Now, on to cruise ships!
September and October are cruise season in St. John's, when the vast majority of liners that visit our city arrive.
They come in Autumn primarily because we're not popular enough to warrant Summer/Winter visits, which are typically in Europe and the Caribbean instead. And Spring is our foggy season so it's not wise to come then.
But I don't mind it at all. I love the last surge of tourists the cruise ships bring when the regular fly-in, drive-in crowd have long since returned home.
Also, most of the passengers tend to be European - which is always a lovely treat.
The city goes all out for the cruise ships as well. They have many of our most talented musicians welcome the ships, they get the excitement of sailing through the narrow entrance of our harbour on a massive liner, and - no matter the time of night of their departure - the city puts on a show, firing its cannons and serenading the passing ship from Fort Amherst. At night, it's so quiet you can hear every note, and hear the clapping and cheering from the passengers. I love it!
So, a few pictures of two ships that visited this week:
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The ship has to pass between the green and red markers on the left.
For the second liner, Ayreonaut, Aisling, and I hiked out to the edge of Signal Hill to get it from the other side. It got too dark to get really beautiful shots by the time it left without them being blurry. But it's still a wonderful experience.
If you look at the city itself, you'll see two bright lights already shining. Those are the pilot lights. Ships entering the Narrows have to have those perfectly aligned with one directly above the other in order to safely pass between the rocky shores.
There were LOTS of photographers out and about. There's one standing on some ruins down in the lower right.
The walk back to the city from the edge of Signal Hill.
