This post is a day late because the B&B I was staying at didn't have internet access.This morning I went to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. It's a good sized museum and I was there for most of the morning. They also had some real ships out back (a science vessel and I think a retired Canadian frigate) which I didn't have the time to check out. In addition to the sailboat and model ship collections they had exhibits on the Titanic, Halifax harbour explosion, and the fall of Louisbourg -- the penultimate French defeat before the Plains of Abraham. One interesting factoid was about the British General James Wolfe who was instrumental in pioneering amphibious assault techniques. They were used to great effect in Lousibourg and again for Quebec city. Here's a shot of one of my favourite exhibits: it's the light and lens assembly from a lighthouse. You can see how the small light is magnified immensely by the lens elements.
Next it was time to hit the road and leave Halifax. There are a number of picturesque little hamlets and towns within 1-2 hours of Halifax. First stop: Peggy's Cove.Peggy's Cove definitely lives up to the hype of being a picturesque hamlet. However, it was crawling with tourists. There's a restaurant cleverly situated at the end of the road that charges $5 to park in exchange for a $5 voucher that's redeemable inside the gift shop. A little further down the highway is a memorial for the Swissair 111 disaster.
If you stand in the circle at the bottom of the photo, the left rock points toward the crash site in the ocean.I briefly stopped in Mahone Bay -- another idyllic town. Unfortunately it was getting quite foggy and I wasn't able to take any decent photos.
Lunenberg is one of only two North American cities that are UNESCO heritage sites (the other being Quebec City). When Britain was trying to expand it's empire in the New World, they had trouble finding enough colonists and so they found French, Germans, and Swiss settlers who were willing to go. In addition to the varied mix of architecture found in the town Lunenberg was also a major fishing and ship building port. But, both industries have since declined although numerous sailing ships still dock here to take advantage of the ship fitting skills of the inhabitants. The most famous is the Bluenose II for which Lunenberg is its home port. Unfortunately, the Bluenose II wasn't there when I arrived.
I also splurged in Lunenberg and had my first real seafood meal since arriving in Atlantic Canada: haddock, Atlantic salmon, Digby scallops, shrimp, and mussles all locally caught. Awesome.I finished Lunenberg at a good time -- during my drive to Annapolis Royal it started to rain and I was glad to get off the highways when I arrived at the B&B.
