Halifax, Nova Scotia

Monday, September 26, 2011
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Halifax was another stop where we had no tours planned but did have a full day planned what with a number of historic churches and buildings to see as well as for me the star shaped Citadel fortress overlooking the city. First off Halifax was a little bit of a surprise when we saw it in that it was a much more commercially active city than we have been in so far. So there were many newer buildings and office blocks and the older buildings were interspersed in amongst the newer buildings very much like in Europe. The ports we have been in so far have been more historical or touristy so this was a little shock to see not that it looked bad just we had been out of this commercial world for a week now.

Halifax turned out to be very much a walking town for us . We had talked about taking a taxi to the Citadel and working our way downhill from there but bagged it for walking and boy did we walk. Along the waterfront, very nicely developed path and lovely area to walk, then uphill to the churches of St Mathew, St Mary's, and St David's. St Mathews and St David's were closed but were beautiful to see on the outside. The Basilica of St Mary's started in 1820 was open. It is a lovely example of Gothic Revival architecture with it's soaring vault ceiling lifting the prayerful up towards Heaven in their prayers. The stained glass windows were very beautiful. The lovely showed various scenes from the life of Mary. After that we went to the church of St Paul on the Grand Parade grounds. The old government buildsing on the opposite end of the grounds from St Paul's was covered in plastic for restoration work so decided to walk up the hill to the Citadel.

The Citadel as I said is an old star shaped fortress well preserved with costumed soldiers/docent's manning the guard posts and rooms to help visitors with questions . They were friendly and informative and between walking the walls, taking pictures, and talking to the guards we spent close to 1 1/2 hours at the fort. It really is interesting how these forts built in the age of canon used dirt between stone walls to absorb the shot and provide protection that just stone would not.

After the fort we walked to the waterfront and had lunch at an out door hamburger and hot dog stand before shopping a little and then heading back to the ship around 3:30 pm. I can tell you we were all dragging by that time what with the heat, the hill climb and the walking. We were ready to relax and take it easy the rest of the night. I napped a short time as we had a late night planned with the Philippines Crew members putting on a show at 11 pm. Luckily we gained an hour of sleep as we had a fairly early start planned for Bar Harbor. Well how was the show? As Christina said nice but not that great. So more or less glad we went but not sure I would bother again for a similar show. They had a featured drink that was delicious.
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Comments

Kathy
2011-09-29

Hi Mike, I have really been enjoying your blog! Looks like you are all having a great time!!!

2025-02-17

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