Rowkin Rovings Blog

Much better start today. We were on the road by 9.00am and after the short ferry ride it was time to find our way to the Citadel.

The bridge in the background looks like the Golden Gate Bridge but is actually the Angus J. Macdonald bridge.

On our crossing to the city of Halifax we noted that there were three cruise ships in port. This is the busiest season for this region for the cruise ships as it is autumn (fall) and we have the magnificent colours about to arrive. The colours are not out yet and it depends on the weather along with the length of the daylight. Hopefully, we will get to see some of them before we return west.

They can have up to five ships in harbour at one time with one having to tender as there just isn’t enough room for them all to berth at the wharf. They have had more than usual earlier this month due to Hurricane Florence which prevented ships leaving New York heading south to the Caribbean but coming north instead. Reckon we’d feel pretty short changed if you were heading south for sun and sand to discover you were heading north to cold and puffins.

Also whilst crossing the harbour we came across this rather understated $50 million yacht with a mast that we estimated at ten stories high. No idea who it belonged to but for sure we know it is not a blue collar worker.

Our aim was to be up the top of Citadel Hill for the daily firing of the 12 noon 12 pound cannon which means it fires cannon balls weighing 12 pound. You can be rest assured that they don’t put the cannon ball inside the cannon anymore, but we digress.

On our way up to the hill we walked through the spectacular Halifax public gardens.

In the gardens they have an Agave tree – you’ll have to look it up – they can live up to 30 years but in that time it is only ever going to flower once, and then they die. This particular tree flowered this year so is well on the way out at 25 years of age. We had never seen one before and once you have a look at this photo, we think you might not want to waste your time. We felt we needed to educate you.

Of course there was the quintessential Maple tree named after our Miss Maples 🍁

We noted on one of the large ponds a replica of the Titanic but there was a particular and rather important piece missing – the iceberg. We think we might sneak back into the park tonight to get some white styrofoam and strategically place it in the pond to add a degree of reality to the scene.

Finally we made it to the top of the Citadel Hill for the 12 noon cannon. It made quite the bang. We got to talking to these two young gentlemen and discovered that they were not military service men but university students doing a summer holiday job. Wow, what a dream come true, playing with gun powder as responsible young gentlemen – NOT!

The Citadel is the fortified summit of Citadel Hill. The hill was first fortified in 1749, the year the town of Halifax was founded. Those fortifications were successively rebuilt to defend the town from various enemies. Construction and leveling have lowered the summit by ten to twelve metres. While never attacked, the Citadel was long the keystone to defence of the strategically important Halifax Harbour and its Royal Navy Dockyard.

A few photos of what to see at the Citadel.

It was then off to the Immigration Museum at Pier 21 down on the harbour. Pier 21 was where most of the early immigrants from Europe entered Canada. We highly recommend a visit here as there is a most interesting and long history of immigration to Canada. It is the first time we have been to a museum and realized that we were actually part of that history as we are immigrants to 🇨🇦.

It was then off to the Bicycle Thief for dinner with Paige and Allan and little Emmett. It was one very scrummy dinner. Why the restaurant is called the Bicycle Thief we are unable to tell you.

We took the opportunity to do a bit of a photo op as we are heading out from Halifax tomorrow.

This is Larry the lobster.

Allan had told us about the sculpture below and we were pretty taken with. The lights actually work at night time, even the one on the ground. They are meant to depict three drunken Haligonians.

We cannot guarantee a blog post tomorrow night as not sure what the Wi-Fi will be like but don’t give up on us🤪