NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR

Come to the place where the New World begins. Feel the power of the Atlantic as it meets North America for the first time. It happens right here in Newfoundland, where the wind warms your soul and where you're closer to Ireland's Cape Clear than Ontario's Thunder Bay.

Welcome to Newfoundland & Labrador - the far east of the western world - a panorama of seacoast, forests, fjords and ancient mountains. Come to the land where the Vikings sailed ashore 1000 years ago, to the most easterly point in North America where the dawn breaks first. Meet the world's most friendly and welcoming people, in the oldest towns.

St. John's is Newfoundland's provincial capital and the oldest city in North America, dating back to the early 1500s. The city was named for the feast day of St. John the Baptist. It was on that day in 1497 that John Cabot sighted the New-Found-Land. Explore St. John's and take in Signal Hill National Historic Site, where Marconi received the first trans-Atlantic wireless signal in 1901. Visit the Queen's Battery, fortifications that date back to the Napoleonic Wars. At the top is Cabot Tower, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the discovery of Newfoundland.

Come to St.John's the city that started it all, the first in the New World and take a walk on Water Street, the oldest street in North America. Look out over a naturally sheltered harbour, where 40 vessels lay anchored 40 years before the Mayflower landed. Raise a glass in a place that boasted over 80 pubs before the Americans began their battle for independence. In downtown St. John's, visit historic Commissariat House, the Old Garrison Church, Government House and The Newfoundland Museum, the home to a fine collection of First Nations artefacts. Now that's history!

Stand at the top of Signal Hill where Marconi received the first ever-transatlantic wireless transmission and said "Hello" to the Information Age and feel the breeze that lifted the intrepid Alcock and Brown aloft on their non-stop flight across the Atlantic. Walk through the friendly streets of the villages where Britain staked its first colony and where their final battle with France was fought on foreign soil in the Seven Years War. This is a land of colourful people who live in equally colourful houses! Yellow, green, aqua, blue and lime painted buildings cling to the outports, guts, bays and coves of the rugged but beautiful coastline and every narrow country lane will end up with a surprise at its end.

This is a land where homesteads are called Ha Ha Bay, Come By Chance, Witless Bay and Heart's Delight. You may be sure that the people of these communities have as big of a heart and as friendly a welcome as their own sense of grace and humorous self-depreciation.

Travel around Newfoundland it is possible to meet the sons and daughters of characters who have cast their spells on these shores. Pirates like Peter Easton who once ruled the water between Conception Bay and the Mediterranean and a host of boat builders, craftsmen, musicians and artists whose roots are deep in Celtic history. Sample some foods that you have probably never heard of such as Cod Cheeks, Scrunchions and Partridgeberry Pie with tastes, like Newfoundland that are something never to be forgotten.