N. L. Road Trip (4): Placentia

We headed west after spending 2 days in St. John's, not that we had seen everything but we simply didn't want to limit ourselves to one place. Placentia was our next stop. It is fairly a small town and that is where Castle Hill, another national historic site of Canada locates. I checked that first and we realized that the main gate was closed so we thought the place was closed as it was Sep. but it appeared that the gate was closed to the vehicle and we could simply walk up which is not more than 15 minutes.

Castle Hill was originally build in the then Placentia as a French and English fortification. I think it was first occupied by the French and they were protecting the French fisherman and they intention was to colonize Newfoundland and Labrador and then were driven out by the British and both the fort and town became a British settlement. Today there is no French spoken resident in N. L. but there are some in Nova Scotia including a colleague of mine whom I will have a little talk with her later and a post most probably as well. I think the French then moved to Cape Breton which is at the other side of the Province in Nova Scotia as I said but I will write more about that later. 

So it started raining when we got up there but one of the Park Canada who provided a little history of the place for us, and was a very nice gentleman with a heavy accent which was hard to believe brought us umbrellas so we could walk a bit more easier although we had our kind of raincoats on. The sky was cleared out shortly after and I was able to take a few photos. The place was open but not for business. The Park Canada guys I guess were getting ready for the end of the season. 

Placentia as I said is a very small town but it worth checking it. For dinner we went to Harold Hotel and fed ourselves with their seafood dishes which was good and reasonable price. Two meal which made us completely full cost around $40 including the tip. The place was packed because the other two restaurants in the town, including one Chinese were closed (They are closed on Mondays). There is a nice and long boardwalk in case you want to have a walk by the Ocean but we skipped. Placentia is also gate to Cape Saint Mary's Reserve which will be the subject of the next post.

(Photo: The town of Placentia from the top of Castle Hill)