July 31, 2025 – St John’s Newfoundland
Day 2
Port Information. St John's is the Capitol of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Maritime Province's largest city with a population of about 110,000 people; it is the most Easterly of Canada's cities.
Our second day included blue skies early and then another gray day, but not cold, day.
After another nice breakfast - complete with a few of the city across the street,
After breakfast, we disembarked the ship and looked for a local tour operator (available on-board excursions are frightfully expensive). Right outside the cruise pier security gate, a guy was selling tours of St John’s but they weren’t what we were looking for. Another tour operator had not shown up yet so the first guy called him and told us that he would be here in five minutes. There were other passengers waiting for him but one couple decided not to go so there were two openings and we took them. In a few minutes, a black SUV drove up and we met Darren Steele (Newfoundland Tours), our guide. It was difficult for me to get into the back or middle seat (there were two other couples on the tour) but that would be temporary since the woman sitting in the front seat would soon be dropped off and I could get up front. Otherwise, I couldn’t have gone on the tour. It was a good deal because the equivalent ship’s tour ran $209 pp and this one costs $166.40 for both of us (paid by credit card with no foreign fees).
The tour route would take up on the Atlantic Coast of the Avalon Peninsula heading North away from St. John’s. This is the view I had.
The SUV was comfortable
(Ellen was in the crease in the second row so not so comfortable for her). Both of our aches were an issue today so
getting in an out of the car was tough. Most
of the stops along the way were scenic Atlantic Ocean coves. Here's where we would be going today.
Our first stop was at the Ocean Science Center at Logy Bay (composed of Middle and Outer Coves). The Center sits on a scenic viewpoint.
Darren said that this area was being used to film a movie about a giant squid and that the movie starred someone from “Pearl Harbor” (Josh Hartnett?) and an actress named McKenzie (McKenzie Davis?). (Post Cruise Note: This is a real movie; I guessed both stars correctly but it’s not about a giant squid but about some other kind of marine monster terrorizing a seaside village). We got some great shots of the cliffs at Logy Bay and walked down several flights of stairs to the Research Center.
There were a lot of kids there today on a field trip. There were also tanks containing sea life set up outside for the kids to look at.
Ellen actually held a starfish in her hand.
We left the Center and continued up the coast. We passed a War Memorial displaying all the countries that lost soldiers.
Our next stop was Middle Cove Beach.
We walked a short way from the parking area to the water. The beach was a combination of sand and glacial stones – rocks that had been polished by glacial ice to a smooth surface. There were all kinds of stones there – we took a few home to give to the kids and to use in vases. I found one containing iron pyrite (fool’s gold).
Off again to the next stop, which was Flatrock. Darrin said it was named so because you could actually launch a boat from the beach (it was flat) and return the same say,
Flatrock was also known for a popular venue - a replica of The Lourdes Grotto in France and was called the Lady of Lourdes Grotto.
It was built in 1954 by Francis Sullivan to commemorate his being cured at the original grotto. Pope John Paul II visited the site in 1984 and blessed the place. There is a plaque commemorating the event overlooking the water.
There were a few cars
visiting the Grotto looking for cures I guess.
Also in Flatrock, there is a mural depicting the history of that area.
Our next stop was Pouch Cove (pronounce “pooch”).
Lots of terrific scenery and a shot of the two of us taken by
Darren. Darren told us that the last
season of “Reacher” was filmed here (Post Cruise Note: Reacher was filmed in downtown St John’s
actually – that would have been a neat site to see – Darren needs to check on
that).
From there, we
headed back to St John’s – a 27 km ride – and our ship still docked where we left her.
Darren was a
great guide – full of information about the area and about the history of
Newfoundland/ Labrador in general.
The van got
back to the ship around 12:45 PM – a two hour plus tour.
We went straight to the Windows Café and found a table. I tried the Fettucine with cream sauce but it was too gooey so I reverted back to tuna salad and some carrot soup (the soups continue to be the stars of the lunch buffet).
Tonight is the
“Asian Buffet” in Windows. There
is not much to eat on the buffet so the plan is to get to the wok chef and get
a veggie stir fry before the chicken and pork make their entrance. I was first in line and although what I got
wasn’t actually stir fried – more like a combination of stir fry and pad thai –
in fact the chef told me that he was using pad thai sauce in my dish. It was OK – I also had a little bit of the
Fried Rice.
After dinner, we watched the sail away from the covered area out on Deck 9 (with the big deep fluffy chairs).
Showtime tonight featured “BritRock” – songs made famous by British stars in the 60s.
The show opened with the Kinks hit "All Day and All Night".
song list included “Downtown”
and “Wishing and Hoping”.
While it wasn't really from the 60s, the show included "Skyfall", the theme from the James Bond movie.
The set was going to end with Queen and so that meant it would be loud – we left while they were singing “We are the Champions”. The show was entertaining.
Our second day in St John's was great.
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