Wednesday August 22, 2007
I woke up about 6 am and Bob was up as well. He made us a little impromptu breakfast which I greatly appreciated. I knew he had to get to work so I got ready as quickly as I could, showered, and packed up. I said goodbye to Bob and thanked him for everything. I wished Paul good luck on his journey back to Ballston Spa, my birthplace, as he had to catch the Cat Ferry. I hit the road once again solo about 8:30.
My first tourist stop was the Halifax Citadel.
"Constructed between 1828 and 1856, the Halifax Citadel is an impressive star-shaped masonry structure complete with defensive ditch, earthen ramparts, musketry gallery, powder magazine, garrison cells, guard room, barracks and school room."
Down in the fort.
A regiment practicing.
One of the two buildings inside
Looking at these walls you can see why no one ever bothered to attempt taking the Citadel
The huge 7 ton canons on these swivel tracks probably also had something to do with it.
Looking out to the Harbor you could see some Navy Frigates and Destroyers.
I could also see part of British Upholder Class Sub.
The fort is quite large.
The other building in the fort. These younger guys practiced without weapons.
This gives you an idea of how high the walls are.
At one point while walking on the top of the walls I noticed a little heard path in the grass up to the top of the walls. I started to climb up when I heard, "STEP DOWN FROM THE GRASS PLEASE!". Whoops! I got scolded. I hopped down and waved. He hollered again, "THANK YOU!" I felt like a big dork but later on I heard a few more people getting scolded. Whew, I wasn't the only one.
There was a bag piper during the raising of the flags.
Some other cannons around.
Twin gun rooms.
I looked around a little more, then checked out the gift shop, then I decided it was time to take off. My next stop would be the Maritime Museum down on Water Street.
The museum was less that 5 minutes away. It was a pretty cool place right on the Ocean with a nice boardwalk. This is the Acadia.
This is a Corvette, the Flower class corvettes were a class of 267 corvettes developed by the Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy specifically for the protection of shipping convoys during the Battle of the Atlantic (1939-1945) in World War II. They were a stop-gap measure in the war against the German U-boats: small ships that could be produced quickly and cheaply in large numbers
Then it was on to the inside of the museum. This is a replica of the pirate Edward Jordon. He was executed in Halifax in 1809. He was "gibbeted" at Black Rock in Point Pleasant Park. Any ship entering Halifax Harbor was greeted by this rotting corpse swinging in the wind.
They currently have a huge pirate display comparing the facts vs fiction. It was very good.
Here is a depiction of a Hollywood pirate ship on the right and a true pirate ship on the left.
An old lighthouse lens.
Here are some items taken from a captured U-boat toward the end of the war.
The official surrender certificate of U-190. The crew was very relieved to be captured. Apprently 70% of all u-boat crew died in the war. After the war many stayed in Nova Scotia to live.
Some of the sail boats on display.
They also had a section dedicated to the Titanic.
Here's an actual deck chair from it.
Here's a view of the boat display from upstairs.
There were many model replicas of various ships upstairs that are all created from scratch by volunteers.
They also have a shipwreck display upstairs. The museum if very cool and well worth the $7 admission fee. They also gave me a AAA discount as many of the tourist attractions and camping grounds in Nova Scotia did.
After the museum I traveled about a mile up the road to Pier 21 in the Halifax port, where one million immigrants landed between 1928-1971. Pier 21 is like Canada's version of America's Ellis Island.
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