Great European Adventure 2012: October 2012

Saint John, New Brunswick Sept 24

It is a lovely day here in Saint John. Did you notice the difference between St. John’s and Saint John, right Saint is spelled out here in New Brunswick.

There is not a lot of things to see here and since we were not scheduled to come here, not much to learn from the ship’s excursions, since there weren’t many. So we walked around the town and visited the park and the local churches and learned that there was a Jewish Museum, so we went there.

This church is part of the United Church of Canada, which is an association of different churches that use the same facilities. A combination of Presbyterian, Methodist and Anglican denominations. When we entered the church we got a guided tour by a church member. It was very nice.

Duane just had to try out the pulpit

beautiful Pieta in a local church. I don’t understand why this one is less special than Michelangelo's.

This church has been closed to worship and is being saved, so far, by renters who use different parts. The main sanctuary is being used as a community flea market other parts for sales offices.

One of the distinguishing things about Saint John is that it is on the Bay of Fundy, which has the greatest tidal changes in the world. Because of these tides, a series of rapids on the St. John river reverse and flow backwards, called the Reversing Rapids. Due to the short time we had here we were unable to see this phenomenon. Maybe another time.

We went Jewish Museum had been recently relocated to this building

We saw donations of items to the museum by a lady named Marcia Friedman. My middle name is Marcia. We tried to contact her to see if maybe we are related, but she was traveling.

The oldest Synagogue in Canada is this building. It is now used as a church, and the Synagogue is now in the new Museum (there are not a lot of Jews in Saint John. As you can see from the sign, it has been a place of worship for over 100 years.

The buildings here are also very colorful, like in St. John’s.

Now on to New York and our return to the US after more than 4 months.

Canadian Sunsets Sept 23

St. John’s, New Foundland Sept 22 Part 1

When we arrived in St. Johns, we looked out out balcony door and saw nothing. We were fogged in. As the fog lifted we were able to see to see a beautiful, colorful town.

We decided to take a taxi tour of the island. As we talked about it, another couple asked if they could join us, so off the four of us went to see this island.

The first place we went was to see the cliffs and rocky coast, but the fog had not lifted on the cliffs

Even though we couldn’t see much, what we did see was pretty neat.

We continued on, back down to sea level, to a small fishing village

Duane taking a picture of me taking his picture

We got to the town and found some fishermen cleaning cod fishes, since it was fishing season, We were hoping that we could go out fishing with one of the fishermen, since they can only keep 6 fish per person, we could go along and they could keep 12 more fish, but it didn’t work out. They were already going to take some of their friends with them on their next outing, oh, well.

We picked up fish and chips here, since our driver said they were the best on the island, and they were great. Nothing better than fresh fish.

We then went to a brewery to try a couple of types of local beer. We continued our tastings of local brews…..

Our driver dropped us off at Signal Hill, since we wanted to walk back to town. Signal Hill is where, on December 12, 1901 Marconi received the first transatlantic radio signal. We didn’t know that happened here, did you?

The view from up here is great, too.

The lighthouse on the other side of the bay

There is the Emerald Princess, waiting to take us home to NY.

St. John’s, New Foundland Part 2

After seeing Signal Point we started walking down toward town. While looking at the view, a nice local lady told us about some of the sights to see. She asked if we had seen the Basilica of John the Baptist. When we said we had not been there yet, she asked us if we wanted a ride. So we went to the Basilica.

Thanks……

Every church we went to was closed to the public because of weddings. We did get a picture of the inside of the Basilica right before the wedding there.