Expected weather: Hi 68F, Sunny

Population: 439,819 / 969,383

Our first official port stop is Halifax, the capital city of Nova Scotia. Today, we have booked a private excursion through Tours By Locals with local guide Garry. The plan is to visit Old Town Lunenburg, a UNESCO World Heritage site, about 100km from Halifax. From the UNESCO website: Lunenburg is the best surviving example of a planned British colonial settlement in North America. Established in 1753, it has retained its original layout and overall appearance, based on a rectangular grid pattern drawn up in the home country. The inhabitants have managed to safeguard the city’s identity throughout the centuries by preserving the wooden architecture of the houses, some of which date from the 18th century.

The four of us disembarked around 9 to beat the folks on the Viking excursions and hoped that Garry might show up early – our agreed time was 9:30am. Another local guide was at the exit and confirmed we were where the local guides met. He asked which guide we were using and when we told him Garry, he pointed him out in the parking lot across the street, so we made our way over. Introduced ourselves and we were underway to Mahone Bay and Lunenburg shortly. Garry provided details of Halifax’s and Nova Scotia’s history, geography, geology, wildlife, economy, – pretty much everything – as he exited the port city and we quickly entered forested land. Seventy percent of Nova Scotia is forested.

The timing for a photo stop at Mahone Bay with its iconic 3 Churches was perfect with the morning sun position. We drove through the quaint village of Mahone Bay and on to historic Lunenburg. Garry drove us around the harbor across from Lunenburg to the Bluenose Golf Club for a fantastic photo op of the picturesque town. I’m certain the Viking excursion bus did not wind through the golf course road to get this view! The Bluenose is the name of a famous fishing and racing schooner from 1921-1946 and has been on the Canadian dime since 1937. It has also appeared on Canadian stamps and Nova Scotia’s license plates. The Bluenose II currently operates out of Lunenburg as Nova Scotia’s sailing ambassador. We then went back to the main part of town as Garry pointed out highlights before dropping us off around 11am near the Fisheries Museum to have a walk around the colorful colonial town and grab some lunch. We were all eating lobster rolls (except Keith) on the porch of the Grand Banker Seafood Bar & Grill as Viking’s Lunenburg excursion bus along with Globus and Seabourne excursion busses arrived. On the way out of town, Garry stopped at a lobster pound. I was thinking no big deal as we’ve been to pounds in Maine and bought lobsters before. However, this one had some very special lobsters, including a blue lobster and Roger, a 14.5 pounder who is estimated to be 75-80 years old. He will be returned to the ocean next week. We were also allowed to see the refrigerated holding area where they store up to 25,000 pounds of lobsters per week. We were so glad we had our private tour today!

Then we were off to Peggy’s Cove for another iconic photo opportunity with arguably Canada’s most photographed lighthouse. We hoped to leave Peggy’s Cove in time for a local Halifax stop on the return to the ship but got caught up in the Friday before Labor Day traffic. We drove by the Fairview Cemetery where the remains of many of the victims of the Titanic were interred. Garry gave us the back story on how that came to be – essentially White Star Lines had an office in Halifax and since NY was busy with the survivors, Halifax was assigned to recover bodies. We also drove by The Citadel overlooking the town of Halifax and its port.

As you can see from the photos above (click the arrows to rotate through them all), it was a beautiful, sunny day. Garry was extremely informative and we hit the major sites we wanted to see. It was a perfect day!

Tonight, we ate again at Manfredi’s. Last night Dave, Paula, and I each got the shrimp and calamari appetizer, and we enjoyed it so much, we all got it again tonight! Otherwise, we each ordered something different from last night and once again the food did not disappoint. Renad, the wine steward (sommelier), is a delight. He remembered the wines he served us last night and asked what we were thinking tonight. We told him which entrees we were each considering and just like last night, the wines he selected for us worked well with our food and our palette preferences. Pablo, the chef in charge of Manfredi’s came by our table and we had a very nice conversation with him. Wait staff was excellent as usual and we didn’t experience the kitchen delays of the last two nights.

After dinner, to close out the day, we attended the Viking Vocalists’ presentation of “Duets” in the Star Theater. They covered several genres and decades of classic duets which we all enjoyed.

Today’s Favorite Thing

I’ll close today’s post with everyone’s favorite thing they learned today:

• Dave – The expulsion and deportation of the Acadians by the British and how they were spread out among many of the mid-Atlantic and Southern US coastal states. Then how many made their way to Louisiana only to be rejected by the French community there, but they formed their own community and we know them to day as the Cajuns. We knew the Acadian to Cajun derivative, but not the details of how they got there.
• Paula – The difference in the French and English treatment of the native communities. Whereas, the French befriended them and had beneficial relationships with them, the English tried to wipe them out.
• Keith – The different colors of lobsters and that some have barnacles growing on them.
• Nancy – Lunenburg, although a founded by the British, was colonized by Germans and 40% of Nova Scotians have German heritage. There were many German ties that we saw for ourselves today in the names of companies we passed.

Itinerary Change

We had an itinerary change announced prior to leaving Halifax. The floating pier used at L’Anse aux Meadows was damaged in a storm in the past couple of days and will not be repaired in time for our planned visit in two days. So instead of tomorrow being a sea day, we are headed to Sydney, Nova Scotia, for a day of exploring on our own as it is a holiday weekend and too late for Viking to arrange tours for our ship. That will be followed by two sea days to get us to Greenland on our original schedule. Go with the flow, but that makes Viking 0 for 6 on this itinerary this year for L’Anse aux Meadows. So, this change was not unexpected! It’ll be interesting to see if they keep it next year.