People back in mainland Europe definitely heard about Vinland and fairly soon after the Norse showed up there. The earliest written account of the discovery of Vinland is actually from a German source, The Deeds of the Bishops of Hamburg written by Adam of Bremen and published in 1075 - two centuries before the Vinland Sagas were written down. While visiting the Danish court Adam heard about the discovery of Vinland. He doesn't have much to say about it about it though. He only lists it among other northern islands like Iceland, Greenland, Helluland (probably Baffin Island), and Markland (probably Labrador).

Columbus was not seeking to find a way to india but rather to find land to colonize and if i recall "gift to his sons"

I'm going to need a citation on that one. As Columbus himself writes: "Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians, and princes who love and promote the holy Christian faith, and are enemies of the doctrine of Mahomet, and of all idolatry and heresy, determined to send me, Christopher Columbus, to the above-mentioned countries of India, to see the said princes, peoples, and territories, and to learn their disposition and the proper method of converting them to our holy faith; and furthermore directed that I should not proceed by land to the East, as is customary, but by a Westerly route, in which direction we have hitherto no certain evidence that any one has gone."