The prettiest city in North America

In 1597 Newfoundland was visited by the explorer John Cabot and the city of St Johns has been inhabited by Europeans since then making it the oldest city in North America. Located in a superbly sheltered natural harbour, in its early days it was the scene of many struggles for control between the Britsh, French & Dutch. The nation controlling the harbour also controlled access to the richest fishing grounds in the world, the Atlantic cod on the grand banks. The

fishery was part of a cycle of trade across the Atlantic involving sugar and slaves which lasted almost 300 years. The city was an important staging place for the Atlantic supply convoys in World War 2.I spent a day walking around the old forts, the harbour entrance, the museum & soaking up the ambiance of its lollypop coloured houses.

Nowdays the harbour has many ships which supply the Hibernian oil field off the coast & coast guard icebreakers are based here.

The museum had excellent displays on the earliest human inhabitants and the whale & codfish industries. I soaked up the info on the paleo-eskimos, Beothuk indians & Inuit. There was a real live seal skin kayak hanging up in there, the ancestor of all our boats. I am reading a book on evolution (The greatest show on earth by Richard Dawkins) & a display of the bones of a right whale flipper looked like a giant human hand underpinning our long ago kinship with that species.

I tried a local delicacy of cod tongues, washed down with a pint for lunch.

That evening I went out for a pub dinner with a bunch of kids from the youth hostel.

We then went out on a ghost tour of the back streets & alleys of St johns.

It was very entertaining with stories of floggings, important dead people being pickled in port & shipped back to Europe for burial, murders & hangings.

This city gets my vote because its walkable, has history & a unique celtic-Canadian culture, wildlife (whales & moose), very pretty to walk round, a harbour right in the heart of town, restaurants, breweries, bars & buskers and the locals are friendly & hospitable.

Next day I flew back to Ottawa on my new second favourite airline Porter. I had a chat to a hostess who had been married to a guy from Invercargill.

I bussed & hitched back out to Wilderness Tours & caught up with Max & Otis, both who were having a great time.