After breakfast at the hotel -- free of charge since the air conditioning is still on the fritz -- we walked to the car and headed off to Peggy's Cove. We had been getting mixed signals about whether the roads farther west from Peggy's Cove were closed due to wildfires but once at the Cove we confirmed with the tourist information folks that indeed they were open! So from Peggy's Cove it was on to Lunenberg via Mahone Bay with a stop for lunch in Hubbards.
Once outside of Halifax we wended our way to Rte 333 and meandered past one small village after another, most of them perched on or close to the water. We soon found Peggy's Cove and pulled into the spacious parking area overlooking the ocean. (You can find information about the origin of the name more details about this gorgeous bit of rock and its old fishing village right here.)
When we arrived the sun was bright in a clear blue sky but the wind was rather fierce as we strolled across the village to the lighthouse and back.
Once can see right off why this place is so famous among artists and photographers -- it just begs to be painted or photographed.
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| looking farther southwest down the coast |
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| Richard just happy to be here! |
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| looking back to the observation deck from the lighthouse |
From Peggy's Cove we returned to our shoreline meandering back west-southwest until we reached the tiny village of Hubbards where we stopped for a delicious lunch at the funky Trellis Cafe.
Back on the road we made our way through Mahone Bay, a wonderful place worthy of a serious stop, but we pushed on to Lunenberg, where we found parking right down on the waterfront near the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic.
Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993 it is also a National Historic Site of Canada. (
Want more?)
The town sits on a series of ridges overlooking the harbor which reminded Richard of San Francisco and indeed the streets, while short, were steep. One of the things we wanted to see was St. John's Anglican Church. Along the way we walked past the Royal Canadian Legion Hall which sported a block of the Berlin Wall on the corner.
The original church burned down in 2001 and was rebuilt soon after. Unfortunately it was closed the day we visited but we thought a beautiful structure well worth a tour.
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| St. John's |
From the church we walked back a couple of blocks to the memorial park, with plagues and plinths commemorating the Norwegians who trained here during World War Two as well as the local men who died in World Wars One and Two.
Just opposite and up the street from the memorial park is the Central United Church. We wouldn't have given more than passing notice except a man had just opened the door and invited us in if we'd like. So we did.
Once inside we discovered a huge, cavernous space with a ceiling of carved wood and matching buttresses and what seemed like a veritable sea of pews.
John, the organist and choir director as it turned out was there to get ready for choir rehearsal later that day and had let us inside kindly chatted with us about the church. He proved to be a literal font of information about the churches in the area as well as local history and we all thoroughly enjoyed the conversation.
We returned to Halifax via the limited access Rte 103 and were back in the hotel by about 6:30pm. Richard and Pauline took a quick swim and by 7:15 we were back out, this time walking up toward Argyle Street and our supper venue for the evening the Five Fishermen.
On the way we stopped off at Lot Six for drinks.
After a delicious meal of seafood all round (Arctic Char for Susie and Richard, shrimp and mussels with linguine for Pauline and Halibut for me) we walked back to the hotel and headed off for a well-earned night's rest.
Tomorrow we check out and drive north to Cape Breton Island and Baddeck!
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| strolling down Argyle Street |
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