Issue link: http://read.canadatravelguides.ca/i/1520274
NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR Timeless Appeal Come from Away—the Tony-winning hit theatrical produc- tion that recently played to international applause is now playing at home, on stage at the Arts and Culture Centre in Gander. The acclaimed musical is a reminder that the famously gregarious folks here tend to have big hearts . . . and big personalities. Luckily, for vacationers, the province itself also has big tourist attractions, some made by man and others molded by nature. 540,552 St. John's www.newfoundlandlabrador.com St. John's International Airport, 8 km (5 mi.) from downtown Reaching them will, admittedly, take a bit of doing because the island of Newfoundland (affectionately nicknamed The Rock) sits alone in the North Atlantic, while ruggedly remote Labrador (a.k.a. The Big Land) borders northern Québec. The payoff is huge, however, for anyone who makes the conscious effort to come from away—four unforgettable UNESCO World Heritage Sites attest to that. MARKED BY MANKIND History lovers will appreciate the fact that Canada's youngest province is actually very old. The UNESCO-designated Red Bay Basque Whaling Station, for instance, is proof that Labrador was already an international indus- trial centre well before our "motherland" made its first attempts to settle further south. On-site, visitors can ogle archaeological finds that recall the mid-1500s and catch a film recounting the heady days when whalers from France and Spain busily manufactured much-coveted oil from blubber here (www.parkscanada.gc.ca/redbay). That seems like only yesterday compared to Newfoundland's millennium-old sister site, L'Anse aux Meadows. Leif Eriksson and his Viking crew arrived on the spot in 1000 AD, then proceeded to build shelters out of the earth and craft iron from the bog-ore it yielded. Their settlement was so shrouded in time that its very existence was dismissed as a myth until 1960, when Helge Ingstad and his archaeologist wife, Anne, uncovered what was left of it. Today it features atmospheric sod huts, faux Vikings, and an artefact-filled visitor's centre (www.parkscanada.gc.ca/meadows). ETCHED BY THE ELEMENTS While exploring the province's coastal waters in summer, you might observe whales like the ones that lured the Basque fisherman all those centuries ago, or see supersized icebergs that predate the Vikings. The land itself, moreover, is positively primeval. Just witness another World Heritage Site, popular Gros Morne National Park, where you can float on a freshwater fjord sculpted by retreating glaciers during the last ice age and admire geological anomalies formed hundreds of millions of years ago when tectonic upheavals BY SUSAN MACCALLUM-WHITCOMB ICEBERG IN TORNGAT MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK, LABRADOR • NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR TOURISM NL 78