East Coast Canadian trip

~ stashy

As you know last week I was away on a trip to the East Coast of Canada, for a good friend’s wedding.  The wedding itself was in Labrador, but we took the opportunity to travel to Newfoundland prior to the wedding day.  Here’s a map to help orient you, Newfoundland is the most eastern province of Canada and is about 2 hrs and 30 mins by flight from Toronto (A):
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We spent 4 days in Newfoundland (B) and then 2 days in Labrador (C) for the wedding, in quite a remote place.  Today I’ll share photos from the 4 days we spent in parts of Newfoundland.

Firstly, I’ll address the fact that most of the photos will be grey and gloomy, that was the kind of weather we experienced the whole time we were there.  Unfortunately, Newfoundland caught the tail end of the Tropical Storm Henri so it was pouring rain and very windy… but we made the best of it.

Monday:  Cape Spear
It is the most easterly point in North America and well worth a visit – firstly for its iconic lighthouse, but the real draw of this place are the cliffs.  They are breathtaking – caution is needed since there are no barriers between you and the Atlantic Ocean!
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Tuesday: Signal Hill
It was super foggy on this day, along with major downpour.  We persevered and trekked up to Signal Hill for some amazing views of the St John’s harbour.
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Wednesday: Bonavista
We arrived in the town of Bonavista to weather warnings of 120km/h winds. We could not trek very far from our B&B due to the sideways wind.  The B&B we stayed at though, was absolutely fantastic! The hosts were so genuine, and they have a nightly “lunch” at 9:15 pm where they served crab legs, fruits, cheese & crackers and dessert (ooh those little blueberry tarts!)  Here’s a little collage of what our B&B room looked like (it had a huge ensuite bathroom – the house shown is through the bathroom window):
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These pictures were taken Thursday morning on our way out of the town.
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Thursday: Sherwink Trail
This was definitely the highlight of our visit – a masterfully designed 5km trail which took us high on seaside cliffs and into the brush, with views that are honestly surreal.  There were no barriers on the cliffs – just you against nature: massive boulders that jut out of the ocean – they make me feel so little and insignificant!  There were wild blueberries everywhere too.
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Places we didn’t get a chance to visit but would like to in the future: Quidi Vidi, The Battery, Petty Harbour (we drove through but did not stop – there’s an amazing fish & chips place there), Gander… but those will be for a future trip!

Food: No trip is complete without sampling the local cuisine! I didn’t take pictures of what I ate but here are the highlights along with photos I found online:
• fresh fish for fish & chips (I ate fish & chips twice while I was there, and some form of fish, be it cod or salmon, for the other meals)

• fish & chips with gravy and stuffing made with savoury – stuffing with savoury is a Newfoundland exclusive since it’s a spice that isn’t grown elsewhere, it’s a crumbly breadcrumb mixture that you put onto fries

• cod tongue with scrunchions (scrunchions are diced up pork fatback) – not my favourite but worth it just for the scrunchions
• seafood chowder – now, we’ve had our fair share of seafood chowder from various trips but we agree that Newfoundloand chowder is the best! It has chunky bits of fresh seafood in a cream base that isn’t too thick or heavy (some chowders are a meal in itself and we needed naps afterwards) with a bit of potatoes. Just perfection!

• toutons (essentially fried bread dough) with molassas – this is eaten like pancakes for breakfast

Hope you enjoy this little vacation post! 🙂

49 thoughts on “East Coast Canadian trip”

    1. I didn’t know you were from the east coast! 😀
      We brought back several packages of savoury for friends and one to keep for us – not sure if we can recreate the same flavours!
      Yes the ocean air is quite refreshing – we love visiting coastal places!

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        1. Oh wow! We visited Halifax last year, that was our first time out east. There’s so much culture there… we definitely want to go back and explore other places!
          Oh luck you with the unlimited supply of savoury! 😀

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  2. Your B&B’s exquisite. I don’t why I’m so fascinated with the vintages. The scenery although gloomy gave such a dramatic representation. And the food, thanks for sharing toutons. It interests me much to look for the recipe.

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  8. Great photo album! I’ve never been to Newfoundland & Labrador (just Halifax and New Brunswick). Looks beautiful. I love that gloomy kind of weather. Just looking at the food pics made me put on about 10 lbs, I think. Thanks for sharing your vacation shots!

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    1. We went to Halifax last year and it was really nice too – I found St John’s a lot more “maritime-y” if that makes any sense. We definitely want to do PEI next. Yeah I think my jeans felt tighter when I got back lol.

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  10. OMG how fun! I’ve always wanted to stay in a B&B it’s totally on my bucket list and the one you stayed in is everything I imagined one would be. Plus that breakfast… who doesn’t love fried dough!!??

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    1. Yes, you have to stay at a B&B. We only quite recently started trying them out and we love them! I find them so much more relaxing than being at a standard hotel. I had the toutons (fried dough) TWICE in a row for breakfast lol! 😛

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  11. I’m glad you had a good trip!
    These are great pictures, those cliffs are intense. For some reason I always think of the North East coast as foggy, I’m not really sure why because I’ve never really been to the NE coast. It just is always foggy in my mind.

    I didn’t realize that Savory is a Newfoundland exclusive! I received a bottle of dried savory as a Christmas gift a few years ago and had never heard of it but it quickly became one of my favorite spices.

    Man, now I’m really hungry 🙂

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  14. Such great pictures! That’s too bad the weather wasn’t completely in your favour, but it looks beautiful nonetheless! I should really think about going to Newfoundland at some point! I should put it on my Canadian bucketlist, along with going up north to see the Northern Lights! I love the food pictures *drool*.

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  18. Cape Spear looks amazing!
    o & btw summer savoury is a Maritime thing, not exclusive to NFLD 😛
    East Coasters use it in everything where you would use sage 🙂

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    1. Oh good to know about the savoury. I was told by certain Newfies (AMW! and my boss) that it was only from Nfld! 😛
      We bought a pack for ourselves to try out. I will tell the bf to use it in place of sage.

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