Halifax - Lunenberg - Peggy's Cove

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We woke this morning to the sound of a fog horn, sea gulls, and crows, three of the most pleasant sounds in the world, at least to our ears. I find it amusing that I so love the sound of sea gulls when I usually find their presence annoying, as when picnicking on the beach when they are trying to steal my food!

It's another foggy day in Halifax, and in a few minutes we will be leaving on a bus tour of Lunenberg and Peggy's Cove. Not the best weather for viewing things at a distance, perhaps, but as Roberta observed this morning, there's another kind of beauty in photos of fog.

We're really enjoying saying in this small hostel. The building in which it is situated dates from 1864! It has 10 foot ceillings, and stairways that kind of slope. Clearly, after all these years of standing here, it is structurally sound, yet it's not entirely plumb. It reminds me of an inn where we stayed in Britain years ago. The dining room floor must have been eight inches higher at the walls than it was in the centre of the floor! This isn't nearly so bad; but then it's probably 400-500 years younger than that inn.

There are rooms on the basement, second floor, and third floor. The main floor is common areas. And the basement isn't really entirely underground, as you walk up about 8 steps to get into the front door, a very common arrangement in these old houses. I find myself wondering how people coped with that 150 years ago, the women especially, encumbered as they were with long skirts. I know from experience working in a long skirt at Heritage Park how challenging stairs can be, especially when you are carrying anything. We have been here five nights now in our third floor room, 45 steps above the sidewalk, and I already notice climbing all these stairs many times in a day is much easier than it was five days ago. The human body really does adapt very quickly.

I always enjoy people watching in places like this. There is a young German girl who hangs around the dining room a lot, I think practicing her English, though we haven't had any conversation with her. There is a middle aged American man who has clearly traveled a great deal. When we asked him where he was from, he said he has been a vagabond for the last 10 years, traveling all over the world. He observed to Roberta at one point that this hostel was like staying at the Ritz, compared to many places he's been. And this is far from the most luxurious hostel we've ever stayed at! This morning there is a young family, a mother and her three children, eating breakfast at a nearby table. The youngest boy is perhaps about 5 or 6 and reminds me a great deal of my grandson (whom I miss these days). I met another man this morning, cooking breakfast at my elbow, from Cape Breton, who offered his observation that Halifax is a very beautiful city to visit, but not so nice to live in because it's a very British enclave, a racist place, the Canadian counterpart of the US South. Who knows? It is the observation, more than the truth or untruth of it, that I find interesting.

Last night we walked up Spring Garden Road to find a place to eat dinner. We settled on the Rockbottom Brewery because their posted menu had several interesting dishes (incuding coquilles St. Jacques, which turned out to not actually be on the menu any longer). Neither of us was in the mood for beer, but we both thoroughly enjoyed our meals, both of which came with a "cup" of seafood chowder that was actually a fairly good sized bowl. Roberta says it's the best chowder she's ever eaten, a statement which might have been influenced by her extreme hunger, but I must agree that it was exceptionally good, loaded with lobster, scallops, haddock, and salmon. In fact, more fish than broth, or anything else for that matter.

On the way home, we stopped briefly to take a look around the Old Burial Ground, which is located on Barrington Road a couple of blocks from the hostel. This graveyard was established when Halifax was founded, and was closed in about 1844 if memory serves (from the informational postings there, not from my personl experience of being alive in 1844). The information boards at the entrance claim it contains 12,000 graves, of which only about 10% are marked with headstones. That's a lot of graves in a small city block! I would have loved to prowl around reading headstones, but it was getting too dark to see them very well, as most are quite worn. It wasn't dusk yet, but with the fog the visibility was poor. Maybe we'll try again later today.

We've managed to eat some lobster every single day we've been here so far – can we do it again, I wonder? We even bought lobster tails (on special at Superstore for $1.99 each) a couple of days ago and made our own lobster pasta!

10 pm

It's the end of a terrific day, and I hope the photos give you an idea of what we saw and how beautiful it was, as I'm too tired to write much tonight.

Our host was a local, Greg Upham, who specializes in small, personal tours in his 7-seat van. We were accompanied by another couple from Ireland. Greg picked us up and dropped us off right at the hostel. The tour included not only visits to Peggy's Cove, Mahone Bay, and Lunenberg, but Greg's knowledgeable and enteraining narrative about everything in between. I'd recommend both him and this kind of tour very highly. It cost no more than a big bus tour would have, I believe, and it was very much tailored to the interests of the people he was showing around.

We had 1 to 2 hours in each village to walk around on our own, after being given a guided drive through pointing out key places of interest. Roberta and I walked and walked, much of it on very hilly terrain, hence our tiredness tonight, I imagine.

When we returned to the hostel, we checked into a new room, even nicer than the one we've had until now. It's a kind of suite, with another bedroom (presumably occupied, though we haven't seen anyone yet), a shared sitting room, and shared bath. Very nice!

We had a lovely seafood lunch in Lunenberg (yes, there was lobster in my chowder!), so had a quick supper of bread and cheese, and we're about to turn in as soon as I've published this entry.

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Photos

More traps
It's actually off season now, in this part of NS.

Bluenose II
Scheduled to be launched in a week, after extensive rebuilding.

Comments

[kathryn]

thank you for all the details , photos and commentary on your trip, it feels like I am traveling with you.