Northern Vacation- Day 7

It was another busy day in steamy Halifax.  Our first port of call was the Shearwater Aviation Museum.  Unlike the last museum, the staff at this museum were actually interactive.  An older gentleman greeted us at the door and gave us a personal tour.  As someone who doesn't know a lot about planes, it was actually nice to have someone there to tell you what makes this plane special or what that plane's purpose was.  Shearwater is a former Canadian Forces Base so there was a lot of military planes.  Jim, our guide, took us through plane after plane on our hour tour.  Leaving Shearwater, we raced across town back to the downtown area.  We were getting really good at crossing the bridges into the city; and running out of loonies (that's what everyone calls the $1 coin up here) to toss into the toll basket.

We arrived at the Citadel just in time for the daily firing of the cannon.  The Citadel is definitely one of Must Sees in Halifax.  The star-shaped fort sits at the top of Halifax's hill (I was surprised that how hilly the city was) and it offers a great panorama of the harbour below.  Not long after Halifax was founded in 1749, the first the Citadel constructed out of wood.  Obviously, the wooden fort didn't last long; especially with the wet climate of a coastal city.  In 1761, the second version of the Citadel was begun; mainly because there was a worry that the pesky neighbors from down south would attack since they hadn't been very happy lately.  This one was wood as well and again didn't last too long.  In 1796, they tried again and started on the third edition.  This time the threat was the French and like the previous incarnations, the third Citadel didn't see any action (unless you count wood rot as action).  In 1828, they finally got it right and decided to go with stone instead of wood.  It was designed in a star formation with an outer wall and (for lack of a better word) moat running the entire length to protect the fort.  As our guide put it; if attackers made it up the hill (trust me, they'd be pretty winded), avoided the bullets coming over the crest, didn't break their legs jumping/falling into the moat, avoided the volleys of bullets while inside the moat and were able to scale the inner wall then
they were more then welcome to have the fort.  Thankfully that never happened.  The newest version of the Citadel didn't see anymore action than the previous ones.  Today it is set up to look like it would have during the Victorian Era.  Living history re-enactors, dressed as the 78th (Highland) Regiment of Foot, greet people at the fort and take them on a pretty in-depth tour.  I couldn't help but feel sorry for the re-enactors on this day.  They were kitted out in heavy wool kilts and coats.  If that wasn't enough, most of them had to wear heavy hats ladened down with a tower of ostrich and vulture feathers.  Not the thing you want to be wearing on a nearly 100 degree day.  I was really surprised that the band of pipers, who not only had to lug around their sheep bladder instruments but also had even more woolen tartan hanging from their shoulder, weren't passed out on the parade ground.  Heck, I was ready to pass out after all that direct sun!

As you can probably guess from the little history of the Citadel, Halifax was long concerned with attacks.  So it's not surprising that there are quite a few forts and towers around the harbour.  There were five various defensive stations that were built to protect the harbour for attacks from sea or land.  We headed down to the southern tip to take a look at one of the towers.  The Prince of Wales Tower is the oldest martello tower in North America, having been built in 1796/97.  Martello towers were the favorite of the British Empire and can be found from Australia to Sri Lanka; Guernsey to South Africa.  It's a pretty basic building and was used to defend the port against any enemy ships that might attempt to come in to Halifax.  On top of it's large round roof, up to six guns would be able to fire out onto any threat.  Much like the other military installations in Halifax, The Prince of Wales Tower was never used in battle.         




We headed back to the car and the much loved air conditioning.  We drove farther out of Halifax; off to see another fort (sheesh, they have as many forts as Wales has castles!).  Fort York Redoubt sits closer to the entrance of Halifax harbour is was like the gatekeeper to the rest of the harbour.  On one side was the fort, on the other was Fort McNab.  The fort was built in 1793 when France and Great Britain went to war.  During World War I, it was used as barracks and during World War II, it played an important part in protecting the harbour from U-boat attacks.  There wasn't exactly a lot to explore, it was mostly just outdoor views.  From the gun batteries you could look over the entrance to the harbour over to McNab Island and the lighthouse at Maugher Beach.  We wandered around the big guns and down creepy hallways that led out into the woods.  But our day wasn't quite over yet so we hit the road again.



Our last stop of the day was outside of Halifax at Peggy's Cove.  Peggy's Cove is a bit of a tourist trap but it's one of those  worthwhile tourist traps.  And as a tip: go there towards late afternoon/early evening because the busloads of people will be petering out.  Peggy's Cove sits on the edge of St. Margaret's Bay.  The simple white lighthouse, which dates back to 1914, stands out against all of the rocks and boulders that make up the coastline.  The village dates was first founded in 1811 and today it has a population of only about 60 people.  That means that the people living in Peggy's Cove are easily outnumbered by the people who come to visit.  There are a couple of restaurants and quite a few little shops that offer local crafts, as well as your typical tourist junk.  It was a lot cooler here out on the water and I seriously could have stayed there all evening.  We wandered around the sleepy little town, going in and out of the shops.  Just on the other side of the bay is a memorial to Swiss Air flight 111.  On September 2, 1998 the Sw

iss Air flight took off from JFK airport in New York bound for Geneva, Switzerland.  It crashed just outside the entrance to St. Margaret's Bay; all 229 people on the flight died.  Obviously, this isn't a happy thing to want to dwell on or even remember but I thought it was really touching that the people of Nova Scotia would erect a memorial for those who lost their lives.  Standing at the memorial, you can see Peggy's Cove off to the side and it's hard to think that such a horrible tragedy could happen in such a beautiful and peaceful place.  

It had been a long day but we had seen everything we wanted to in the Halifax area which was good because tomorrow, we were heading back across the peninsula and back to the good old Bay of Fundy.