Lunenburg is where the battery in my camera died.. I managed to get these shots done and then "borrowed" my sisters camera for the rest of the trip.
Lunenburg was a Germanic settlement and all the churches around town attest to it. We did a fair bit of walking and exploring around this UNESCO world heritage site.. making the necessary stops at the Bluenose II and the Maritime Museum. More pictures and posts from the trip will happen in March when my sister comes to town with her pictures.
so I'll leave you with these.
Mary and I got really excited about staying in this Inn - the oldest continuously operating Inn in Canada and the most original eighteenth century Inn in North America. Our parents were not as impressed with the lack of central heating.
We rented a car in Halifax and drove down the coast to Peggy's Cove. If we paid any attention to the guide books we would have gotten there earlier. This small, very small town, bursts with tourists! It's like a tiny Tofino with the same amount of tourists.The lighthouse is totally accessible which is cool and it's also a post office!
I wish I had gotten a shot on the bog of all the erratics (perched boulders) that were left by the glaciers retreat and melt. The whole area was like a moon-scape.
and finally... Tofino need some of these
Our trip through the maritimes began and ended with Halifax.
We spent a few days when we first arrived going to the Maritime museum, pier 21 and to the citadel.
I had my first proper lobster dinner in Halifax.. and I must say fresh lobster is really very good. Almost as good as crab.
In the harbour we ran into this guy... do you remember Theodore Tugboat? I do, what I didn't know was that it was set and made in halifax! This was a harbor cruise boat but we also saw the original set and characters in the Maritime Museum
Up by the citadel... we had to walk a little ways to find it.. but there it was.. a very important street
From Quebec we went east to the Maritimes. Can you believe none of us had been there? The train ride was really relaxing and awesome actually.
We opted for the excellent "Easterly class" which included meals, sleeper cars, a park car and tour guides and naturalists.. well worth it.
OK, I'm going to geek out a little. I just found this really interesting.
These are some of the salt marshes of the Bay of Fundy. The Acadians settled here and constructed dykes with system of one way valves called aboiteaux, that allowed fresh water from the marsh to drain out but preventing salt water from entering. But here is the really cool part.. on the opposite side of the track (the area I didn't take a picture of) there was all these tall thin poles.. Radio towers! the salt in the ground made for excellent conduction and amplification .. This is the site of the Radio Canada International broadcasting! cool.
The second day we took to go to the Citadel and the Plains of Abraham. I had no clue that they would be so integrated within the city.
The day started with a tour of the Citadel home of the Van Doo's. With Canada being at war in Afghanistan we had all heard of the Van Doo regiment what we didn't know was that Van Doo is a anglophone pronunciation of the regiment number Vent Deux (22). From the citadels top wall you could see all of the plains of Abraham as well as the St. Laurence and the city.
The rest of the day we wandered though the Plains of Abraham. Most (ALL) Canadians should know about the battle(s) fought here and really everyone should visit them. It was one of the most memorable places of the whole trip. Seeing the spot where Wolfe received his mortal wound, imagining what the battle must have been like. The plains are rightly now a national park, but did you know that the plains of Abraham were named that because a guy named Abraham rented them to pasture his animals?
I would have never guessed!
I love Quebec City. Love it. It has enough Europe flair to make me feel chique being there and enough Canada to make me feel at home. If I spoke French even a little bit better I would move there. The old city is tight knit and comfortable. Lots of hills (not surprising) and views of the water. We did a few things in the city but I think the best thing we did was a walking tour. The tour started at Chateau Frontenac, once the governor's residence and now a luxury hotel. We then wandered down through the Seminaire de Quebec. It was full of school kids and so quite loud and full of echos but really beautiful.
We wandered down outside the city walls and into Place Royal. Almost all of the land beneath the city walls is reclaimed land. The area we wandered into was built to recreate what the city would have looked like in Champlains time. This was a requirement the city fulfilled in order to receive UNESCO world heritage classification.
We ended with some shopping (of course) the main tourist-y shopping street was directly below the chateau and was extremely busy.
Man my updates about our trip are pretty lackluster .. few and far between. Party I blame my sister. but that only can go so far as.. well... the first group of pictures were taken on my camera and it's my job to upload them.
This is the altar in Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal. Mom and I ducked in here after wandering around in the morning checking out old Montreal. It was one of the only days that was overcast and rainy. We were just so lucky.
