In the year 1000, or possibly 998 or 1002 but definitely around then, the first Europeans set foot in North America. They were Vikings. They sailed over from Greenland and established a few settlements before getting into several fights with the natives, deciding it wasn’t worth the effort and sailing away ten years after they first arrived, never to return. L’Anse aux Meadows, near St. Anthony in the far north of Newfoundland, was the site of one of their temporary camps and the only Viking archaeological site found so far in North America. I went on a day when the weather was suitably Viking (by which I mean bitingly cold and foggy, and later rainy, with snow still on the ground even though it was late June. They were tough, those Vikings.)

What’s that coming over the hill? Is it some Vikings?

Yes, it’s some Vikings.

The site doesn’t look like much…

…but the sagas reveal that they chose it because it was distinctive and easy to spot from the sea so other Vikings could join them.

And it does have a certain bleak beauty to it…

…along with a plentiful supply of fish in the streams.

Outlines of the remains of buildings.

And a reconstruction of one of the longhouses, with sod roof. Doesn’t look like much but it’s deceptively large on the inside. A few dozen people could comfortably sleep around the inside edge of the walls.

This is summer.

Here’s the first of two terrible photos of a huge reconstructed Viking ship. It fits around 30 people…

…who would sleep in the open whatever the weather. It took the Vikings less than ten days to sail from Greenland to L’Anse aux Meadows, which I find pretty amazing.

Icebergs off the coast.

A little reconstructed sod church.

And a bonus moose on the way out.

If you’re interested, there are two short sagas describing the Norse exploration of North America: The Saga of the Greenlanders and Eirik the Red’s Saga. They’re usually sold together as The Vinland Sagas and they’re worth a read.

Total distance hitchhiked: 1991 km.
Total number of rides: 35.