(In case some of you noticed, I kind of forgot to finish writing about my journey the the Great Warm North. Well, here is the rest of it...better late than never!)
So, where were we? Ah yes, the sweltering heat of Nova Scotia. After seeing pretty much all that the capital city of Halifax had to offer we bid an adieu and headed west across the peninsula and back to the Bay of Fundy (home to the world's most
extreme tides...in case you forgot). There wasn't a lot to see as we drove, some of the towns we thought would be cute shopping stops were pretty dead. In Windsor, we did make an impromptu stop. Turns out that Windsor, Nova Scotia is the birthplace of hockey. Now I have no interest in hockey and neither does Nicole, but her sister does and Nicole figured this would be the perfect place to souvenir shop. We pulled up to the Haliburton House Museum and to be honest, with a name like that, I was worried that we may have stumbled across the lair of some ubervillain. Instead, it was the house of Thomas Chandler Haliburton, a businessman, judge, author and first person to describe the sport of hockey. As we walked into the house, the people seemed pretty excited to have visitors. But we soon dropped the bomb that we really just wanted to see the gift shop. Talk about awkward...but we had places to go, other things to see. After stocking up on hockey paraphenalia, we hit the road again.
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| Hall's Harbour |
We did make a quick stop in the small town of Hall's Harbour. Our insane B&B keeper in Halifax told us it was worth a stop and somehow we didn't see that as a massive red flag. But what do ya know, Ian was right about something. I'm not sure if Hall's Harbour would even constitute a town, it was more like a curve in the coastal road that had a restaurant and a gift shop. Just off the main parking lot was a pebble covered beach. There was still mist shrouding the coast that morning but the beach was so calm and peaceful, I could have stayed there all day. But after taking in the calm, and the refreshing breezes off the water, for a little bit we jumped back into the car and we carried on.
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| Fort Anne in Annapolis Royal |
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| Steps to the prison |
Our first real stop of the day was Annapolis Royal. Annapolis Royal was first established in 1605 by Samuel Champlain (of the Lake Champlain fame) and Sieur du Mons; no prizes for guessing that this was initially a French colony. The French held the region until the Treaty of Paris in 1763 and then the English took over. Sounds familiar, right? And as with the majority of the Nova Scotian history, control of the Annapolis Royal area went back and forth between France and England. Walking around town, it gave off a very strong English vibe...what with the Union Jacks flying and whatnot. After a quick bite at
Bistro East and then headed across the street to Fort Anne National Historic Site. The original fort,
Charles Fort, was constructed by Scottish settlers in 1629; it might have been that batch of hearty Scots that gave the province its name, Nova Scotia. Unlike many of the other forts we had visited, this fort saw a lot of action. The original fort was replaced by four later fortifications and the majority of the star-shaped fort we see today is from the
1702 construction by the French. Fort Anne has the honor of being the most attacked fort in Canada, thirteen battles, and was the first site to be made into a national historic site. Today you can wander along the earthworks and take in the wonderful views of the Annapolis River. There are a few buildings to take a quick look into, like the gunpowder magazine, as well as a small museum located in the officers' quarters building.
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| Entrance gate to Port-Royal |
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| The inner courtyard |
Further down on the other side of the river you get to experience the French side of fort living. The Habitation at Port-Royal is a reconstruction of the original Habitation that was built by Champlain and du Mons in 1605. In 1603, the French had landed in New Brunswick, near the modern-day border of Maine and Canada, and they did not have a good winter. Once they thawed out, they quickly moved across the Bay of Fundy to Port-Royal. They seemed to be getting along pretty well, they got along with the locals for the most part and weren't freezing to death...until 1613. Turns out that some of the men from Jamestown, Virginia sailed up, raided and burned fair Port-Royal. Well, that's a wee bit awkward...I mean Jamestown is just a hop-skip-and-a-jump down I95 so they're practically the local team. Unlike Fort Anne back in Annapolis Royal, Port-Royal is a reconstruction. I usually go into these types of places with a healthy amount of 'this will be crap' attitude; you just never know. There were a handful of re-enactors walking around in wooden clogs, pantaloons and jaunty hats but after a quick intro, we were pretty much left alone to wander through the compound. What I like about reconstructions, when they're done right, is that you can get a better sense of what life was like back in the day. Walking around the habitation, you get to see what daily life might have looked like in the early 1600s. Sure, it's a heck of a lot less dirty now
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| Getting ready for supper |
than it was back then but to walk through the room where they probably gathered and ate and see the roughly hammered plates lined up on the table makes the visit more real; more real than seeing those same objects sitting in a display case somewhere.
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| View from a room |
After our journey back in time, we headed further south along the coast to our stop for the night, Digby. Digby is a quiet little seaside town, though it is pretty popular with the tourists since you can take a ferry over to New Brunswick from there. Turned out we were in town on the same weekend as their annual Lobster Festival. Sweet! I haven't had lobster in...a couple of hours! We were staying outside of Digby in an area called Culloden (Bonnie Prince Charlie shout out!)at a B&B called The Cliffside. The big house sat on a cleared section of the cliff. It was a bit impersonal but with views out onto the Bay of Fundy from the balconies, you didn't really care too much about the inside. (Turns out we probably should have cared cause the price was a total rip off. But more on that in the next entry.) We got there just in time to see the amazing sunset. Our trip was slowly winding down and before we knew it, we would be back to the grind of normal life which is really the only drawback to taking vacation...the cold slap of reality.
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| The Fundy sunset wasn't as extreme as their tides... |
