If you don't, you're not alone...most people don't. But I live in this beautiful historic city...which is St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada.
Here are some interesting facts about Newfoundland & Labrador:
- Our province consists of the island portion (Newfoundland) and a mainland portion (Labrador).
- The capital of NL, St. John's, is considered to be one of oldest, and possibly the oldest city in North America.
- The coastline of NL is 17,542 kms (over 10,000 miles) and the area is 405,720 sq. km (156,649 sq. miles).
- In spite of our large geographical area, our population is only a little over 500,000.
- The island portion has its own time zone which is 3.5 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time.
- NL's nickname is 'The Rock'.
- About 20 species of whales ply our waters, including 10,000 humpbacks/year.
- NL is home to 35 million seabirds and has the world's largest seabird colonies.
- Icebergs are a common sight along our coasts.
- Iceberg ice is harvested here in NL for bottled water and vodka production.
- Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless signal in 1901 at Cabot Tower on Signal Hill, overlooking St. John's.
- The first transatlantic cable landed in Hearts Content in 1866.
- NL has no snakes, skunks, deer, porcupine or groundhogs.
- There are 44 species of orchids native to NL.
- The only authenticated Viking site in North America is at L'Anse aux Meadows, on the Northern Peninsula of NL.
- NL is the 16th largest island (in area) in the world.
- NL is NOT a part of northern Canada..Corner Brook, on the west coast is the same latitude as Paris, France, and St. Anthony (on the provinces northern tip) is the same latitude as London, England.
- NL became a haven to thousands of people diverted here from transatlantic flights during 9-11.
- Our weather is mild .....our winter temperature average is 0 to -5 degrees C.
- Our weather is notorious for RDF (that's what we call rain, drizzle and fog) and wind.
Here are a couple of photos taken by my son.
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