B&B To L'anse aux Meadows N.H.S.

We woke up to cloudy, cool, and misty weather this morning but nothing would stop us from going to L'Anse Aux Meadows N.H.S. where the Vikings were the first known Europeans to reach North America. We lucked in, just as we reached the Visitor Centre the mist stopped, might be cool (only 3 C or 37 F) but no moisture falling from the sky! We viewed the exihibits in the Visitor Centre first learning about how the site was discovered, what was found and the known story about the use of the site. Then we went out and walked the site, could have joined a tour but we enjoy moving at our own pace and learning as we go. The site was continuously used by First Nations prior to the first use by the Vikings, there are many remaining pieces of evidence of First Nations use with many of the fire pits identified with an iron fire sitting on them, a novel way of pointing out the locations.

The site is commemorated with a sculpture which signifies the completion of the circle of humanity, with the Indiginous peoples arriving from the west crossing to North America from Aisa and the Europeans crossing the Atlantic from the east and meeting for the first known time at L'Anse aux Meadows. To me this commemmoration is very important, human life, we believe, started in Africa and over the years moved around the earth first to the north and then the east and west adapting and changing to meet the environmental challenges found in their new lands. The location of L'Anse aux Meadows is the completion of this traverse of the globe with the meeting of the two human travellers there. I felt a special feeling being in this location. My DNA identifies me as a European (from Iberia to Scandinavia and England/Ireland along with Neanderthal heritage), with this trip I felt like I completed my journey with my relatives from then.

The reconstructed buildings on site demonstrate how well the Vikings learned how to live in the difficult weather conditions found in their homelands and the remote areas of Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland. The buildings are very weather proof, have better insulated walls and roofs than our modern buildings and are comfortable to live in. In fact, with the fires burning (even if they were propane powered!) in the main building it was a great place to go to warm up from the cool air outside. The site is very interesting to visit and we learned a lot about the heritage and life styles of the Vikings. We should also learn about how they live in the land without destroying the land. Well worth a visit to the site to learn a lot about human life on this planet.