Halifax

If it's Monday, it must be Halifax. That's the way this is beginning to feel. We're spending a fair amount of time getting to our stopping places. We're traveling all night, plus some of our day times. We don't really get to spend all that much time in the towns we visit. And what time we're there is largely spent in walking tours or bus tours. If we're lucky, we get an hour or so on our own. We appreciate that time, but it's not long enough to get beneath the surface. We've already decided we have to return to Nova Scotia on our own. If so, we'll see the Annapolis Valley and the Lighthouse Trail; we'll fully explore the South Shore. And, for sure, we'll see the well-known Peggy's Cove. Tomorrow we'll be on Cape Breton Island, and we won't be able to see the highly touted Cabot Trail. Who knows what else we'll come up with before our trip ends.

That having been said, today was our day to get a taste of Halifax. A much bigger town than what we've so far seen. It's a city of 350,000, for one thing. It has multiple shipyards. It also has the second largest natural harbor in the world--second only to Sydney, Australia. There were three other cruise ships in town today--and they were big things. Once again, we bumped into the Holland America's Veendam (last seen in Bar Harbor), plus Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Gem and the Emerald Princess. Made for a rather bustling waterfront and town.














Our first stop of the morning was the Fairview Lawn Cemetery to visit the graves of the Titanic victims. We had a very good local guide with us.

Next we went to the Citadel, where we spent an hour. Here we had a guided tour, led by a young regimental guard. We got to walk the upper wall and see the barracks and a rifle demonstration. Our time there culminated with the hourly changing of the guard.











Our bus and guide took us through the city to point out some special sites and buildings, dropping us off at the Public Gardens. We strolled through the garden, then made our way back to the waterfront. Our ship was sailing at 2pm, which left us little time to dawdle.











We had to have a harbor pilot on board both entering and departing Halifax. We were aware of it in the morning, but got to watch the departure process as we left this afternoon. Quite interesting.





Once out of the harbor, we started riding the swells and swooping our way east. We don't dock until noon tomorrow, so it may be a rather long night.


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