Halifax

Tuesday was a travelling day - drive to Toronto, flight to Halifax - leading to holiday part 2 - Nova Scotia.

We arrived in Halifax late yesterday. We thought this was the place that might be cold - but it is even warmer than Kingston and quite humid. It is great to be by the ocean though. The water just smells right here.

We have had some lovely meals in waterside venues - the scallops here may just be as good as they are in Tasmania - and enjoyed watching the harbour traffic go backwards and forwards.

Today has been a bit of a museum day - so prepare for lots of information you never knew you wanted to know about Halifax.

Halifax has the world's second largest natural harbour. Where is the biggest? Sydney Australia (well it was news to me!). This harbour seems much busier than Sydney to me - but maybe you just don's see it there. While we were having lunch I thought that one of the office blocks had started moving - but it turned out to be a huge cruise ship going past. There are two of them moored here today and you would scarcely notice.

One of Halifax's other claims to fame is that it was peripherally involved in the Titanic disaster. Sailors from Halifax did a lot of recovery of the bodies after the event and quite a few of the casualities are buried here. People here traditionally used bits and pieces from shipwrecks (there were a lot of them) to make things and some of the exhibits in the museum included items that people had made from pieces of Titanic salvage.

Another thing that you won't know unless you have been here is that there was a huge explosion on December6 1917 (the date of my birthday - but just a little before I was born). Two boats, including one laden with WW1 munitions collided. The munitions boat drifted into the dock at the town and exploded with 2000 casualties. Sounds pretty grim - but the museum has a really interesting exhibit on it including lots of survivor accounts. There is apparently a stone church here with a piece of timber embedded in the wall from the explosion and the clock on city hall is permanently set to 5 past nine - the time when the explosion occurred.

We also visited the citadel - a fort here at the top of the hill. We figured that just climbing the hill should have been enough to deter any potential invaders - but they also had cannons just in case. This time it was the French rather than the Americans that they were fighting.

Tomorrow we are off to Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island for more scenery accompanied by delicious food!