Sometimes you think it is all a hoax. That the Canadian Tourist Board has made up this “Meeting of Two Worlds” site on the northwestern tip of Newfoundland to pull tourists to an economically disadvantaged part of the country. For WH travellers it is even worse, as L’Anse Aux Meadows has to be combined in one itinerary with Mistaken Point which lies completely on the opposite side of the island on its southeastern tip. The distance between them is 1150 kilometers.

The conclusion that this wasn’t an indigenous camp but one inhabited by early European navigators is attributed to the discovery of iron objects and a particular pin used in Scandinavia to hold together clothes (pictured). But what if the overeager Norwegian couple that rediscovered the site in 1960 had planted those just to prove what they were looking for all along?

I visited on June 20th – and it was cold (4 degrees Celsius), rainy, foggy and miserable overall. The contours of the Norse constructions looked like duck ponds. Luckily they had a fire going on in the main reconstructed turf house, where three local men half-heartedly tried to reenact Norse life around the year 1021. Even the fire turned out to be fake – it runs on propane gas.

Despite the misery, I was far from the only visitor, the site is right on the itinerary of the many elderly Canadians who explore their country by (huge) campervans. To pamper yourself afterwards, have lunch or dinner at the nearby Norseman Restaurant (a fancy place for these surroundings).