Day Twenty Two - Part Two - Oh what a feeling!

Unbelievable!  To have journeyed right across our country - the mountains, the oil patch, the prairies, the Great Lakes, the mega cities of the east, our nation's capital, the Gaspe, the Atlantic provinces including beautiful PEI, and finally Newfoundland - so remote - with a vibrant city and sea port at the end.  This truly has been a fantastic adventure and we still have some wonderful sightseeing to do as we work our way back into Nova Scotia.

We plan to spend 2 nights here in St. John's before starting back across the rock.  Then Cape Breton Island (the Cabot Trail), down to the south of Nova Scotia to see Digby, the Bay of Fundy and out to Lunenburg and finally Halifax.  We will look into shipping the bike home from there and flying back to Vancouver.

Nature saved possibly it's best shot for last!  We already told you how cold it was yesterday.  Well, if possible it was even colder today for the 440km run down to St. John's.  It was maybe 4 or 5 degrees this morning with a wind chill that took it down to feeling like freezing.  And that's the wind chill standing - at 100kmh on the bike I've no idea what it was but we had to stop at 100-150 km intervals to thaw out.  Neither of us have been to Tim Horton's as much in our lives before this trip but now we are seasoned hands at grabbing tables, ordering, hitting the washroom, etc. in the most efficient order.  And we love their lattes!  Not to drink you understand, they are complete swill, but the cups warm your hands magnificently.  And Tim Horton's lattes love us back:

Anyone ever ridden in dense fog AND a howling gale?  How does that even happen?  Well it does here!  Add some rain on top and you've got one of the top 3 miserable rides of my lifetime (and I've ridden a lot!). 

Anyway, we just toughed it out down to SJ, and were rewarded by one of the nicest hotels we've been in on the entire trip, the Murray Premises Hotel. Right downtown, right on the waterfront, lovely room - everything done right.

The one thing we will say about this town is that they have got you where they want you.  It's the end (or the start) of the line, they can charge what they want for food or accommodation and you just say thank you and  take it.  That said, from what we've seen so far you get a great meal or stay so maybe enough whining eh?

Here's a few shots from downtown, they have a lot of steep lanes that cut from one street to another.

 

Andy, perhaps a distant relative got here some time back?

This is docked right by our hotel, should we be worried?

And to give you some idea of today's weather here is a ship just headed out of port.

We're done now, nothing left in the tank for today, but looking forward to doing some exploring off the bike tomorrow. - we may even rent a car!  Bet I still try and put my feet down at the stop lights!

Oh, and today's quiz?  We've been accused of making these too easy so whoever can guess the exact km distance of the total trip across Canada to here wins a prize from St. John's.  Answers must be posted as comments to this post on the blog so all can see.

Goodnight to all,

LZB and The