Lighthouse Route

"Peggy," of Peggy's Cove. Oh, and Nancy, too.

Thursday 16 May
Halifax, Nova Scotia

Today, we based out of Halifax, and hit the road down the South Shore of Nova Scotia along the "Lighthouse Route."  There are quite a few of them scattered along the South Shore (and elsewhere in NS, too), and the tourism board created a driving route for viewing them.  Actually, there are driving routes for just about everything here on Nova Scotia: lighthouses, ceilidhs, farms, anything that might be of interest.  It's a great place to be a tourist!

The day started quite wet & misty, with steady rain.  Not really the best for spectacular ocean vistas, but this is the day we allotted for this activity, so let's go!  The road, a secondary provincial highway, wound through some residential and semi-rural neighborhoods, before entering the Peggy's Cove area.  The landscape changes to a mix of ice-age boulders, scrubby bushes, and rounded, polished granite.  It's fascinating.  Peggy's Cove sits in St. Margaret's Bay.  You can read more about it by clicking the link.  Anyway, the lighthouse, which the locals call "Peggy," looks as though it's growing out of the rock.  It's a charming place, even in the rain.  And, actually, especially in the rain, perhaps, because if the size of the car park is anything to go on, it gets very busy here in the summer.  I liked it a lot, though, and the little village reminded me of Scotland.

Off down the road we went, where shortly we noticed a small sign for the "Swissair Flight 111 Memorial Site."  We pulled in there, to join just one other vehicle, a minivan emptying out a family.  The mom cheerfully handled the fact that it was raining and cold, and perhaps their day out wasn't going to be as nice as they'd planned.  Kind of like us.  

Swissair Flight 111 crashed in early September 1998 just off Nova Scotia, and all aboard perished.  The memorial is actually in two parts:  this first part near Peggy's Cove, and the second across the bay at Bayswater.  The names and the remains are at Bayswater; the Peggy's Cove part acknowledges the loss, and thanks the locals who helped in the tragedy.  It's moving to see, especially in the rain and mist.

Back on the road, winding down around through the various bays and coves.  We saw plenty of lobster traps ready to be taken out to the water - the Canadian lobstermen have been in a mini-protest of sorts this week, over low prices for their catches.  They've agreed to to back to the waters, at least in NS and NB.  We'll see about PEI. 

We stopped for lunch in Chester, a pretty little town, but with no place to park!  We found a little place out near the highway, though - a hockey-themed pub. Of course. 

We drove through Mahone, and saw its many little islands and also its famous three churches, all lined up.  In fact, there are lots of churches here in Nova Scotia, apparently!  Mahone also has pretty Victorian houses along the waterfront.

Down the road a bit more, we came upon Lunenberg, which is something else altogether - I mean that in a good way. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site, because of its design and architecture.  It's thought to be one of the best examples of a planned British colonial settlement in North America.  It's also known for its German connections (persisting to this day - we saw a sauerkraut factory!). Lunenberg is also famous for being the home of the Bluenose II schooner, a replica of the famous Bluenose that won a number of sailing races.  And, is famous enough to have its image on the Canadian dime. Anyway, Bluenose II wasn't in harbour, but we had a look around anyway.

All this wandering takes time!  We decided to spend our time in quality, not quantity, and as it was already about mid-afternoon, we decided to head back to Halifax and spend some time in the city.  We zipped back along the main highway, had a quick stop at the hotel, then drove right down into Halifax proper.  Parked along the waterfront, and enjoyed a stroll in now-dry, glorious weather.  Very pretty evening in the gloaming.  Halifax's waterfront is easy to navigate, in that there is a broad wooden walkway from end to end.  It winds around various old wharves, which have been turned into shops and restaurants (of course.) 

We were amused by an art installation on one of the piers (actually, I think it's usually the downtown helipad) - the two artists who created it are known for taking common objects (or representations thereof) and turning them into something else.  This installation, on the waterfront through September, features three streetlights.  One's slumped to the ground, another is looking over it, and a third is, well, let's say the suggestion is that it's relieving itself out into the bay!  The installation is titled: "Got Drunk, Fell Down"  Those wacky Canadians!

 "Got Drunk, Fell Down" 

 

 

We had a nice dinner down on the water, then came back to the hotel.  And! finally met the resident Chocolate Lab!  She's pretty oblivious to everyone, unless they come bearing food.  I was only able to appreciate her from a distance tonight.  Maybe tomorrow?  I can't get the picture Nancy took to post - maybe tomorrow on that, too?

 

And with that, we'll wrap up today.  Tomorrow:  heading north to Cape Breton Island!

 

cheers,

--Kit and Nancy