First up was Cape Spear which is the easternmost point on the North American continent. In the picture above you're looking back towards the entrace to St. John's harbour. The wind was stiff and the surf was pounding on the rocks below. Despite the fact the temperature was well above zero the windchill still managed to cut to the bone if you weren't dressed appropriately.
This is a shot from the lighthouse keeper's residence towards the lighthouse which, I think, was originally imported from Scotland (it has since been upgraded and automated).
Here's a shot of the boardwalk that runs around the historic site. There was also an abandoned US military base and pits which housed WWII cannons. I didn't know that German U-boats operated this far west in the Atlantic. St. John's was of strategic importance for transatlantic crossings and the Allies defended it. They also lined St. John's harbour with anti-torpedo netting to protect the ships moored there. Although St. John's was never directly attacked, a ferry running from Port-Aux-Basques was sunk by a German U-boat in WWII.
After scampering around the boardwalk for awhile I decided to head back into town as the sun was setting. My other mission in St. John's was to enjoy some ethnic food. So, without further delay I set off to the only sushi restaurant in the whole province: "Sun Sushi". Once again, I was reminded of how spoiled I was in Toronto: the sushi wasn't bad but considering my circumstances it was more than passable and I could see myself eating here during future visits.
The next day I headed out to Signal Hill. Best known as the site of the first transatlantic wireless radio transmission by Marconi, it also has a very interesting war history as well. Newfoundland was settled by both the French and the English. St. John's was poorly defended at first and the French sacked the town; the English learned the hard way that fishermen aren't substitutes for a garrison of soldiers. "Signal Hill" got its name from it's excellent vantage point over the narrow passage into the harbour the expansive view it had of the Atlantic ocean. In wartime it would alert the city's defenses of any hostile ships and later it would announce the arrivals of commercial freighters.
The upper left corner points towards the North Atlantic while the lower right corner is the narrow entrance into St. John's.
As expected from a high rocky position, it was also an strategic point of defense. The English commander charged with retaking St. John's from the French commented that he had never before seen such advantageous terrain for the defenders. Still, with English light infantry he was able to retake Signal Hill (and ultimately St. John's) despite the difficult terrain. In this photo you can again see the narrow harbour entrance to the lower left and in the lower right corner is the "Queen's Battery" where its cannons can make short work of any ship that tried to sail into the harbour.Back to Marconi, at the time transatlantic radio transmissions were thought to be impossible because the networks at the time required line of sight. Due to the curvature of the earth, people thought that radio waves just shot off into space. Marconi's success led to the discovery of the ionosphere which reflected radio waves back down to earth and enabled long range communication. One interesting trivia is that Signal Hill wasn't his original choice for conducting the experiment. His original location was further south (in the northeastern US) but the receiver that he built there (ironically) was blown down by the wind. He chose Signal Hill as his next site given its closer proximity to the transmitter in Ireland. No sooner did he announce his success to the world was he threatened with lawsuits from the transatlantic cable companies who's monopolies were at risk of being supplanted by this latest development. He packed up and moved to Nova Scotia where he was given a warmer reception by the government and where he ultimately built his next transmitter/receiver.
The other toursit site I visited were "The Rooms" which is a museum/art gallery/Archive rolled into one. Cameras weren't allowed inside but it was a nice modern glass structure with a fantastic view of the harbour.
