O, Canada!

On Tuesday morning (June 10) at about 8 AM we arrived at the Port De Halifax. It was overcast and very cold (sorry Charlottesvillians... I know you are baking down there). The day before was apparently unusually hot (over 80 degrees) but then there was an almost 30 degree drop. Of course they use Celsius up here in Nova Scotia so when I heard it was 9 degrees with a high of 12 I almost fell off the ship... but then I remembered.

It took until about 10:00 A.M. (almost two hours) to clear the ship at which point the customs agents came on board and we all lined up to process paperwork. We went through two lines (one to retrieve our passport and one to speak with customs); both moved pretty quickly even though the line looks long. We couldn't help but wonder how it will be with almost 600 students on board. Apparently we have to do this again in Russia.


Once we moved through the lines we waited again until we could disembark. Once cleared we walked out into the cold morning to stroll through the city. LaVahn, MF and I started off with Laurie and John (Casteen) and their kids but after a bit we went in separate directions. Halifax is a nice little town (actually not so little) with lots of breweries, wine shops, stores, museums and historic locales.

We walked along the water for a bit and then found our way to the City Hall and Citadel -- two very nice historic landmarks. Who knew Halifax was ALL UPHILL?! We walked a steady slope for blocks and blocks (okay, maybe just 5 or 6 blocks but they were very steep) and then once we got to the Citadel it started to rain. MF and I were staring at a cannon at the top of the Citadel near the fort and right after we walked away the bells on the clock tower struck noon and the cannon was fired. Good thing we moved or I might not be writing this blog entry now. The two pictures below are of Halifax City Hall and the clock tower at the Citadel.



After exploring the town for a few hours it was lunch time and we decided on a cute little restaurant called Little Fish (see me below in front of the fish tank!). Julian Connolly wandered in just after we ordered so the four of us ate lunch together. The food was amazing and I had THE best vanilla ice cream in my life for desert.

Now completely stuffed we needed to walk uphill some more (to burn calories and to get where we wanted to go). Being a hockey fan and a wanna-be Canadian (it's just too cold though) I had to take a picture of the Team Canada banner flying for the 2008 World Championship. Didn't see the USA banner or I would have added that one too.

We found a great information center and some city maps and decided to check out St. Paul's Church. The Church is the oldest Protestant place of worship and the first Church of British origin built in Canada. It was founded by proclamation of King George II in 1749 and built in 1750. It opened on September 2 of that year. The original timbers were cut in Boston (which was still a British colony at the time) and shipped to Halifax; everything else was made locally. The original wooden structure remains today.


We then decided to take a bus to the Fairview Cemetery where 121 victims of the Titanic are buried. Following its sinking, Halifax sent three ships to retrieve bodies and they are buried in three cemeteries in the town. The bus route was a bit confusing but we met a nice woman who grew up in Halifax and she helped direct us to the right bus.

Our trip to the Fairview Cemetery was quite sad. As bodies were retrieved from the Titantic they were brought to the Port De Halifax. Most of the graves are marked with a small gray granite marker with a name, date of birth and marker number. About 1/3 of the bodies were never been identified and their marker contains only the date of death (April 12) and marker number. In a few cases there are larger markers which were paid for by the families. The markers are laid out in three long lines of graves and their shape is said to suggest the outline of a ship's bow. Twenty-nine other Titanic victims are also buried in Halifax; 19 in the Mount Olivet Cemetery, a Roman Catholic cemetery, and 10 in the Jewish Baron de Hirsch Cemetery.

We then headed back to town to the Maritime Museum (which opened for free at 5:30). There was an excellent Titanic exhibit as well as a very elaborate exhibit on the Halifax Explosion which occurred in 1917 (about which I just recently finished a novel but I can't recall the name... no short term memory). The explosion was the result of a French ship, which was loaded with explosives, and a Norwegian ship colliding in the harbor. Close to 2,000 people were killed, over 9,000 were injured and the city was greatly damaged. The neighboring towns of Richmond and Dartmouth were also damaged. This explosion is still considered one of the largest, human-made explosions to date (including the atom bomb).

Below are pictures of several items on display that were recovered from Titanic: a deck chair, a fragment of the wood carving that hung over the archway leading to the grand dining hall and a fragment of the life jacket that belonged to John Jacob Astor IV.

We had a very full day and at about 7 PM we headed "home." Had a great "photo opportunity" as we were heading back and came across this lovely pergola though which we could see the Lighthouse on George's Island. It was a great day; on Wednesday the work begins in the afternoon with a Faculty meeting and on Thursday we have meetings from 8 AM to 6 PM.

Note: For those of you on Facebook you can find many more pictures there but less text. It's fast and easy to upload pictures to Facebook but for some reason the uploader on this blog is very slow. So depending on how much you want to see you can check both... or neither. Thanks for writing!