Day 10 - a day out in Halifax

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After a bit of a lie-in this morning we headed out to Halifax. I persuaded Susan that we really needed to go on the bus, and bless her, she relented. The bus stop was at the bottom of the road we’re staying on, so that bit was easy. The buses in this area don’t take card payments, and thankfully I had some change. It wasn’t until I’d dropped my money into the slot that the driver told me there wouldn’t (couldn’t!) be any change. He got a 60c tip!

It took about an hour to get to Downtown Halifax. The journey took us through a couple of suburbs where the population was the most diverse I’ve seen since I’ve been in Canada, both socially and culturally. We exited the bus at the Public Gardens and had a wander around them. Gorgeous gardens with plants, shrubs, trees, bridges, ducks, ducklings, Queen Victoria jubilee fountain, memorial benches, a rat, gardeners, and several people having their graduation photos taken. We also found a cache!

We then walked up to the Halifax Citadel (https://parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/ns/halifax) and admired the views from the path running around the outside, although sadly the weather was grey and drizzly, and there was some low cloud, so they weren’t as wonderful as they could have been. We wondered if the poor visibility was due to the wild fires that have been burning near Halifax over the past couple of weeks, but we couldn’t smell smoke at all, so probably just the weather. There was a cache within the citadel, but I wasn’t going to pay the $12.50 (£7.50) just to get a cache when we didn’t want to go in to see the museum. Susan did manage to persuade the security guard to let me go in and get a photo of the Royal Regiment of Scotland guard at the entrance. The guard was a man of very few words. Well, none actually. I did tell him I’d been given permission to take his photo and thanked him, even though all I got from him was a blink. Luckily there was another cache at the bottom of the hill towards the town, so we headed down there and grabbed that one instead.

We were just wandering around the shopping area, which was pretty dead really, when I saw a tea shop. A TEA shop!! I hadn’t had a cuppa for the last 9 days. There were many, many different teas to choose from, so of course I chose a breakfast tea. It was loose leaf tea served in a pot and came with a timer. When the timer sounded I was supposed to lift the brewing section up to stop further brewing. I didn’t. The tea woman popped over to help me, and was slightly perturbed when I said, “No!! I’m British!”

As we were leaving she commented that I must like strong tea. I smiled brightly at her.

We visited St Mary’s Cathedral Basilica, a large and beautiful church. I looked up the definition of basilica and as far as I can see, this church has the title because it was bestowed with special privileges by Pope Pius XII in 1950. It boasts the tallest granite spire in North America. Apart from two other adults with their two children we were the only people visiting it.

We carried on down towards the harbour and came upon an outdoor shop. Susan was chilly so bought a new fleece. I just bought a buff. Outside there was another cache hidden in a small shrub. Unfortunately, the lid was missing and it was full of water. Susan retrieved the log paper which was waterproofed but wet. I dried it as best I could and replaced it along with a fresh piece of paper, stuffing the neck of the tube with tissue and messaging the cache owner to inform them the cache needs attention.

We had a lovely walk along the boardwalk, down by the sea, yeah (sorry!). Unfortunately, there was no swimming allowed due to the risk of electric shock – Fairy Nuff! Anyway, yet again I didn’t have my cossie with me. The view across to Dartmouth was lovely, with Georges Island a short distance to the south east. We found a restaurant for a late lunch, then wandered back along the boardwalk, down by the sea, yeah (sorry again!).

Finding a bus to get us home was a bit more of a challenge than the one to get us here. Thank goodness for Google transit, but it would be good if the buses read the times too. Apparently a number 90 had left the stop we’d been waiting at for 15 minutes one minute earlier. Oh no it hadn’t!

While we’d been waiting, we had a brilliant view of the Bank of Nova Scotia main branch just across the street. It was designed by Macintosh Lyle, built in 1931 and is considered to be one of the finest examples of Canadian Art Deco. There are stone carvings depicting various flora and fauna of the Maritimes and symbols appropriate for a bank. We amused ourselves trying to work out what the carvings are. We were definite about beavers, swans, foxes, eagles, owls and various fish. There were others we weren’t able to identify. Anyway, we gave up on the 90 and went to find the stop for the number 8.

We did a bit of people watching while waiting, and were amused by an interesting interaction between two young men. One approached the other, shook his hand and said greeted him. The other one said, “Do I know you?” The response was, “Well you look a bit familiar so I thought I’d say hello.” The conversation continued, and they shared names, jobs, where they lived and what their favourite coffee is. New besties, perchance!

Finally, we got on a bus, with the correct money this time, and got home just after 18:00. Juno was very pleased to see us.

Tomorrow we’re heading south.

Addendum to yesterday’s blog:

Shortly after we landed in Halifax an alarm started sounding. Then another one. And another one. As we were still on the plane I was rather alarmed myself! I then realised it was people’s phones, and when mine went off I could see it was an alert about the evacuation relating to the fires. Canada is way ahead of the UK with this! Here, alerts are regularly sent out regarding missing children, fires, floods etc. We’ve only just had a test alert in the UK, and it really got the conspiracy theorists going again, just after they’d settled down following Covid 19 and vaccinations. Bring it on, I say!

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