Cruises to L'Anse aux Meadows

L'Anse aux Meadows is located at the furthest end of the Northern Peninsula in Newfoundland, Canada. In the year 1000, it was the site of a Viking encampment, the only documented Viking site in North America. This is where Europeans first came to this continent. Leif Eriksson might have slept here, along with 80 or so other Viking men and women. Now a Canada National Historic Site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, L'Anse aux Meadows was first excavated in 1960 by Helge Ingstad. Today there is a small museum to house the artifacts uncovered by the dig, and re creations of three Viking sod houses. Near the beach and surrounded by a rude woven fence, the huts present a realistic setting. An overturned longboat is ready to slide into the water, a fish flake, for drying cod and capelin, stands empty, waiting for the day's catch to be cleaned and hung, while pine smoke pours from the opening in the roof of the longest house. Maybe it will be warm inside, not just in my hopeful imagination!