TRAVELOGUE
Friday, May 15, 2009
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Greetings from Nova Scotia!
This morning we woke to cloudy skies and drizzly weather in Halifax, Nova Scotia. As the Maasdam pulled into port and tied up at the pier, a group of four bagpipers all dressed in formal Scottish kilts were giving our ship the “traditional” welcome to Nova Scotia by playing the bagpipes for about half an hour right alongside the pier.
This was, so far, our most colorful port of call – but not what you think . Our bus tour began early this morning at 8:30 a.m. We boarded the motor coach along with twenty some other people with our tour guide Joe McSweeney. We chose this particular tour because we have visited Halifax twice before and really had seen the city of Halifax; so we wanted to see some of the countryside this time – and that is exactly what we did. As we left the city proper and headed out, we were almost immediately in a heavily wooded area on both sides of the highway, with pines and birch trees so thick you could not see further in than about 20 feet from the road. Every so often, there would be a small, fresh water lake or stream on one side of the bus or the other. We continued like this for about an hour and a quarter until we reached our first stop of Mahone Bay.
Mahone Bay is known for being a land of wooden boats and wooden churches. There are gorgeous old Victorian homes along the waterfront with fabulous views of the bay. What was so striking about the homes was that even though winter had just finished here (average temperature in the winter is about 32 degrees), they all looked like they had been freshly painted. Each of the homes is painted a different vibrant and strikingly bright color, generally with white trim and shutters. There were pink, purple, yellow, orange, bright green and bright blue homes. There are several theories as to why the homes are all painted different colors – one is that the homes each match the color of the fishermen’s fishing boats – another is that after coming back from being a sea fishing for several days, the fishermen wanted to be able to know exactly which home was theirs – thus the different bright colors. No one really knows the true answer. But colorful they are!!
From Mahone Bay, our bus continued along the curvy coastal route to Lunenburg. The homes in Lunenburg are just as colorful as the ones in Mahone Bay. The only difference is that Lunenburg is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of the restored buildings. Lunenburg is on a hill and at the top of the hill is the Lunenberg Academy – a huge Victorian style building painted white with burgundy red trim and roof – now an elementary school. From there, Joe took us on a walk down the hill past many of the old historical homes and churches. Here, again as in Mahone Bay, we found the bright colorful homes that all looked like they had just been painted. The homes all have large yards and there are no fences anywhere. The lawns are all thick green grass that is meticulously manicured and they all have dandelions blooming throughout. The landscaping consists mostly of azaleas, which are in full bloom right now with vibrant colors of magenta and bright pink.
The one bush that was the most fascinating for us today was the “pink magnolia”. Never before have we ever seen a magnolia “bush” much less one with pink magnolia blossoms blanketing every branch. The flowers are about one-quarter the size of a magnolia blossom on a magnolia tree like we saw in Charleston. They are so beautiful, and put them next to the azaleas – oh my gosh what a burst of color! This place looks just like a constant Thomas Kinkade painting!
Once we finally got to the bottom of the hill with Joe, we were set loose to go explore on our own. Jim and I found The Dockside Restaurant and went in for a lunch. We each had a bowl of Lunenburg’s Famous Seafood Chowder – which was similar to a New England red chowder, but so full of seafood that the cup was about ¾ full with chopped seafood and ¼ liquid. Then, we split a lobster sandwich. Our tummies being full at that point, we took off to go explore some of the shops around the dock area.
We ended our walk in Lunenburg at the Fisheries Museum of Lunenburg and aquarium. Jim went through the museum while I looked through all of the maps and books that were on display. I wanted to figure out where exactly we were and where we were headed to next. It is difficult to understand where you are, when you are sitting on a bus watching the world go by one curve after another.
The bays are full of wooden boats, tall masted sailing ships and well-seasoned fishing vessels as well as old, rusted tug boats. The homes seem to be quite close to the water, and most all of them have a view of the water and have large front porches with Adirondack chairs on them for just sitting there on a summer day with a glass of homemade lemonade and watching the tourists admire them. You could almost smell the coffee brewing early in the morning and the bacon sizzling on the stove as another day begins. There are only about two thousand residents in each of these towns and not much industry – so it is mostly a retirement community now. In fact, we passed several fabulous looking retirement complexes during the day.
As we sailed out of Halifax this afternoon, a light, misty rain was falling, but the seas were relatively calm. We went up to the Crow’s Nest to take in the view from there as we headed out to sea. Along the coastline, you could not help but notice the rather large (probably 10,000 square feet at least) homes that dotted the coast line. The fog was coming in and the ships’ horn would blast every minute or so as a warning that the Maasdam was under way.
After dinner tonight we went back up to the Crow’s Nest to play Name that Tune. Our team came in 4th – but not the big winners. The “participation” events on this cruise are really well attended – i.e. trivia, etc. Another jigsaw puzzle was set out today while we were on our 7 ½ hour tour – Lighthouses. We’ve already gone down and placed a few pieces today and I’m sure will do so again tomorrow.
I am going to send a few pictures to you in a separate email so that you can see some of the beautiful colors we’ve been seeing. We just wish we could share all of this beauty with all of you – and this is the only way we can do that – so…
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