Tag: Travel

Newfoundland is really out there

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

It’s a remote land of icebergs, northern lights, puffins, and moose, the easternmost part of Canada. Now, for a few details.

  1. Although the province also includes Labrador, making it larger than California, the usual focus is on the island itself, the world’s 16th largest, ahead of Cuba, Iceland, or Ireland. The island aka “The Rock” sits at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, creating the world’s largest estuary.
  2. It has the only verified Viking settlement in North America, around the year 1001, possibly with Leif Erikson. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is on the northern tip of the island and includes restored sod buildings; for a sense of the size of the island, it’s an 11-hour, 20-minute drive from St. John’s. Legend has Irish Monk St. Brendan arriving in the 6th century, and Englishman John Cabot may have landed in 1497. Portuguese fishermen were also prominent explorers.
  3. Newfoundland was an independent country before joining the Canadian confederation in 1949. It’s one reason it’s not considered a Maritime Province like Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island.
  4. It has its own time zone, a half-hour ahead of Atlantic, although, strangely, it appears a half-hour later, as in “9 a.m. Atlantic, 9:30 Newfoundland.”
  5. Getting there can be convoluted. Flying from the U.S., for instance, generally takes nine hours; driving, 36. There are two ferry routes from Nova Scotia – the shorter one runs six- to seven-hours; the longer one, 16 hours.
  6. Just 12 miles away, off the southwestern coast of Newfoundland, are the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, technically part of France and a vestige of what was once New France.
  7. The Newfoundland dog and Newfoundland pony are symbols of the province.
  8. As for those striking North American puffins, 95 percent of them live in Newfoundland and Labrador, a good reason it’s the official bird of the province.
  9. Between 400 and 800 icebergs a year typically get as far south as St. John’s. Hamlets further north, such as Twilingate, get even more.
  10. It’s pronounced NEW-fundlund. Its people, informally, are Newfies – and Canadians second.

While we’re at it, do note that the Rock has some eye-raising town names. Here’s a sampling, without explanation or commentary:

  1. Dildo.
  2. Goobies.
  3. Tickle Cove.
  4. Blow Me Down.
  5. Come by Chance.
  6. Witless Bay.
  7. Cow Head.
  8. Gander.
  9. Placentia.
  10. Botwood.

St. John’s, the provincial capital and largest city, is not to be confused with St. John, New Brunswick. Both are significant seaports.

 

How many of the busiest airports have you flown into or from?

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

They’re not always ones you might expect. On the top ten list you won’t find Boston’s Logan, New York’s Newark, San Francisco’s SFO, or Seattle-Tacoma, for instance. Globally, Paris, Amsterdam, Seoul, and Beijing miss the list.

For this Tendrils, we’ll look closest at the USA. I started out basing the measure by what the industry calls scheduled seats but have switched to passenger volume, not that I know the difference other than it alters the ranking slightly, notably with Chicago dropping from No. 2 to No. 8. Do note these rankings can be confusing, and may shift around a bit if we look closer.

Should you be curious, English is the international language of aviation when it comes to pilots’ and air traffic controllers’ communicating. In contrast, French takes too long to convey essential information.

That says, here goes, however tentatively.

