Hailing Cabs in Halifax

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This morning Sharon and I rushed up to the Lido for breakfast. I got a couple of their modernistic demitasse cups of Swiss Muesli. Sharon had the French Toast. She had looked for a tour for us to take out to Peggy’s Cove, but was unable to come to a consensus with Erin and Dennis. Dennis wanted to see the museum and the Citadel. We finally decided just to “wing it” on shore.

We passed a string of taxis to make our way to the HOHO; but, determined that they don’t get out to Peggy’s Cove. The tour price for Peggy’s Cove was about $100 per person (US dollars) and the taxi ride out there was $150 (Canadian) for 3 hours. That’s what we decided to do after verifying that the cab driver would accept a credit card. Our taxi driver turned out to be our own private tour guide, fluent in English. He basically said that he does this job “for fun” to make money that he and his wife are saving for retirement, where they plan to buy a hotel/patio restaurant in Santorini. He noted that he had emigrated to the US from Greece when he was a boy. He noted that we were lucky to get a taxi driver that speaks English; anyway, we definitely felt fortunate to get Leo. Dennis and Erin also forewent the HOHO because in Halifax, they’re not handicap accessible with no room for a scooter. Their plans for the day were to hoof it, and as we were to discover later, it’s quite a hike up to the Citadel. All I can say, I wouldn’t want to do it on foot.

We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect autumn morning. The temperature was nice, the sky was blue and there wasn’t the faintest of breezes. It was far removed from Sydney where it seemed that gale force winds were stretching flags to their limit on the flagpoles by the ship. Heading out towards Peggy’s Cove we passed many million-plus dollar waterfront homes. There were many small bays and pools of water with glass-like reflective surfaces that made the yellows and reds of the changing season all that more spectacular. Even the taxi driver commented that he couldn’t remember a more beautiful day. Peggy’s Cove had been the remnants of the granite carved out by the receding glacier. Out on the cove the landscape is an other-worldly terrestrial scene of massive granite boulders falling into the sea. A lighthouse marks the end of the cove and the footing around it can be treacherous. Our cabbie warned us not to walk on granite that is green or black or wet. Already this season one tourist who evidently did not heed (or receive) such advice had perished into the sea. We spent about 45 minutes walking about by the lighthouse and headed back down the road towards the visitor’s center where our cab would be waiting. Along this windy road there is a great place to get a lobster roll, our cabbie had said, but that this vendor had been closed now for a couple of days.

On the way back, the cab stopped at the site of the Swiss Air Flight 111 crash site. A fire on board had forced the flight to divert to Halifax; but, they needed to make a second pass to dump fuel. Unfortunately, the fire engulfed the cockpit causing the crash off of Peggy’s Cove. The memorial honors those who died, and those first responders, many fishermen from Peggy’s Cove. Faced with this tragedy, and the human emotions of recovering so many dead bodies the community took some time to recover; and, making it worse lobsters from Peggy’s Cove were unsellable for a couple years afterwards. We stopped by a maple outlet and factory and purchased some maple fudge. We also got some Donair spice. Leo had told us of a local delicacy, the Donair (of Nova Scotia and particularly of Halifax). He said that a Greek immigrant had come to this area and tried to introduce gyros from his native Greece to the denizens; but, the seasoned lamb and tsiki sauce wasn’t quite to their liking. He modified the recipe to use hamburger and made a sweeter sauce that became quite a hit, taking off as a late night snack in the college town of Halifax. It soon spread throughout Nova Scotia, and from there throughout Canada. He said that many people were claiming to be the official inventor of the Donair; but, finally in the late 1990’s Canada officially recognized that original Greek immigrant as the originator of the Donair; and, wouldn’t you know, it was Leo’s dad!

We had time to visit the Titanic grave site, in a section of the main graveyard in Halifax. Again, people from Halifax and St. John’s were the first responders when the Titanic sent out its SOS. Each grave was marked with a number, designating the bag used to contain the body when recovered from the sea. The simple grave stone also featured identified those whose identity could be confirmed prior to burial. In some cases, identification may have occurred later from the detailed records made for each body, including clothing, height, weight, identifying marks, jewelry, and so on. More recently, DNA records have been used in a few cases. The names of the dead discovered after burial appear on the side of the grave markers. Some families have paid to enhance the gravestones of their loved ones lost on the Titanic, but within the restrictions of the area set aside for those who perished on January 15, 1912.

We had a little time to spare and Leo felt that we must visit the Citadel. Near the entrance we spotted Erin and Dennis, and called out to them. Our driver swung around, but they were headed up the hill. Much construction was going on. Our driver found an entrance on the far side that wasn’t closed to incoming traffic and found a way to get us to the top for a fabulous view. We made it back to the ship and I paid by credit card, leaving Leo my remaining Canadian money as a decent tip.

We headed to the Lido for lunch where again, I had a “Back Flip” and Sharon got some brisket and mashed potatoes from the buffet. After lunch we stopped by the Exploration Lounge where they had three different sets of Sudoku available; so, we picked them up to do over the next couple of days. We headed up to the Crow’s Nest for trivia and finished the Easy puzzle in almost a dead heat; well, truth be told Sharon was still writing her last to numbers when I called “Done”. We started the Hard, but Erin and Dennis arrived and it was clear, this puzzle was going to take a while, so we set our sheets aside.

