Viking Country

We left our camper in Rocky Harbour and drove up to St. Anthony’s and L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Park, at the northernmost point on the island. On the way, we stopped at The Arches Provincial Park and then found a cute cafe for lunch.

Route 430 kept us close to the shore for most of the drive, so we saw a few more icebergs. Our destination is even colder than Gros Morne.

This iceberg was hiding behind a huge rock, and no matter what road we took, we could not get a better view.

This was the view from our lunch table at The Daily Catch in Saint Lunaire-Griguet. Love the fresh coat of paint on the dinghy!

L’Anse aux Meadows (bay with the grasslands) is the site where the Vikings landed over 1,000 years ago. It is the only authenticated Norse site in North America.

The park ranger explained the significance of this sculpture as the Norsemen meeting the Indigenous people as they came ashore.

We walked past the original excavation sites to these re-created dwellings.

We left the main dwelling and started the walk back to the Visitors Center. (Notice the iceberg in the distance in the upper left)

(This statue of Leif Eriksson was not part of the historic preservation site.)

We left L’Anse aux Meadows and went to our hotel in St. Anthony’s, stopping to photograph more icebergs along the way. After checking into the Grenfell Heritage Hotel, we had dinner at the Haven Inn as a belated anniversary celebration. The following morning, we drove back to Gros Morne, stopping at Port au Choix for lunch, then later at a shipwreck site – passing a moose along the way.