Halifax
2011/09/12
Short and easy drive to Halifax today. This is where my mother was born, though she didn’t live here for long.
Finding hotel rooms is easier now that kids are back in school; that first order of business was out of the way by 3pm.
Went downtown and had a quick look around. It’s a fairly small city, perhaps twice the size of Brandon, but it has a nicer downtown with some fairly old buildings:
There is, of course, a harbour with cruise ships and two large bridges. It kind of reminds me of a mini-Vancouver actually.
Went to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. It’s small but pretty interesting. They had temporary exhibits about the Titanic and about the early gay subculture amongst sailors (lending more depth to Smithers’s comment about women and seamen not mixing). But my favorite parts were the exhibit about the 1917 harbour explosion, and their collection of model ships, which I love. A few photos:
I then went to Peggy’s Cove, which is a small fishing village that contains Canada’s most-photographed lighthouse and is likely one of our most-photographed villages too. It’s every bit as picturesque as you might think, and I would say it’s a must-visit if you’re on the east coast. It’s about a 45-minute drive from Halifax, but I’m sure there are bus tours that go there.
It’s a very stark landscape – the rolling hills are all rock, carved by glaciers, and the land is littered with lichen-crusted boulders dropped by the glaciers. Ground cover is moss and low plants, with the occasional stand of small coniferous trees. It must get pretty bitter here in the winter and during storms.
Assorted Peggy’s Cove pictures:
Near the lighthouse there was a young woman busking with bagpipes to earn college money. I gave her some money because I like bagpipe music.
Self-portrait with landscape:
And today I’m feeling better about yesterday. I’m more confident now that skipping Newfoundland was a good decision, and also I talked to my parents about the location of the house near Harcourt, and we’re pretty sure I should have been able to see it given the distance I walked along the hydro lines; there’s nothing left of it now (it has been 35 years, after all).
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