I didn’t have my red hat on; but, I still had my Alaska hat on, and the day that we won I had no hat, so maybe the blame for not winning today lies with me. There were a couple of easy “logic questions” like “Mary’s mother named her first three daughters April, May and June. What was the name of her only other daughter?” It’s such a silly question, I shouldn’t have to tell you the answer; however, what do Americans know about addressing royalty? Michael wanted to know, “How do you address a duke?” We came up with “Lord”, but the proper greeting is “My Grace.” I’m guessing that I probably should have paid closer attention to “Downton Abbey”. What is both a spicy Latin condiment and a spicy Latin dance? Any “Dancing with the Stars” aficionado like Sharon would instantly know “The Salsa”. Besides India, what other country has a Hindu population of at least 80%? Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bengladesh… no. But Nepal was the answer. What is the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet? … not good for people who only know their alpha, beta, lambda, delta and epsilons! If I’d only come up with zeta! My spreadsheet should have help us for the bonus, “Name the three tenors.” But Michael wanted first and last names for three points. I scribbled down Pavorati, then remembered Placido Domingo, and I thought that Erin had written down “Luciano” (but she’d left off the “no”). I just couldn’t remember Jose Carrera. This was perhaps our worst showing, so we can forget about wearing the plain Alaska hat again! The killer for us was that we neglected to write down and answer at all for the fourteenth question: “Name the explorer who in 1609 set out to explore North America in his vessel named Half Moon.” We’re considering, okay, just over one century after Columbus, and for some reason, perhaps the name of the ship, and the HAL island Half Moon Key, Erin suggested it must be a Dutch explorer. I proposed Hudson, then Dennis suggested Lawrence, obviously as in Hudson Bay and such waterways. We just never wrote anything down. And that spreadsheet of mine does show Henry Hudson, of British decent sailing for the Dutch West India company. I didn’t assert that I knew the answer; but, as it turns out I just didn’t know that I knew the answer. That’s it, tomorrow we’re not wearing a hat! We were mired in the middle of the pack on this one, well behind the winners who, you guessed it, missed just one question.

We played bingo afterwards in the Wajang Theater, of all places, and it was quite cozy. We figured it was a ploy to get more Catholics to attend mass which followed Bingo; but, as Sharon and Erin were planning that anyway it really made no difference for them. Show Host Andy runs a nice game, calls the number at a good pace, and because he keeps things moving, avoids the trap many HAL callers fall into of calling ultra-short games, such as the Four Corners. He starts of course with the standard Bingo. Today his second game was the B&O game, requiring 5 numbers in the B column and 5 numbers in the O calling, and requesting the winner to announce, “I have BO”. Erin actually got to stand for this game; but, to no avail. The third game was a “Six-Pack” (Free Space Allowed). Most everyone in the room was standing for this one, needing just one number. I had 5 different numbers that would give me Bingo; and, although I had the final call on four of my cards, none of them gave me Bingo! Sharon and Erin both came within two calls on the final Blackout Bingo, but it didn’t stop someone else from claiming the Bingo. Andy encouraged people to see the show that evening, featuring the HAL singers and dancers. When people groaned about their previous performance, he acknowledged that that one might be suited to a demographic with more eclectic tastes that might not be what you would expect to find on a HAL cruise. I’m not sure if he was calling us backwoods bumpkins or what. He felt we would enjoy tonight’s show.

I met Dennis outside the Wajang after mass, and the four of us went to dinner. We were again seated at a table for four, it’s almost like having assigned seating. I tried the smoked salmon tartar, which was very smoky, a little fishy, but all in all was what it was billed to be, a nice little appetizer. My shallots and butternut squash soup with red beet chips, served by pouring the creamy steaming soup over the beet chips, was one of the best soups that I’ve had on this cruise. My entrée was the smoked turkey salad. We had considered going to the Canaletto this evening when I’d reported that tonight’s menu didn’t have anything pop out for me; however, Dennis thought that he’d like the wiener schnitzel. The wild rice and chicken soup that Dennis and Erin ordered looked good. Dennis asked Yudi, the service supervisor in our lower level dinning area, why they brought the soup broth out in a separate pouring tureen, wondering if their bouillon was made from scratch or came from a big Campbell’s bouillon broth can. A big discussion followed on how the HAL “soup guy” makes all the soups from scratch, and how serving them this way, get the soups served hot and with better portion control of the lump ingredients of the soup (such as chicken, meat, shrimp, scallions and such). Yudi, as it turns out is a big Rubik’s cube enthusiast, and shared with us a picture of a large variety of Rubik’s cubes that he has in his cabin, all but one of which he’s mastered. He later brought by a Rubik’s cube for us to scramble, and demonstrated solving it in under one minute. He felt his time was much slower than his best; still, we were impressed. Erin also had the turkey salad dish; while, Sharon had the roast chicken breast with baked potato. For dessert, Sharon and I both tried the Chocolate Balance. That was the item Sharon had seen on the menu that made here want to eat here tonight; besides, that is preferring not to eat in the HAL Italian restaurant where her pickings are pretty meager.

After Show Host Andy’s endorsement, we were looking forward to the cast show. It began well, and we settled in expecting to enjoy the music and dancing. But HAL has gotten away from a former mainstay of having their shows “tell a story”. They’ve become a collage and collection of vignettes that are I guess connected in some way; but, I haven’t figured out exactly what way that might be. And the music is not what I have any recollection of hearing, every; although, Sharon said, “I’ve heard some of the songs before, I think.” When I chided here for being wishy-washy she asserted, “Well they were twice as good as their previous performance!” Hey, that really isn’t saying much… on a rating scale you go from one to two and it doesn’t matter if it’s on a scale of one to ten or one to one hundred. Erin agreed with me the next day, she didn’t much care for this show, “The Midnight Hour” either.



I went back to the cabin to do some reading and the laundry arrived that I had put in that morning. Sharon went to the piano bar.

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