Sunday, May 16, 2010

Spa Girl says Art, Lobsters and Spa’s are a nice treat in St John’s


I was in St John’s Newfoundland this past week for a museums conference which very nicely coincided with the opening of lobster season. What a delight to see so many friends and colleagues and travel around Newfoundland visiting the many rich historic sites.

I also had the opportunity to attend my first opening at The Rooms, Newfoundland and Labrador's newest cultural space dedicated to the holdings of the Provincial Archives, Art Gallery and Museum. The Rooms was opening a very timely show, the Canadian Premier of Oil, a hauntingly beautiful photo-based exhibition of the work of renowned Canadian artist Edward Burtynsky. http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/


Newfoundland has gone from a “have not” province to a “have” province for the first time in its history since joining confederation because of its oil drilling, primarily from Hibernia, a massive rig located about 180 miles east of St. John's in the Atlantic. One of our visits was to the Geo Centre which had an interesting exhibit on oil including a scale model of Hibernia, which is massive!
The completed platform was towed to the Hibernia oil field and positioned on the ocean floor in June of 1997 and began producing oil on November 17, 1997. The platform stands 224 metres high, which is half the height of New York's Empire State Building (449 metres) and 33 metres taller than the Calgary Tower (191 metres).

With all the recent news in the Gulf one hopes Hibernia located in “iceberg alley” with all its safeguards, including a special technological design to manage and reduce ice risk, will be incident free.


For me however, excitement and kudos goes to Newfoundland for all those majestic wind turbines.

Canada is a big country with multiple time zones and when you fly from coast to coast and your body doesn’t know what time zone it’s in there is no better remedy than heading to the spa.

Unlike past travel itinerary’s when I could easily be called a travel masochist, arriving one minute and in a lecture the next; now I carefully plan to take the time to acclimatize before tackling a conference.
So I booked myself into the Rosewood Spa located in the Sheraton on Cavendish Square for a 3.5 hour Spa Getaway package. It included all my favorites, a relaxation massage and facial with a pedicure. Since I had just had a pedicure the Spa graciously let me select another treatment and I opted for a French manicure that came with a paraffin hand treatment. It was a lovely afternoon, which included a light lunch, and the spa was most accommodating. The Rosewood was a busy place, so make sure to book early or try their second location in the Waterford Manor. http://rosewooddayspa.ca/

If your from "Away" here is more on Newfoundland and Labrador...







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