Sights of Halifax
During our fall trip to the Canada and New England area, our third stop was Halifax, Nova Scotia. We found a good excursion through NCL that would take us to some of the most popular spots in the area including Peggy’s Cove, Botanical Gardens, Citadel, and the Maritime Museum.
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Table of Contents
General
A few notes about Halifax in general and things we noticed. The cruise port is more of an industrial/business port than touristy so there isn’t too much nearby. However, there is the Garrison Brewing if you want a bite to eat right off the ship. Full disclaimer we didn’t go ourselves, maybe next time!
The city itself reminded me of the Des Plaines suburb of Chicago where we lived for a few months. It had a mix of old and new and that more East Coast city vibe.
It would be interesting to spend more time with the city life. I am honestly not sure if it would be worth it or if we got a good mix with our excursion but we did end up driving past most of the city itself to get to our destinations.
Peggy’s Cove
Our excursion started out with a bus drive out to Peggy’s Cove, about an hour-long drive from Halifax.
I figured we would cover some distance on this trip as it was scheduled to take the entire day. However, Nathan wasn’t quite as prepared. Combine a chaotic bus driver, no fall colors, and a drive through what felt like nothing made for a boring start to our day.
Once we arrived though, Peggy’s Cove delivered a picture-perfect fishing town (google says it is a community or village which is probably more appropriate) on the East Coast. As with most things on this trip colorful and quaint are great words to describe everything you see.
As you arrive in the area you will first see a few dozen buildings and homes. Many of which we were told are shops or art galleries.
You will pass by the fishing harbor and end up in a good-sized parking lot, a massive tourist center, and a big restaurant for a bite to eat.
While many things were closed for the end of the season, we only had 30 minutes here so there wasn’t exactly much time to do anything.
We were able to get plenty of photos of the iconic lighthouse and the granite boulders that surrounded the area.
They even had a massive beautiful deck where you could walk around, sit, and enjoy the ocean views.
After soaking in the views for a few minutes, we wanted to try and walk back to the ‘town’ area and at minimum hit the restroom.
As mentioned there wasn’t much to see this time of the year. I could see it being a busier spot earlier in the summer or if you actually walked into each shop but we just didn’t have the time.
If you have read any of our adventures before, you probably know I am always on the lookout for the unexpected, and for some reason that always ends up being bathrooms. Don’t ask why, but I will share regardless 😉 (if you would prefer you can skip to Lunch here).
This area felt like an upscale state park, I am assuming the local economy helped make it as well-kept as it was or Canada is just WAY more generous with their budgets. This is important because there were two sets of restrooms in the area and they were both public facilities. Usually, that means bare minimum necessities and cleanliness aren’t a priority.
Suprise surprise when this had to be one of the nicest public restrooms I have ever been in!
Ok, so it is still a public restroom so we are not talking expensive and fancy but I was still impressed.
First, the toilet was self-cleaning. Might be hard to see but there is a layer of foamy soap that was constantly refreshing.
Second, look at how clean it was!
Third, you can’t see this in the picture, but they were unisex facilities. Multiple doors led to these restrooms, complete with a sink and everything.
10/10 would recommend!
Lunch – Kempsters Cookhouse
After our visit to Peggy’s Cove, we were off to have lunch! I always like excursions that feed us. For one, it is food so of course I will be happy, but you always end up somewhere local which is even better. Plus you tend to get options you wouldn’t normally choose.
Our lunch stop was at Kempsters Cookhouse (website here), and we were offered the choice of Pasta or a Lobster Roll.
My selection was probably obvious because I never chose seafood. Nathan decided to go for it, even though Lobster Rolls are not his preferred route.
The pasta was surprisingly delicious! It had a curry-like flavor that I really enjoyed and it was totally unexpected.
The Lobster Roll was ok according to Nathan. I decided to give it a try as well and it just reminded me of chicken salad with the way they prepared it.
Last, we were given a little blueberry pie for dessert. Apparently, blueberries are super popular in this area as we came across blueberry-flavored desserts quite a bit. Though I couldn’t find it on the menu now which is a little odd, but it was definitely there.
Halifax Public Garden
After lunch, we made our way to the next destination, the Halifax Public Garden. I am all for exploring a park, but we were a little bummed when we realized it was going to be a guided tour.
While great for information, our guide was a little too forthcoming with information but didn’t have a mic or anything so also difficult to hear. It made it hard to just enjoy our surroundings for a minute.
We did learn a few cool things. First, there was an area dedicated to Queen Elizabeth so the flowers were planted as crusive Es and made to look like flower petals coming off a water fountain. Weird to try and see when you are so close, but I am sure the aerial view is amazing.
Second, there was this cool snake design we found. We missed the significance of it, but it was cool to imagine the aerial view again. You could even see two globes they placed in the head for eyes. (Snake on the right, head is in the middle highlighted by the sun. You can see the split tale on the right-hand side)
Citadel Hill
Once our tour of the gardens was complete, we were off to Citadel Hill. Thankfully this was an open tour but it was only 20 minutes so we didn’t really have time to explore too deeply.
We did get to see some of the living quarters and the defensive weaponry that was on the second level.
The really cool part came with the guard change. We were there are the perfect time to watch the process and they even narrated it for you to have a better understanding of what was happening and why.
Originally the guards worked a 24-hour shift, with two hours on guard on four hours off, and changing of the guard occurred every 2 hours.
Now they change the guard every hour with a two-hour break and while they didn’t mention the total hours I am sure it is somewhere between 8 and 12 as the Citadel is open to the public.
It was fascinating to watch the exact choreography to complete the guard change. The gentleman on the left was narrating the process for us.
He helped explain that one of the required elements is that someone is always facing out to sea to watch for any issues. Even in this 5-minute change, someone always has to be watching. I thought that was fascinating!
Maritime Museum
Our last stop was the Maritime Museum, which Nathan was excited about and I was happy to go along with it.
The trip happened to fall the week after the Tropical Storm Ophelia had hit land. We were monitoring closely not because we thought our trip would be cancelled but based on damage things might have been re-arranged. Thankfully none of that occurred.
The cool part is that the museum had a hurricane information station that showed the activity that year and some current information.
Not something we ever have to worry about in Arizona so it is always interesting to see the impacts.
We got to spend about an hour exploring the museum which was great. We learned alot about the Halifax Explosion in 1917 and the impacts to the city and recovery after that.
There was also tons of information regardling local history and the harbor which Nathan enjoyed and was a great way to finish off our day exploring Halifax.
At the end of the day I feel like we were able to see a lot of what Halifax has to offer and see the deverse history. I would have liked another hour or so more in each location to truly feel like I had experienced it but that is the joy of excursions and crusing, you get a taste and then you can always come back for more!
I wouldn’t mind returning to Halifax, but I am guessing it won’t be a main draw for us in the future. Rather taking advantage of exploring further if a future cruise happens to stop here again.
If you would like to read more about this trip, here are some quick links for you!
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