The winter sun

Mentally, moving to Newfoundland felt like moving to the far North. That coming from a person who was born and raised not far from the Polar Circle, but it's no secret that getting here is difficult, and once you're here, there are not a lot of places to go very easily. Looking at the map, however, you can see that St. John's shares its latitude (47 degrees North) with another important city in this family's life: Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany.

Having lived the large majority of my life up North seen from Newfoundland, meaning Finland, Sweden or Denmark, what I find the most amazing in November, December and now in January is the sun. It gets to your eyes like the best spring sun of March or April - it makes you want to keep your sunglasses in your bag also during the months when Copenhagen is all about the dark, the rain, the dark and the rain (and well, candles).

Everyone warned us about the weather moving up here - but as I have discovered, it really was about moving "down here" for us, and that has meant that when it's not foggy, rainy, or snowy, it is bright! The sun is out and it makes everything look so beautiful, like last week in the Quidi Vidi village.

Quidi Vidi village in December sunshine

 Today, St. John's had 8,5 hours of daylight, whereas Copenhagen had its 7h 15 minutes. Not to talk about Oulu in Finland, with its 4 h and 4 minutes of daylight. So welcome, visitors from Denmark and Finland! I can't promise you good weather, but when it's not foggy, rainy, or snowing, it will be bring!

January 1st sunshine in downtown St. John's

The sun on our street today, with the Cabot tower and Signal Hill in the background