KM driven: 32
Steps taken: 21 774
What a difference it makes in our stats when we aren’t changing cities!
We started the day with a big breakfast at a family chain restaurant: Smitty’s. It was just ok, not that great, and I didn’t even finish it. I am not a big fan of big breakfasts like this but we wanted table service for breakfast as opposed to McD or Tim Horton’s on the road again.
When the sun came up, we made it to Fairview Lawn Cemetery to see the graves of the Titanic victims, a goal we gave up on last night because we kept making wrong turns!! This morning’s attempt went more smoothly… only 2 wrong turns this time.
It was a very moving site and we so fortunate – we had the place all to ourselves and just as we were leaving the tour busses descended. Thank God for this excellent timing, the place would have been overrun and we would not have gotten so many nice pictures.
And the most evocative of all: JACK!!
Next on the agenda was the Citadel, but it was closed when we got there so we killed time at the Public Gardens. As you know, I never met a flower I didn’t like!!! I can’t stop taking pictures of flowers… this is just a small fraction of what I took.
The Citadel was underwhelming, I was bored.
The weather this morning was very grey and overcast, so the temps were perfect for exploring on foot. We spent most of our time at the Harbour, walking more of it than we managed yesterday.
We visited the Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 (Canada’s Ellis Island) and took a guided tour. It was ok but I was hoping something more historically evocative like the actual rooms where the immigrants were housed and the actual gates they walked through etc etc. It was more a display of random exhibits. My expectations were completely out of line with the reality.
The museum is near the cruiseship terminal, I never cease to be amazed at how GIGANTIC they are!! And there are 5 of them in town!!!
I also tested out the panorama feature on my phone’s camera, think I need more practice to get the technique right! It came out a little wobbly.
Lunch was a challenge, the place we had picked to go was not seating people for over an hour and the next few places nearby where therefore logically all full. The influx of people from the 5 cruise liners in town did not help! We finally ended up at “Salty’s” and I loved it - we got a perfect table on the patio and the food was terrific; I’m glad our Plan A flopped.
After lunch, we went to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and like most visitors we focused on the exhibits that covered The Halifax Explosion and The Titanic. Excellent museum, extremely informative and very detailed, but it wore me out and towards the end I was falling asleep standing up.
We stopped for a fuel up (coffee and Grand Marnier for me, coffee and Strawberry Shortcake for him) and then continued exploroing the city on foot but the sun was out by then so it was not as easy as this morning’s walk.
Supper was a diner, not very splashy for a final meal but it was good enough – we’re pretty tired and didn’t want a complicated affair.
We made it back to our hotel with no wrong turns!!! We were quite proud of ourselves.
Tomorrow we start the long drive home; Bye bye Eastern Canada it was a terrific vacation!
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