Nova Scotia is great! We have spent Wednesday, Thursday and part of today, Friday, trying to see as much as we could. It meant that we had to select and omit areas that we wanted to see but just hadn’t time for. This has meant marathon driving for Jim - even more than he had to do on our road trip to the Rockies.
On Wednesday we got up very early and were en route for the Confederation Bridge before 7 a.m. The Confederation Bridge (13 km long)connects with New Brunswick and then we entered Nova Scotia around Amherst. From there we went directly to the capital, Halifax, which we were told should not be missed. 30 minutes, or a bit more, in Halifax meant we didn’t miss it! Because we got lost (Nuvi’s fault!) the drive was about 5 hours, about 30 minutes more than expected. We knew the tall ships festival was starting on Thursday and hoped that the crowds would not have started. The crowds were there making it impossible to find parking. We finally went into the Marriott car park which costs an exorbitant $3.50 a half hour with a ceiling of $27. There was no choice! Some of the tall ships were there also so they were nice to see.
We saw The Unicorn which is completely manned (or should I say womanned) by women. Jim had seen an item about it on the news the evening before where it discussed the amount of confidence it gave to young women with body image issues.
We walked (hurriedly pushing past the crowds of dawdlers who were there to stroll about and relax)) along the waterfront, making our way to the ? where giggly Sarah gave us some advice for our itinerary. Basically it was to get out of Halifax (no accommodation other than really expensive places), see Peggy’s Cove and Lunenburg and get to Truro to stay the night where we would have cut off 2 hours of our journey for Thursday when we were going to tour Cape Breton, the most scenic part of Nova Scotia. She had no concern for the number of hours we were adding on to what already had been a long drive! Sarah booked us a room in a Holiday Inn in Truro and giggled even more as she tried to ascertain if we needed one queen bed or two. We assured us that we were in the habit of sharing a bed.
When I was just a little boy,
Before I went to school,
I had a fleet of forty sail
I called the Ships of Yule;
Of every rig, from rakish brig
And gallant barkentine,
To little Fundy fishing boats
With gunwales painted green.
They used to go on trading trips
Around the world for me,
For though I had to stay on shore
My heart was on the sea.
It was lunch time but a quick look at the already full-to-capacity restaurants on the waterfront encouraged us to high tail it to Peggy’s Cove and eat at the Sou’wester, recommended by Sarah. One other problem - a queue a mile long at the washrooms at the ? But no one batted an eye in the Marriott as we located their conveniences - after all we were going to spend more than a penny! We were pleasantly surprised when our parking cost only $3.50 (plus 2 p, of course) - so we could only have been half an hour admiring tall ships and giggling with Sarah!
Peggy’s Cove, a tiny rugged cove which attracts masses of tourists because of its beauty, is 45 minutes from Halifax. It was packed with people - some had even brought their folding chairs and were perched atop granite rocks drinking in the scene. However, it is well set up for parking and we found a spot easily enough. Getting food looked like it would be more of a problem so we ordered (once we managed to get a server’s attention that is) seafood chowder which arrived swiftly. Jim took some photos and I hadn’t the heart to mention to him (after all, he had hours more to drive!) that I wanted to have a look in the village where a painter and sculptor, William deGarthe, had created murals in the church, created a sculpture of Peggy and transformed an outcrop of granite into a monument to the fishermen of Peggy's Cove. He began this piece of work in 1977, at the age of 70, using power tools and hand chisels. It depicts life-size images of hard-working fishermen, their wives and Peggy herself, all watched over by a guardian angel. Unfortunately deGarthe passed away in 1983, leaving his beautiful monument incomplete. I had to be satisfied instead with the beautiful carvings of nature in Peggy's Cove.
Who is Peggy? Most people will tell you that Peggy is the nickname for Margaret, and so an appropriate name for this small cove located at the mouth of St. Margaret's Bay. I prefer the more romantic story. They say that a young woman named Margaret, after being rescued from a shipwreck, settled here and fell in love with one of her rescuers. People would often come to visit this famous "Peggy of the Cove" and the cove eventually became known as Peggy's Cove.
 |
| This woman was 'entertaining' people with her accordeon-playing and singing - It was dire! I reckon people were paying her to shut up! |
 |
| Would you chance taking a tour in this? |
 |
| The village (unexplored bu us!) |
 |
| Peggy's Cove from the Preservation Area. |
We then set the GPS for Lunenburg but stopped off briefly at the site of the Swissair Flight 111 disaster area, which is in the Preservation Area. On 2nd Seotember 1998 the aircraft used for this flight, a Mc Donnell Douglas MD 11, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean 8 km from shore roughly equidistant from the tiny fishing and tourist communities of Peggy's Cove and Bayswater. All 229 people on board died. There is a memorial at the site.
It's now Saturday and good weather is beckoning - we reckon we might not get too much at home so we're going out to enjoy it. I will continue this later.
No comments:
Post a Comment