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Published: October 1st 2019
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We did a short tour of Sydney. We found 2 old houses to tour. One was built in 1786 and the other a year later. They are both decorated with furniture from that era and we had docents in costume show us around. We went by 2 old churches in the neighborhood, but they were closed. A lot of the town stays closed this time of year until a cruise ship comes in. We found a small museum about Sydney and looked at that. It turns out that Sydney had a steel mill that was the largest in North America for a while. It slowed down after the war and closed in the 60's. We still had a lot of time left in the day so we found a miner's museum about a 30 minute drive from Sydney. I went down into the mine on a tour, while Stacy looked at the museum. It was a coal mine. The coal seam we followed was a little over 4 feet high, so I had to walk hunched over for most of the tour. Good thing we had on hard hats as I kept bumping into the ceiling.
The next morning we
drove over to the Louisbourg Historical Site. There was a fortress built here in the early 1700's by the French. They had been coming here to fish for Cod since the middle 1600's. The fortress is set up to resemble what it was like in 1744. See, the British invaded the fortress and took it over in 1745 and sent the French citizens back to France. Then France and Britain signed a treaty and the French were given the fortress back. So many of the original citizens came back to live there. Then in 1758 the British again captured the fortress and destroyed the fortifications and forced the citizens again to leave. This time they didn't come back. The fortress and all of the buildings were left and not touched for 200 years. The Canadian government decided to restore this important piece of their history and hired many of the now unemployed coal miners in the 1960's. It took 10 years to excavate the archeological sight and another 10 to rebuild the whole fortress using old methods and materials. Now the fortress has people dressed in period costumes wandering around and you can take tours of the many buildings. They
look at you weird when you want to take a photo and ask what it is that you are pointing at them. We had lunch in an inn and you got only a spoon for utensils. Even the food was what they would have served in 1744.
The next day was a travel day. We left Sydney and drove back over the bridge onto the Nova Scotia mainland to Sherbrooke. The next morning we toured another recreated village. This one was set up as it would have been in the 1860's. A lot more modern, if you can call it that! No running water, no indoor plumbing. Again there were only a few costumed people around as they were preparing to close in 2 weeks. We got a nice tour from an elderly woman in costume who changed names and personalities as we entered each building. When we finished, we still had time so we drove over to Port Bickerton to see the lighthouse and maybe walk the trails. It was quite cold that day, about the middle 50's with a brisk wind. We stopped and got some snacks to eat while we were there. We had to hide
behind the building to keep everything from blowing away. The lighthouse was quite interesting. After that, back home.
This morning we left Sherbrooke and drove along the coast to a hotel near the Halifax Airport. Tomorrow we fly back home and should arrive back in California around midnight.
Thanks to everyone for the comments. Until next time.
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