How I found Newfoundland

[Rolf Brandt]

Well, Paul, last Monday I made it to your place. A little further to the North actually.

I was with my wife on a flight that should bring us from Amsterdam to Aruba. Because of the volcanic ash cloud our flight was slightly rerouted - via Iceland, Greenland, Canada, and then south. Over Greenland the toilets stopped working. KLM had forgotten to empty the waste tanks. So we had to land at Goose Bay, Newfoundland (Labrador) to service the plane. Was a short stay, but I can say: I was there!

Finally after 19 hrs we made it to Aruba.

[Paul Squires]

Goose Bay is located in Labrador..... that's the part of Newfoundland & Labrador that is connected to the mainland of Canada. I live on the island part of Newfoundland & Labrador (ie. Newfoundland itself). Quite a bit south of Goose Bay.

My wife is from Labrador City which is west of Goose Bay.

Good thing you got stranded in Goose Bay at this time of year.....otherwise, I bet it would have been very cold a month or two earlier!!!

Too bad that the plane didn't divert to St. John's. I could have stopped out to the airport for a short visit.

[Pat Dooley]

I intended to post a comment with a tie-in to 9-11 regarding Newfoundland as being the world's leading (emergency) destintation. But I couldn't remember where the 9-11 flights were diverted. Was it Goose Bay? It appears many were diverted to Gander. According to MapQuest, Goose Bay and Gander are 850 miles driving distance apart. 850 miles! Canadian map scaling is very deceptive.
I ran onto this about the Gander Airport:

http://www.caperace.com/stories/test1/
and
http://www.caperace.com/stories/9-11-flight-attendants-journal-gander-newfoundland/

This same website has a heading named 'Things To See & Do'.
Subheadings include: Wander, Party, Eat, Sleep In, Birds and Water.
So a vacation in Newfoundland would consiste of

Sleep In
Eat
Wander over to see the Birds
Eat
Wander over to see the Water
Eat
Party
Loop until VacationDaysRemaing=0

These people really understand the point of a vacation IMHO.

[Paul Squires]

Lots of partying and generally having a good time just about anywhere in Newfoundland. When in St. John's you have to go to George Street: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Street,_St._John's

"...It is believed that George Street has the most bars and pubs per square foot of any street in North America,..."

That's about right!

If you enjoy old English and Irish traditional culture then Newfoundland has it.

[Rolf Brandt]

Sure looks like an interesting buzzling place,

[Rolf Brandt]

Back!

It was worth all the hazzle with the flight to Aruba!
http://picasaweb.google.de/rbsoft.42/Aruba2010#

[Paul Squires]

Nice! Looks like a very nice place. I'll have to put it on my "places to go" list!   

[Rolf Brandt]

It certainly is a beautiful place! My wife was born there. (That makes it even nicer for me!)