July 19 - Gander

We began the day visiting L'Anse aux Meadows. This a site on Newfoundland's Northern Penninsula where Leif Erikson and his Viking explorers had an outpost in the New World. Archeologial evidence makes it plain that the settlers here were indeed from Scandanavia during the period of Leif's saga. There is no doubt really that this was indeed a Viking outpost with eight buildings. The digging has been completed, but the remains of the buildings are left as they were found. Simple mounds of earth really, elevated where the sod walls had once stood. Near the original spot Parks Canada has built a five building replica of the village. The Vikings built houses just like these in Norway, Iceland and Greenland. They would have been quite snug in these well insulated shelters. The settlement would have been occupied by these Europeans shortly after the year 1000, almost 500 years before Columbus.

We had a great time looking around.

We saw an iceberg floating off shore at a nearby village.

L'Anse aux Meadows is about 12 hours from St John's so we spent the rest of the driving and made it to Gander at around 10:00. It rained the entire way. Traveling with Booklogged is like that. The only difficult weather we get is during our down time. When we want to be out doing something, the sun shines. Even with the rain, the trip was splendid. The sea was like a mirror beneath the clouds and rain and looked pale and cool and cozily sleeping under a blanket of fog.