Hi everyone. It’s 08.00 Atlantic time (04.00 Pacific) as I begin this post to you. Today we leave White Point for Halifax and an overnight stay at the hotel. Here’s a map to show you the route we will be taking, all being well. It’s a ride of approximately 210Km and a non-stop driving time of 2hrs. 42 minutes. Of course we intend to take our time today, and stop along the way for some lunch.
It’s strange to be sitting here on my own in the living room banging away on the little lap-top, with no sign of life from the others, and knowing this is the day we leave them. I can see Cynthia as she is sleeping on the fold-out hide-a-bed and right now she is still dozing quite beautifully. I hope she can get as many zzzzzzs as possible for today will be along one. It’s very quiet. I can hear nothing. Maybe that’s because we are out in the bush and quite away from the nearest cottages. It could also have something to do with me not having my hearing aids firmly stuck in my ears. I think I will pause now, get a quick boil of the kettle going, as I see signs of life from Cynthia. I know she will love a cuppa, so ‘bye for now.
It’s now 16.03 and we are in our room at the Garden Hilton right next door to the airport in Halifax. Whoah…..I hear you saying…the Hilton no less….pretty POSH stuff! Well, in the search we did to find a hotel room for the night, believe it or not, the Hilton was the least expensive, so here we are.
Our ride from White Point was superb. Conditions were absolutely perfec’ with brilliant blue skies, bright sunshine and bone dry roads. 90 minutes into the ride we pulled off to visit Chester, one of the little seaside villages which dot the coast. When we arrived at this picturesque place, nothing seemed to be open so we took a spin around ’til we found the Big Red’s Pizza place, and opted to take our coffee there. They brewed a fresh pot for us (as we were the only ones there) and we savoured it. Moments after leaving Big Red’s Tim Hortons appeared on the scene. Aw shucks I heard you say, we missed Timmy’s. Well, neither the coffee nor the service could have been better than at Big Red’s, so we cared not a fig. We’d just experienced another wee taste of Nova Scotia hospitality.
Big Red's was open
We chose not to go to the airport as we got closer to Halifax. With but a teeny, weeny city map and her unerring sense of direction, Cynthia navigated us from the outskirts of the city into the Citadel. I’ll tell you, if the early explorers had had Cynthia on board the canoes with them, they would have found the west coast a century earlier.
We wound our way up the side of the Citadel to the parking lot at the top. There we paid our reduced-for-seniors-entry-fee. I love it! We navigated our way through the entry light system which was showing red lights to incoming and outgoing traffic. Was this a touch of east coast humour or what? We parked the car and went in. What an awesome place. There is so much to tell you about this place that if I tried, my fingers would be a quarter inch shorter when I’d finished. Needless to say I won’t do that so please click here if you’d like to read more about this historic site.
Cynthia led us into the Citadel through the massive stone walls.
Cynthia leads the way
The Citadel
Once we were in, the view across the courtyard of this vast place, was awesome, and much better than my picture indicates.
The courtyard
Inside we met Private Lantier from Calgary who has been working at the Citadel all summer as a guide. He was trained by Parks Canada’s historical branch and was superb. He fed us enough info to keep us entertained and interested, but not so much as to overwhelm us.
Pte. Lantier, our superb guide
With our guide, we saw the ditch
The Ditch
which was not a moat, but a ditch of death for any invading foot soldier who managed to jump down into it with a view to entering the fortress. We saw the powder room,
Actual powder kegs, minus the powder.
30 pounder cannon on the ramparts,
Big guns on the ramparts
and even the schoolroom where children of the soldiers’ families learned their lessons.
The schoolroom complete with slate tablets
We saw the signalling masts whereby the Brits could let people know what ships were approaching, how many there were and what types of ships they were. A series of these masts were erected along the coast and on towards St. John, New Brunswick, so that in times of emergency, messages could be signalled quickly and efficiently. I wonder what they did when the fogs rolled in?
Signalling mast and arms.
We saw many other parts of interest, but I think this will suffice for now.
From the Citadel we made our way out of the city and north-east to the hotel near the airport. We unloaded the bags from the car and got them to the room, then went out later for a bite to eat. Next, we returned the car to the airport and checked it in with Enterprise. I’m always amazed at how efficient that process is. Their charge tallied with my original receipt so we were all happy. We had covered 4210 Km since picking up the car on the 19th of September.
We left Enterprise and caught the free shuttle back to the hotel. I finished the post to you. Now all that remains is for the Canucks’ Hockey team to win tonight, us to have a good sleep, and the planes to be on time tomorrow. So far they are scheduled as normal. I can’t wait to get home to see the family and to give and receive hugs from big ‘uns and little ‘uns alike. Goodnight to you and God bless you for the last time from Nova Scotia. It has been a pleasure being here and we hope to come back again.
