L'anse aux Meadows

We were pretty excited when we saw our first icebergs as we drove north to L'Anse aux Meadows. We pulled off the road take photos and a bunch of other tourists pulled off too.

We camped at Pistolet Bay Provincial Park but I guess we took no pictures.  We never saw the bay but there was a freshwater pond with a swimming beach. It was not swimming weather.

The next morning we drove to L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site.  The first thing you see is this metal sculpture of Viking silhouettes.

We took a guided tour of the site. Our guide was born and raised in L'anse aux Meadows and used to run around as a kid among the Ruins. They used to think it was an old Indian settlement until two archaeologists from Denmark came looking for the Vinland of Viking sagas.

Our guide in front of the remains of a Norse longhouse.  The excavations were recovered with sod to leave them undisturbed for future excavations.

Our guide pointed out these bakeapple (cloudberry) flowers. He told us he harvests and eats twelve kinds of berries.  That would be bakeapple, partridge berry (lingonberry), blueberry, cranberry, raspberry, strawberries, crowberries. . . What else?

 

Below is a cloak pin found on the site which is one of the artifacts found that proved that it was a Viking Settlement. Also found were a spindle wheel for spinning wool and a bone needle.  

L'anse aux Meadows is the only authenticated Viking site in North America. .  They believe it was used as a temporary settlement used for boat repair,where they forged iron and made nails for ship repair.

Further along was a recreated Viking village with sod houses and a blacksmith that shows how the people lived at L'anse aux Meadows/.

The only inauthentic touch: they replaced the peat fires with natural gas.

Just down the road from the historic site is Norstead, a low-key attraction that also recreates a Viking village as they were in Iceland and Greenland but doesn't attempt to be historically accurate to life in L'anse aux Meadows.

The village centre's around a replica of a Viking cargo ship which was built and sailed from Greenland to L'Anse aux Meadows in 1997.

It was very cool.  

Here the re-enactor is explaining the boat to Leo. Sounds like it was a very harrowing trip.

It was a blustery day! We did a little re-enacting ourselves!

In nearby St. Lunaire-Griguet we stopped to photograph this large iceberg.

Then we went for lunch at the Daily Catch.  Leo had fish and chips and I had a delicious fish chowder.

Next door there were whale vertebrae perched on the roof.

 Pistolet Bay was moose central, we saw three moose on the road between the campsite and L'Anse aux Meadows.