduces the pig as "Wilbur." We speak to one of the docents and point out the Wilbur doesn't seem like a very Viking name and he concurs. However, he tells us, a few weeks ago when the piglet was born a little girl visiting Norstead was surprised that the piglet didn't have a name. When told that she could name the pig she immediately said "Wilbur!" The docent didn't have the heart to tell her that wasn't a Viking name, much less the fact that Wilbur was a female piglet, so the name stuck. Hilary and Olivia point out that "Wilberette" would be a more appropriate name and the docent laughs and agrees. Who knows, maybe the sign will be different tomorrow…

Making our way past the pig enclosure we enter the village. There are four large buildings: a boat house, the chieftain's hall, a church, and a blacksmith's shop. We walk to the far end of the village to the blacksmith's shop. He is in the process of making charcoal to burn as he works with the iron. To make the charcoal he digs a deep hole in the ground and puts cut peat in the hole. He then starts a fire on top of the peat and covers the hole. He lets the fire burn about 4 hours and then uncovers the peat. It has become charcoal that he can use in his blacksmith's shop. While he waits for the charcoal, the blacksmith carves beautiful walking sticks. He also shows Hilary and Olivia how to use a periwinkle shell to make a loud whistle.

From the blacksmith's shop we go to the church. Not long after the Vikings traveled to Greenland and Iceland their ruler in Scandinavia converted to Christianity, thus all the Vikings had to convert. The church is simple with a few wooden pews and a small pulpit. There is a rough wooden cross behind the pulpit.

We move to the chieftain's hall and find several women cooking over a fire. They have just pulled some rolls from the clay oven and have some calamari cooking in a cast iron pot over the fire. They offer us some bread with butter that they had just churned using a stick with small twigs sticking out the sides. There are also mashed partridgeberries to put on the bread. We also get to sample the calamari, which has been cooked with a little butter and greens collected from the garden. Hilary and Olivia both get to work the small bellows to perk up the fire.

In the next room the women have large looms set up along with baskets of wool ready to be spun using small soapstone spools. The looms are set up in a way that large evenly weighted rocks are used to pull the weft tight. The docents show us how to use the soapstone spools to spin the wool and how to use the looms. They have made many pieces of fabric and made them into runners and cloaks, which are for sale. The work is beautiful. We ask how they color the wool and they explain that they experiment with the plants in the area to make their dyes.

From the chieftain's hall we make our way to the boathouse to see the

Snorri, a full-sized replica of a Viking knarr. The Snorri is 54 feet long, 16 feet wide, and 6 feet deep and was built to retrace the voyage of Leif Erikson from Greenland to Vinland (Newfoundland). The Snorri is named after the first (and it is believed only) Viking child born in the new world.

In 1998 the Snorri with her 9-man crew completed the 1800 mile journey in just over three months. It is believed that the Vikings could get from Greenland to Newfoundland in under 15 days, but their knarrs were rowed by large crews of sailors and their voyage hugged the coasts of Greenland, Iceland, and Labrador rather than sailing across the open ocean as the modern voyage did. The Snorri depended entirely on the wind to make the trip and made a zigzagged voyage because they depended on wind power and could only tack at 90 degrees. After making the historic voyage in 1998 the Snorri was donated to Norstead Village to be put on display.

Although 54 feet sounds like a large boat, I have to say that the thought of sailing in the high waves of the Atlantic in a knarr like the Snorri is not something I would want to do. Those Vikings were tough.

We hike around the hills for a while and look at the shells on the shale-covered beach for a while. Hilary has been looking for a complete urchin shell and here she finds several complete shells in an area where the gulls drop their shellfish on the rocks to crack them open for a meal. We collect the shells and are allowed to keep them.

It is now after 2:00 p.m. and we're hungry, so we head to the Northern Delight Restaurant in Gunner's Cove for lunch. Marshal has the Viking burger, I have fish and chips, Olivia has a grilled cheese sandwich, and Hilary has the seafood chowder.

After lunch we decide to drive to Cape Onion, which is not more than 12 km west of L'anse aux Meadows, but can only be reached by driving back down Route 436 and turning northwest on Route 437, a distance of 50 kms! We drive along the Milan Arm of Pistolet Bay to Raleigh and then turn northeast to Cape Onion and Ha Ha Bay.

Just as I turn down the road to Cape Onion a full-grown moose jumps into the road from the trees in the culvert beside the road. It is remarkable how the moose is able to come from nowhere by jumping from within the trees and bushes alongside the road. The culvert along the road must be 6 to 8 feet deep. Because I'm only going about 20 km an hour I'm able to stop before hitting the moose. The moose just stops and looks at me as if to say, "Where did you come from?" Then he walks across the road, jumps into the culvert, and disappears in the trees and brush as if he were smoke. Amazing!

Now fully awake and alert we continue slowly down the road to Cape Onion (not tough since the end of the road is only another 150 meters in front of us). Looking north from Cape Onion we look across the entrance to the Strait of Belle Isle to Labrador some 30 kms away. Looking northeast we see the Atlantic Ocean. The water is a lovely blue and the air is fresh. We've seen so much brown, muddy water on this trip we really enjoy seeing the blue water. From Cape Onion we drive around the small inlets and see about 25 small, traditional Newfoundland homes. We also see a miniature village build on a rock beside the road. The winters are long here—we see many miniature houses, lighthouses, and boats in people's yards. We drive back toward Raleigh and Burnt Cape Ecological Reserve before getting back on Route 436.

We return to L'anse aux Meadows for a nap before this evening's festivities at the historic site. About 7:30 p.m. we return to the historic site and participate in the celebration. A buffet dinner of sandwiches, fruit and vegetables is served during the speeches from people who worked on the original archaeological dig. A few more displays have been set up and we look at them before proceeding to the beach for the bonfire, singing, and fireworks. As we're getting ready to walk down to the beach we run into a family that we had met in Gros Morne. They have a little girl named Emma who is 9 and she played with Hilary and Olivia in Gros Morne. We walk down to the beach and spend a pleasant evening visiting, listening to music, and watching the firework. Emma and the girls go exploring with some of the local children and they find a moose carcass on the rocks near the beach. A few of the dads go and check out the carcass and all the kids are told to leave it alone.

As the sun sets the bonfire grows while the musicians from the Viking village lead everyone in singing traditional Newfoundland folk music. When the sun is all the way down about 9:45 p.m. the volunteer fire department puts on a gorgeous fireworks show over the bay. It is a wonderful way to end our visit to L'anse aux Meadows. We say goodnight to our friends and thank the docents and interpreters from the historic site and then head back to the Viking's Nest B&B to collapse into bed. It has been a very nice day. Tomorrow we return to Rocky Harbour in Gros Morne National Park before heading east to Grand Falls-Windsor.