  1. Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta: ATL is king of the skies, both as the busiest airport in the U.S. — and the world. Its dominance arises in being Delta Air Lines’ largest hub, making it the primary gateway to nearly every U.S. city, but especially Florida and the South. Despite having relatively limited international traffic, its massive domestic network keeps it soaring.
  2. Dallas/Fort Worth: DFW’s sheer size – at 26,8 square miles, larger than Manhattan, and set midway between the two cities – allows its domestic connectivity, a result of being home to American Airlines, to support the cliché claim that everything’s bigger in Texas, boosted in part by the state’s population boom and heavy air freight action. DFW winds up as the eighth busiest airport internationally, too. Measured by aircraft movements, DFW ranks as the third-busiest airport in the world; by passenger traffic, it’s the world’s second-busiest. As I was saying about those definitions?
  3. Denver International: DEN is built on a 53-square-mile campus, giving it more room to grow than any other airport in the U.S. It does have a 16,000-foot runway, the longest public use one in America, is the biggest hub for Frontier and Southwest airlines, and has 27 airlines providing nonstop service to 230 destinations throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia, making it the sixth busiest internationally. Ride ‘em, cowboy?
  4. Chicago O’Hare: Traditionally the nation’s second-busiest airport, ORD has been eclipsed by Dallas and Denver. Located 17 miles from the Windy City’s downtown, ORD’s strategic location in the Midwest still makes it one of the busiest transit points in North America, driven by United Airlines and American Airlines hubs. Last July 20, it set an all-time record for daily Transportation Security Administration screenings, 115,962 passengers. That was part of the busiest month ever for U.S. air travel, when TSA agents screened 85 million passengers. Globally, ORD ranks eighth
  5. Los Angeles: LAX remains the top West Coast gateway, especially with heavy traffic from Asia. Internationally, it’s 11th. The airport is getting a massive facelift in preparation for the city’s upcoming 2028 Olympics.
  6. John F. Kennedy: With its international long-haul flights, especially across the Atlantic, driving growth, New York’s JFK also ranks 19th The crown jewel of a historic massive redevelopment is a public-private partnership is the new Terminal 6 with JetBlue and Vantage, with the first gates expected this year and full completion in 2028.
  7. Charlotte Douglas: Bet this one flew under your radar, but CLT is a crucial hub for American Airlines. Major expansion includes a $1 billion Fourth Parallel Runway scheduled to open in 2027. Repeated, this North Carolina operation has earned recognition as North America’s most financially efficient airport.
  8. Harry Reid: Las Vegas continues to shine as a leisure travel powerhouse, but there’s more to the metropolis than gambling and conventions. The fact that LAS is a central airline connection to much of the Southwest was the reason I placed Cassia in my novel What’s Left there during her years as a financial field representative. Globally, the airport ranks 24th.
  9. Orlando: Taking over from McCoy Air Force Base after its closure in 1975, MCO does much more than welcoming tourists to Walt Disney World. Its location between sunny coasts has made it a hub for a cluster of flights serving Florida. MCO ranks 25th Welcome to the sunshine, you snowbirds.
  10. Miami-Dade: As the busiest gateway to Central and South America and the Caribbean, MIA conveys major cargo traffic in addition to international travelers. For American Airlines, it’s the third-busiest hub. Globally, MIA comes in 27th.

As for those world rankings, Dubai International comes in third. Not surprising, since the modern city was premised on the international airport’s luxury terminals, duty-free shopping, and emerging strategic global connector. Tokyo Haneda ranks fourth. London’s Heathrow, fifth. Istanbul comes in seventh. Indira Gandhi, ninth. And China’s Shanghai Pudong International Airport, tenth.

 

Typical comments from our cruise ship visitors

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

In season, we like interacting with the passengers from visiting cruise ships. Eastport does limit the ships to no more than one a day, and most of the ships come after the summer season and many of our retailers had traditionally closed up. For the restaurants and stores, the ships more than doubled the retail season and often provide the best days of the year. What a relief!

So here’s a sampling.

  1. There are no yachts! This is a real working harbor!
  2. Where can I find a lobster dinner? Or a fresh lobster roll.
  3. It’s so lovely. (Or, quaint. Or, charming.)
  4. Is this typical weather? (Think of June with temps in the lower 50s.)
  5. What are the winters like? Is snow a problem? How much snow do you get?
  6. Your garden looks great.
  7. This is an island?
  8. Do you have schools?
  9. That’s Canada?
  10. It’s not like other ports, we feel welcome.

 Some inquire about lighthouses or the Bay of Fundy.

The crew members, meanwhile, want to know how to get to the IGA and Family Dollar, where they stock up on snacks and junk food. They quickly establish a kind of ant trail moving in both directions.

Gilkey Harbor memory

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

The member ships of the Maine Windjammer Association are independently owned and operated, and apart from setting firm departure and return dates, each of them ventures at the will of its skipper and the elements each day.

Watching the others in the course of a cruise is almost a game, and sometimes two or three wind up spending the night in the same cove, as happened here on Islesboro. We had the Heritage, above on one side, and the Angelique on the other, and the atmosphere was festive.

For more schooner sailing experiences, take a look at my Under Sail photo album at Thistle Finch editions.

Square rigging

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

When you think of a tall-masted sailing ship, it’s probably like this, one with squared masts and rectangular sails. This one does have a gaff aft sail, resembling the sails on a schooner.

Square-rigged ships did require larger crews than did schooners and sloops, and they weren’t as agile in the wind, but they could carry more cargo.

As for the bird in the nest atop the rock outcropping? I think it’s an osprey.

Welcome to Rockland Harbor.