Today was another glorious sunny day! While we have had all
four seasons in any given day, overall, the weather has been spectacular! This
morning we had booked a tour of the Fogo Island Inn. We had tried to get lunch
reservations but apparently we need to book that a week in advance!
As I’ve said, the Inn hasn’t won me over despite my want to
like it. We approached the tour with an open mind and although I can’t say I
LOVE it, in some ways I was a little more a fan on the way out than on the way
in.
I can’t imagine what anyone could do for me in a hotel that
I would be OK with paying them $5,000 a night. I did learn that the Inn is run
more like an “all-inclusive”. All meals are included. They have local
ambassadors who wait in the lobby to introduce guests to any and all of Fogo
Island and all of that is also included in the cost. They provide a driver and
will bring you wherever you want to go. If you want to go into Joe Batt’s Arm
and eat at Nicole’s Café, they will bring you there and pick up the tab. It
really is a full-service experience that supports the local economy. Now the
little voice in my head kept insisting, “And well they should for $5,000 a
night”, but I shushed her, and remained open to the tour. There were plenty of
luxuries like remote control toilet seats (not kidding!! Who in the name of God
can’t manage to put down their own toilet seat??), towel warmers and white
noise generators (apparently guests were having difficulty sleeping because it
was too quiet!!). Every detail was considered and local flavor comes through.
Every piece of furniture, piece of art and handmade quilts on the bed are made
locally and for sale. The Inn isn’t air conditioned but a wool shawl hangs
beside every door, locally knit of course! The cushions on the chairs and
couches in the common areas and rooms are the crocheted, round throw pillows,
with the big button centres that graced every Newfoundland home of my youth.
Here you are welcome to take one home for $350!!! I almost choked! But more
power to them if they can sell them to tourists for that! Who am I to talk? I bought
a rock! Even the wallpaper on the bedroom walls was specially made for the Inn
and printed with local scenes.
The architect was a local man from Gander. We learned that
he now lives in Norway but came back to complete this project. That actually made
a great deal of sense when you looked around the Inn. The overall impression of
the Inn was Ikea comes to Newfoundland. Clean and simple lines, funky but
unobtrusive lighting, storage and decorative features all screamed Scandinavian
influence.
There were some very interesting and effective architectural
features in the floor to ceiling windows that take full advantage of the
spectacular north Atlantic scenery, the vanishing point stairway that draws you
to upper floors. The hallways that appear to go on forever in this surprisingly
small Inn with only 29 room. The ceiling gets higher as you move down the halls
and the tall thin windows actually get shorter. You really don’t notice until
it’s pointed out, but it creates an optical illusion that makes the hall appear
much longer than it is – very cool! My favourite feature though was the shape
of the Inn. Not apparent until you see the fire escape map at the elevator, the
building was designed as an X. It is intended to represent a cross-roads. A
point where old ways meet new ways. Where locals welcome strangers. Pretty cool
really!
I’ve often said that something was so much greater than the
sum of its parts. I think this is the first time I have ever thought that
something wasn’t as great as the sum of its parts! The Fogo Island Inn has
loads to recommend it. Having visited it and each of its remote studios, there
are things that I like and things that I think are clever and cool. I love that
it is helping to resurrect a community. I just don’t think it fits into the
local landscape as it might have, and I certainly can’t justify the cost with
anything I’ve seen. Clearly its intended audience is the rich and famous.
Following our tour we had a few hours before our reservation
with George and Valerie at Nicole’s Café. There was a hiking trail we hadn’t
checked out on the other side of Joe Batt’s Arm so we were off to Etheridge’s
Point and the hiking trail that leads past The Longhouse Studio, the only one
we hadn’t seen. It was a great hike but by the time we returned to the truck it
was hot enough to kill ya!
We are on vacation, and supposedly we’re adults, so we
decided to have dessert before we went to dinner and went to Growlers for ice
cream! On the ferry over the girl at the coffee shop told us we had to go to Growlers. She wasn’t wrong!
I have never tasted ice cream so good! We had a grand chat with lady behind the
counter who offered samples to help us decide. She brought out the woman in the
back who makes the ice cream daily. In the end, despite her great help, I couldn’t
decide and had a mixed cone with caramel in the bottom and rhubarb/strawberry sherbet
in the top! Talk about worth the calories!!
When we met George and Valerie for dinner at Nicole’s we
heard all about their day cod jigging and we talked about our experience of the
Inn. The menu was problematic in that I could have ordered anything but finally
settled on pan fried cod on a bed of split peas, cabbage, carrots and celery in
a butter broth – ambrosia!! David chose a fresh pasta with pulled salt beef!
Wonderful company, delicious food, shared wine – a perfect ending to our
amazing time here on Fogo Island!
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Fogo Island Inn |
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Built on stilts as so many Newfoundland buildings are. |
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David in the lobby sitting next to a $350 crochet throw pillow! |
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Art exhibit by Wilfrid Almendra - Light Boiled Like Liquid Soap???? |
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And then the light or the liquid soap captured a potato sack??? |
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One of the Inns common spaces |
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Vanishing point stair from above |
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Bench cushions that told the story of the Inn hooked by local artists |
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The X design that represents the crossroads of old and new |
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Optical illusion. The ceiling gets higher and the windows get shorter making the hall appear very long |
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View from the beds at the Inn |
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The grey box on the wall is the remote for the toilet seat! |
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Guest house and artist studio so much prettier than the Inn to my mind and not $5,000 a night! |
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Just another scene along the road |
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See how the Inn dominates the view? |
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The Longhouse Studio, my second favourite because it has windows. |
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Dinner at Nicole's Cafe |
I think the Fogo Inn can be voted as most unusual hotel in Canada.
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