Our two year stay in Yellowknife is over. Before heading back to the Netherlands, we are spending 3 more weeks in beautiful Canada. This time we’re exploring the east coast.
July 1 – Yellowknife – Halifax
After some frantic packing on Thursday (till 12.30 in the morning and after deciding to ship one extra box back home – which makes 4 boxes in total), we left Yellowknife on Friday morning July 1st at 6am in the morning. After a stop in Calgary as well as in Toronto, we landed safely in Halifax at 7.40pm. We got our suitcases quickly and were able to take the Airporter shuttle bus at 8pm to the hotel in Dartmouth (right across the water from Halifax). We had a room with a beautiful harbour view and were able to see the Canada Day fireworks from our window! It was strange to experience the darkness at 10pm again though!
July 2 – Halifax
we had a wonderful sleep and got up around 8am. We took the 9.30 ferry across the harbour to explore Halifax for the day. The weather was great (approx. 25 degrees Celsius). A quick summary of the day would be:
10 am: a visit to the old farmers’ market, where we had a late breakfast with coffee and some fresh baked goods.
11 am: we walked over the boardwalk to the new farmers’ market, near Pier 21.
12 am: we toured the Pier 21 museum. This is where new immigrants would enter Canada from the early 1900s to 1971. It was a very interesting historic place and a great multimedia presentation + guided tour were included.
Around 1.30 we decided to go for lunch at the farmers’ market (lots of good fresh food to be found). And we walked back to the Alexander Keith’s brewery, where we did a fun tour, which ended with a taste of beer (even Judith had half a glass of Keith’s Red!). Even though the alcohol made our legs feel a bit heavy, we decided to climb up the hill next, to pay a visit to the Citadel. An historic landmark! We spent 2 hours, of which one hour was a very good guided tour in the Citadel fortress. By then, it was already 6pm and it was definitely time to find a restaurant to get some dinner. To celebrate our first day of this wonderful trip, we decided to go to Salty’s upstairs, an upscale restaurant, where we had some good (sea)food! Yummy! At 8.15 we took the ferry back to our hotel, and after some coffee we did some more repacking (since we’ll be back in the same hotel at the end of our trip, we decided to leave 2 suitcases behind).
July 3 Halifax – Riverdale
we woke up at 7.30, called Jitze (Judith’s brother) for his 28th birthday, and checked out the hotel. We took the 8.30 Airport shuttle back to the airport. Not to go on a flight, but to pick up our rental car. After the necessary paperwork, we were able to drive away at 9.30. Our first stop was Tim Hortons, for our final preparations (and some necessary coffee fuel!). We were truly on our way around 9.45 am. We took the Lighthouse Trail down to Lunenburg, which was our first stop. We walked around a little and had lunch there with a great view. At 1pm we were on our way again. The roads were twisting and turning, so it took more time then we had expected, so when we got to Liverpool around 2.30pm, we decided it was time to take the highway instead, to be able to reach our destination – still quite a drive – in a reasonable time. We were going to stay with Ben’s parents. Ben is Dave’s partner, and Dave was one of Judith’s colleagues at Kellett. Keith and Gaylene’s hospitality was amazing! we arrived around 5.15 at their place, in the middle of nowhere. A true Novia Scotia experience. So beautiful! We were allowed to stay in their cabin on the lake. The most spectacular view and just a beautiful place. After some snacks on the porch, Keith and Gaylene prepared a delicious dinner for us, and we had a great time together. They went back to their home up the road around 9.30 and we went to bed, after planning our next day.
July 4 Riverdale – Maitland
We got up around 7.30 and had breakfast with fresh (still warm!) muffins, which Gaylene had dropped off at the cabin, before she went to her work. After that, Bas went fishing for an hour or so, and actually caught a couple of fish. Judith started typing up this blog post. Around 9.30 we went over to the main house, where we could take a shower, before heading out to our next destination. We arrived in Digby around 11am, we walked around for a bit and drove on to Annapolis Royal for another walk around the shore. we were very surprised to see Dawn Oman’s gallery right downtown in Annapolis. Dawn Oman is a Yellowknifian artist, who moved away last year. Apparently, she went to Annapolis! We told her we came from Yellowknife and actually had bought some of her art there last year. She was more than happy to have her picture taken with Judith. What a coincidence! Unfortunately, we didn’t have room in our luggage for more art, otherwise we would have shopped some more. Oh well…
After Annapolis Royal, we drove on to a nearby small town, Port Royal. We visited a reconstructed ‘habitation’, a small fortress settlement from the 17th century. Interesting! We still had some way to go, before reaching Maitland, and on the way we decided to make a few more stops and detours. First we stopped in Grand Pré. This was a place where the French had been deported by the British in the 17th century. Lots of history in these surroundings! Finally we stopped in Noel Shore to look at the tide. Maitland was only about 10 more minutes further down the road. Our Bed & Breakfast room is wonderful. Cozy, luxurious and well-equipped. The owners are very friendly and we are immensly enjoying the view from our room and from the surrounding garden. It is just beautiful! You can see the famous tide right from the window. Gorgeous! When we arrived here just before 6pm, we hadn’t had dinner yet, and there’s not much nearby to go for dinner. Therefore, we drove to Truro, about half an hour from here. We looked for a restaurant that was mentioned in the Lonely Planet, but it was closed for the evening… fortunately we had a back-up plan; a Chinese restaurant we had just passed on the road. The food was delicious and plentiful (enough left-overs for lunch tomorrow for sure!). We were back at the B&B around 8.30 and sat outside for a bit with a coffee, before it got too dark and the mosquitos too bad… Now, it’s about 10pm and we’re going to get some sleep after posting this blog 😉