Newfoundland is quite wide, so this was a 2 day trip, stopping at Grand Falls Windsor and staying overnight at the even more unlikely named Hotel Robin Hood.
En route we stopped at Gander airport. We stopped here for 2 reasons.
The first that my brother Andrew had told us he remembered stopping here when long haul transatlantic flights needed to stop to refuel and he remembered getting off a large plane and being ushered into a small building with no resources.
The second reason came from Ora who had told us 38 planes had been diverted to Gander airport after the 9/11 attack in the USA and how the local people people had opened their homes to help these displaced people, some of whom were there for days. Yet again, Newfoundland was instrumental in helping in a crisis.
There is even a musical about it Come From Away which is meant to be brilliant.
On to Great Falls-Windsor and The Robin Hood Hotel.
Great Falls is known for it’s salmon fishing and at a salmon research centre we were hoping to find out more about these fish and perhaps explore the river a little on foot. The centre was closed but their cafe, overlooking the river, was open and one of many examples of great individual cafes we found across the island, with food that wasn’t fried, contained actual vegetables and was imaginative. When a veggie rice dish is enjoyed so much you know something is wrong with Canadian cuisine…
As part of her daily routine Helen enjoys wandering around outside hotels in the dark and in doing so locked herself out. She was eventually rescued by the retired hotel owner, who explained the naming of the hotel. An ex-Nottingham resident he and his wife came over decades ago and took over a hotel restaurant, building up the business he has today.
The next day we continued over to our hotel in the Gros Morne National Park, situated in the small town of Rocky Harbour.
Oh dear to getting locked out but what a great way to learn the history. Don’t remember vegetables featuring to highly on menues either.
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