Nova Scotia is great
Vacation over, first week of work too. We had a great time in Nova Scotia. If anyone I know is considering spending their vacation there, I'll most certainly support that idea because:
- The coast line is very beautiful and impressive (as is documented in our zillions of photos).
- People are extremely warm and friendly.
- The tourism industry is very well organized.
- It's seafood paradise. (The first people we've shown our vacation photos to have already noticed that they have a high food documentation content. ;) )
The Nova Scotia week started with B&D's wedding last Saturday, of course, which was lots of fun. Thanks again, B&D! The Sunday after, we went to Peggy's Cove and Lunenburg with Charles & Melanie. Peggy's Cove, to my surprise, in spite of all the tourists meandering there every year has not lost its charm of being a tiny fishing village in the middle of nowhere. I really liked it. The rugged bare landscape around it with glacial rocks scattered everywhere is special too and very beautiful. In Lunenburg, a cute but somewhat died out town with no people anywhere, we saw the Bluenose II. For dinner, I tried the (in)famous Halifax donair, which consists of alleged meat product with tomato, onion and liquid sugar glacing in pita bread. The first time will remain the last time.
C&M returned to Montreal the next morning. Matt and I drove up to Cape Breton Island. First night we stopped in Cheticamp, at the entry of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Tried snow crab (tip of Ben's dad Gaby) - very good! Cheticamp itself is not too exciting, but Germaine's Bed&Breakfast was nice and her homemade jams just delicious. Next day we drove through the park along the Cabot Trail. It's really cool! Lots of impressive nature views. We stopped to hike the Skyline Trail, where we saw whales and, more importantly and from more close by, a mama moose with her tiny baby. Apparently there are lots of moose in the area. These two just hung out for a little midday rest about 5 metres away from the hiking trail. We finished the Trail through the park over the rest of the day, interspersed with another two small hikes.
The next day's programm was the Scottish Highland Village museum in Iona in the morning and the Glace Bay coal mining museum in the afternoon. Both were really good. The Highland Village represents a real village and as you move from house to house you follow the settlers through their development, starting with a stone and earth hut in the old world and the first log cabin having just arrived in the new world to better equipped 19th century houses with first telephones. A special theme was on how the spinning of wool evolved, which I found very interesting. At the coal mining museum, they have dug a real coal mine underneath, that the tour started with. We were shown around by old miners. Coal mining is a tough job!
The following day actually even topped that one. We went to Fortress Louisbourg, which was just opening up for the season. The way it is build, with parking lot and visitor centre hidden away in the forest, and a bus bringing people over to the historic site, it's like entering into another world. The Canadian government rebuild part of the 1750 French town and fortress and all summer staffs it with people in original costume pretending to live there. We loved it! Even the taverns serve old style food and the soldiers do military exercises similar to the Halifax citadel.
Our last full day of Nova Scotia we spent at the Bay of Fundy, walked around at low tide, saw proto-lobsters and hermite crabs with their sea shell houses in the tidal puddles. Had fish cakes for lunch, then returned to see the water return. You could really watch it move in. Later we went to Truro to see the tidal bore. That's a wall of water moving up the river as tide comes in and hits the water stream of the river flowing towards the sea. Because tides weren't very high that day, it ended up being no more than a rather unexciting tidal ripple. But hey, I now know that such thing as a tidal bore exists. The next day we flew back to Germania.
You can check out a selection of our photos here!
- The coast line is very beautiful and impressive (as is documented in our zillions of photos).
- People are extremely warm and friendly.
- The tourism industry is very well organized.
- It's seafood paradise. (The first people we've shown our vacation photos to have already noticed that they have a high food documentation content. ;) )
The Nova Scotia week started with B&D's wedding last Saturday, of course, which was lots of fun. Thanks again, B&D! The Sunday after, we went to Peggy's Cove and Lunenburg with Charles & Melanie. Peggy's Cove, to my surprise, in spite of all the tourists meandering there every year has not lost its charm of being a tiny fishing village in the middle of nowhere. I really liked it. The rugged bare landscape around it with glacial rocks scattered everywhere is special too and very beautiful. In Lunenburg, a cute but somewhat died out town with no people anywhere, we saw the Bluenose II. For dinner, I tried the (in)famous Halifax donair, which consists of alleged meat product with tomato, onion and liquid sugar glacing in pita bread. The first time will remain the last time.
C&M returned to Montreal the next morning. Matt and I drove up to Cape Breton Island. First night we stopped in Cheticamp, at the entry of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Tried snow crab (tip of Ben's dad Gaby) - very good! Cheticamp itself is not too exciting, but Germaine's Bed&Breakfast was nice and her homemade jams just delicious. Next day we drove through the park along the Cabot Trail. It's really cool! Lots of impressive nature views. We stopped to hike the Skyline Trail, where we saw whales and, more importantly and from more close by, a mama moose with her tiny baby. Apparently there are lots of moose in the area. These two just hung out for a little midday rest about 5 metres away from the hiking trail. We finished the Trail through the park over the rest of the day, interspersed with another two small hikes.
The next day's programm was the Scottish Highland Village museum in Iona in the morning and the Glace Bay coal mining museum in the afternoon. Both were really good. The Highland Village represents a real village and as you move from house to house you follow the settlers through their development, starting with a stone and earth hut in the old world and the first log cabin having just arrived in the new world to better equipped 19th century houses with first telephones. A special theme was on how the spinning of wool evolved, which I found very interesting. At the coal mining museum, they have dug a real coal mine underneath, that the tour started with. We were shown around by old miners. Coal mining is a tough job!
The following day actually even topped that one. We went to Fortress Louisbourg, which was just opening up for the season. The way it is build, with parking lot and visitor centre hidden away in the forest, and a bus bringing people over to the historic site, it's like entering into another world. The Canadian government rebuild part of the 1750 French town and fortress and all summer staffs it with people in original costume pretending to live there. We loved it! Even the taverns serve old style food and the soldiers do military exercises similar to the Halifax citadel.
Our last full day of Nova Scotia we spent at the Bay of Fundy, walked around at low tide, saw proto-lobsters and hermite crabs with their sea shell houses in the tidal puddles. Had fish cakes for lunch, then returned to see the water return. You could really watch it move in. Later we went to Truro to see the tidal bore. That's a wall of water moving up the river as tide comes in and hits the water stream of the river flowing towards the sea. Because tides weren't very high that day, it ended up being no more than a rather unexciting tidal ripple. But hey, I now know that such thing as a tidal bore exists. The next day we flew back to Germania.
You can check out a selection of our photos here!