After over two days at sea, the Veendam sailed into the long fjord leading to Corner Brook, Newfoundland, early in the morning. Believe it or not I was up at 5 am to see the sail in. Beautiful morning. Warm around 66 degrees.
Like many people, I usually don't eat a big breakfast at home, but sure eat one when on a ship. I especially like a buffet for breakfast so I can control the amount I eat, so we chose the Lido Restaurant almost every day. This day I enjoyed the fresh fruit and oatmeal. After breakfast, we exited the ship and walked towards the free shuttle bus stop. Holland America had several shore excursions, including trips to Gros Morne National Park (a UNESCO World Heritage site), a bus tour that rode you around the small town (25,000 residents) of Corner Brook and its outskirts, a walking tour of Corner Brook, and a bus tour that focused on Captain Cook, who visited Corner Brook a couple of centuries ago. (Yes, the same Captain Cook who explored Hawaii and the South Pacific).
We figured we could do our own walking tour at our own pace, and it worked out well. Especially for Bob. Still in the recovery mode. But doing great. I just walk a little slower. The line for the shuttle bus was kind of long, so we asked one of the locals who was providing maps and information on the town how long it would take us to walk. When she said 10 minutes, we were off, taking a nice trail that led into the downtown area. Corner Brook is surrounded by low mountains, one of which has the Captain Cook monument on it. However, the most dominant feature of the town is its large paper mill, which was spouting steam high into the sky. Fortunately, it smells (at least the day we were there) like fresh Christmas trees since the area surrounding the mill is piled with logs.
When we reached the town, another trail followed a mountain stream inland. After a while we reached a large dam with a fish ladder for Atlantic salmon (no fishing allowed, but they do run up the stream). On the other side of the dam was a lake with swans and ducks and sea gulls. The lake had a man-made island in the middle that served as a swan refuge.
On one side of the lake was the historic Glynmill Inn, a large hotel built back in the 1920's. It burned down just a few years after it was built, but was rebuilt in 1929. Corner Brook also has a college, but the paper mill and hospital are the two largest employers.
We strolled the streets, checking out some of the stores and a church.
The people of Corner Brook were so friendly--everyone on the ship noted that they really went out of their way to make us feel welcome. A woman stopped us on the street to ask us what we thought of Corner Brook. We told her it was very beautiful. .
We were back on the Veendam by about 2:15 and went up to have lunch. Since we thought the buffet was closed, we got a hamburger at the Dive In. The was very good, and we think we walked enough to cover the calories!
The Veendam sailed away at 5 pm and we went out on the deck to watch the sail away. It was a beautiful day.After the sail away we went up to the Crow's Nest observation lounge. As expected, it was packed, but we found seats. The good news is that the seas were very flat (no wind), so our voyage thus far was much smoother than I feared it might be.
After dinner, we strolled by the piano bar and stopped to listen to Barry, the pianist. He's quite good and has a different theme each night. One night it was sing along with Frank Sinatra tunes and that night is Name that Tune. We stopped at listen. We have seen many great piano bar entertainers from Stryker from our last cruise to Debbie Bacon on the 2012 World Cruise.
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