What a day we had! Last night was an amazingly quiet night-there is no street noise. Tom really enjoyed not waking up to highway noise early in the morning like we do at home. We had a delicious breakfast at the Twine Loft and then joined the Historical Walking Tour. A local resident, Kevin Toope, does a wonderful job of telling the history of Trinity while touring around various historic areas. He is a retired chemistry teacher in St. John’s and returns each summer with his family to his childhood home where his mother still lives. He would have been a wonderful history teacher.
The walk lasted 2½ hours and we felt we really learned a great deal about Trinity and Newfoundland in general. Trinity would have been a typical fishing town that was booming in the 18th and 19th centuries but has had a steady decline particularly after the codfish moratorium in the 1990’s. There are very few young people here now and tourism and restoration of many of their old buildings in the summer is all that seems to be viable. Visitors seem to fall in love with the area and they buy and build vacation homes that must be in the old style. There is a local saw mill that restores the heritage buildings-virtually all of Trinity is designated as a heritage site and the local Historical Society has been very proactive since the 70’s securing money to upgrade and restore dilapated buildings to their former “glory”. I am overwhelmed at the wealth of knowledge and first hand experience that Kevin was able to impart to us.
After a quick lunch of soup we joined the Rising Tides Theatre pageant, "New Founde Lande", which recalled some of the same early history through songs and drama. It was excellent and had well over 300 people traipsing through the village following the actors as they enacted their historical stories. It was so entertaining and what a great way to learn some history! We would recommend both to anyone who visits the area. We had planned to take a boat tour but the weather was too cold and overcast to spend on the water and we decided to join the pageant crowd instead. We think we made the best choice. We have several boat cruises that we hope to take in Gros Morne, Twillingate and Witless Bay.
We leave tomorrow for Rocky Point and have a long drive ahead of us – right across Newfoundland.
We are very happy with our day and a half in Trinity and we look forward to a great dinner at the Twine Loft.
We need to get an early start tomorrow after breakfast.
We were not able to stay at Campbell House for our second night and are staying at the Bishop White’s Manor tonight.
The walk lasted 2½ hours and we felt we really learned a great deal about Trinity and Newfoundland in general. Trinity would have been a typical fishing town that was booming in the 18th and 19th centuries but has had a steady decline particularly after the codfish moratorium in the 1990’s. There are very few young people here now and tourism and restoration of many of their old buildings in the summer is all that seems to be viable. Visitors seem to fall in love with the area and they buy and build vacation homes that must be in the old style. There is a local saw mill that restores the heritage buildings-virtually all of Trinity is designated as a heritage site and the local Historical Society has been very proactive since the 70’s securing money to upgrade and restore dilapated buildings to their former “glory”. I am overwhelmed at the wealth of knowledge and first hand experience that Kevin was able to impart to us.
After a quick lunch of soup we joined the Rising Tides Theatre pageant, "New Founde Lande", which recalled some of the same early history through songs and drama. It was excellent and had well over 300 people traipsing through the village following the actors as they enacted their historical stories. It was so entertaining and what a great way to learn some history! We would recommend both to anyone who visits the area. We had planned to take a boat tour but the weather was too cold and overcast to spend on the water and we decided to join the pageant crowd instead. We think we made the best choice. We have several boat cruises that we hope to take in Gros Morne, Twillingate and Witless Bay.
We leave tomorrow for Rocky Point and have a long drive ahead of us – right across Newfoundland.
We are very happy with our day and a half in Trinity and we look forward to a great dinner at the Twine Loft.
We need to get an early start tomorrow after breakfast.
We were not able to stay at Campbell House for our second night and are staying at the Bishop White’s Manor tonight.
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