Cruise Journal: Halifax, Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia has been on the bucket list for a while and I was glad we were going to get to at least one port there. For some reason I had it in my head that we were going to see lots of beautiful natural landscapes. And maybe if we'd gotten away from the city we would have. It was one of the rare cases where I let my expectations overrule reality. 

On the way into the harbor we passed one natural landscape, George's Island, which is a national historic site. There is a fort on the island planted there to protect the harbor from invaders like those feisty Americans in the Revolutionary War. With the sun shining on the pretty white lighthouse it made a for a great photo op.

My knee and leg were feeling a little better so I pulled on my elastic brace, took an ibuprofen and fired up my GPS City app. Like Quebec, Halifax proved to be hilly but not quite as bad. It did not have the quaint streets that Quebec had but there were some interesting older buildings tucked in among the modern brick and glass buildings. 

We followed the City Introduction Walk and first up was the city hall. I was glad we got there early since there was a small group of sound engineers setting up in the park in front of the building for some sort of concert. The city hall was built in 1890. It's one of the oldest public buildings in Nova Scotia. The middle of the building sports a seven story clock tower. 

Across from the city hall was a beautiful old structure, St. Paul's Anglican Church. It was built in 1750 and is the oldest Anglican church in North America. 

The park area between the city hall and the church is called The Grand Parade and dates back to 1749. There are several monuments and memorials to peace officers and those serving in WWII.

We began our trek up a grade to find the Town Clock. I stopped for a photo opportunity and to catch my breath. I happened to notice an unusual weather vane and couldn't resist a picture. Yeah, that's my excuse for stopping and I'm sticking to it.

Finally we arrived at a grassy hill and saw the structure we were looking for. There was a fort behind it at the top of the grassy knoll but all we saw was a big set of steps to get up there. No way. We took a few pictures and then noticed it was almost eleven o'clock. We stood across from the tower to wait for the clock to strike the hour. It was not as impressive as I had hoped but it did count correctly.

I clicked on the next stop on our tour to get the directions and we started on our way again. In order to get to the public gardens, our next stop of interest, we were to go around the corner of the grassy hill where the fort was. 

Lo and behold! Around the corner was a gentle climb on a sidewalk to get to the citadel. I shrugged. "Let's do it." We started up, slowly. What we found was well worth the climb.