We have done about 3/4 of the Viking Trail today.

07/10/2018

L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, Canada

We attended a Viking Feast w little theater last night. Way too touristy, expensive and poorly acted for the most part but it got us in the mood to explore more about the significance of the Viking. So this morning we went to L'Anse aux Meadows.

The big takeaway of the Viking landing on the North American continent is not that they did so 300 years before Columbus. The significance of their land and encountering the Native / First Americans was that chance meeting was the closing of the circle of humanity on the globe.

Approximately 100 - 75 million years ago we, as a species stopped dragging our knuckles on the savannas of Africa, picked up sticks and left the continent. Some went North and West but were stopped by the Atlantic Ocean. Others went East and populated North and South America via basicly China / America land bridge.

The European group was basically stopped from going any further West by the Atlantic Ocean. That was until the folks we call Vikings today developed ocean voyaging vessels and the curiosity / economic incentive to push West. That push Westward to what we now know as the Canadian Maritime Provinces took place JUST a 1000 years ago!!!!!! It took the human species up until a 1000 years ago to basically circumnavigate the Earth and meet itself!!!! That closing of the Circle of Humanity took place here. That fact somehow seemed profound that it took the westward and eastward bound branches of the species to finally meet 'in the middle'.

Heading towards St. John's the capital of Newfoundland tomorrow and the ferry to Nova Scotia on Saturday.