Port au Choix to the Vikings

We had an excellent breakfast at Jeannie's B&B, and enjoyed conversations with some of our fellow guests.

We then headed to the Port Au Choix National Park visitor center, where we learned about the many cultures that lived in this area, including paleo-eskimo cultures. The climate would change, and one group would displace another. The archeological digs uncovered some of their fine work in stone, wood, and bone. This was a particularly bountiful area, hence the various dwellings and groups over the centuries.

The cemetary outside of Port Au Choix was especially interesting, including this unique gravestone.

We continued north toward St. Anthony, and saw our first iceberg, as well as the coast of Labrador. Our goal was the National Park of the L'anse aux Meadows, where the vikings built dwellings and lived, at least for a time. This is the only documented Viking site in North America, occupied around 1000 years ago.

The weather was cold, humid, and windy, all day.

We had an excellent lunch at the Norseman restaurant, including an "Iceberg" beer from Quidi Vidi, the local brewery, which came in a beautiful blue bottle. We then proceeded to the Park, a UNESCO world heritage site, which included reconstructed Viking buildings. It was so cold that Marianne did not leave the visitor center. Richard went back in the evening to hear Icelandic sagas and legends, inside one of the buildings. The sagas are like bloody soap operas.