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| Day 24 - Halifax, NS | ||
 Today was another cool rainy day as we started on our all day bus tour of Halifax and Peggy's Cove. |
 Our first stop was the Fairview Lawn Cemetery, locally know as the Titanic Cemetery. Our kilted tour guide gives a short talk about the cemetery and it's tie-in to the sinking of the Titanic. |
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 Two days after the Titanic sank, the Star Line (owners of the Titanic) dispatched the Mackay-Bennet, the first of four Canadian vessels to search for bodies in the area of the sinking. She became known as the "death ship" because her crew recovered 309 bodies from the water. |
 The bodies were brought to Halifax and were numbered for identification purposes. Since there was no way to keep the bodies, they had to be buried. Most of them were buried in this cemetery and the rest were buried in the Jewish and Catholic cemeteries. This is the headstone of a child that was the first body recovered and so affected the crew and townspeople, that this headstone was purchased and placed on the grave site. |
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 A large headstone such as this was paid for by the family of the decedent. |
 Otherwise, the dead received one of the two types of headstones shown. If they were identified, their name was placed on the headstone, if not, the simple carving on the right was used. |
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 Next was a quick walk through the Public Gardens. This is a rare example of a formal Victorian public garden surviving intact and relatively unspoiled in the heart of a modern city. |
 The 17-acre park is enclosed by a wrought-iron fence; the magnificent set of ornamental gates was made in Scotland. |
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 The gardens date back to 1836 when they were created by the Nova Sotia Horticultural Society. |
 The city of Halifax assumed responsibility for maintaining the park in 1874 and has done a magnificent job since then. |
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 There are many floral displays, statues and fountains. |
 There is a lake that has a model of the Titanic. |
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 Our next stop was the Citadel. Constructed between 1826 and 1856, the Halifax Citadel commemorates Halifax's role as a key naval station in the British Empire. Such was the strength of the Citadel and harbor defenses that no enemy ever dared attack. |
 It is an impressive star-shaped masonry structure complete with defensive ditch (shown in this picture), earthen ramparts, Musketry gallery, powder magazine, garrison Cells, guard room, barracks and school room. |
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 The guards wear original Scottish uniforms |
 complete with breach loading rifles. |
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 Their squad was going through drills while we were there. |
 A corporal demonstrated loading and shooting the 1800's rifle. |
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 This building houses the Army Museum. |
 The two masts were used with nautical flags to provide information to the city about ships arriving or any other information that needed to be announced. |
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 The bag pipes were played by a guard in an original uniform. |
 The gunnery soldiers were dressed in uniforms that reminded me of bellman uniforms. |
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 After leaving the Citadel, we toured Halifax looking at many wonderful old restored buildings. We did not have a chance to stop at any of them. |
 The port of Halifax is a huge area. This is an overhead grain belt that delivers grain to the cargo ships. |
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 We then headed to Peggy's Cove, about an hours drive away. |
 The scenery along the way, changed dramatically as we got closer to Peggy's Cove. |
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 Arriving at Peggy's Cove was a surprise to all of us. it is a very small town that thrives on tourists and fishing. The original land grant for 800 acres to start the town was issued in 1811 to six fishermen and their families. The population peaked at 300 people by the beginning of the twentieth century. Today there are approximately 40 homes in the town. Photo by Ed Rzepka |
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 In 1868, the community built a light house on this headland. That lighthouse was replaced in 1914 by the one we see today. |
 We had a delicious lunch at The Sou' Wester restaurant. |
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 Wondering who Peggy was and why the cove was named after her? |
 Most people here will tell you 'Peggy' is the nickname for Margaret, and it seemed an appropriate name for this small cove located at the mouth of St. Margaret's Bay. |
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 Yet some will tell you of a young woman name Margaret who, after being rescued from a shipwreck, settled here and fell in love with one of her rescuers. |
 Today, there are fewer people who make their home here, but several families can trace their roots back for many generations. |
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 Fishing is still the livelihood of a number of the residents of Peggy's Cove. |
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 I'm not sure if these buoys were hung for decoration or just storage, but I loved the contrast with the weathered siding and the old window. |
 We may not have enjoyed the weather, but the flowers certainly enjoyed the rain. |
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 The man who created the murals in the town church, William deGarthe, was so taken with Peggy's Cove that he made this community his home. One of his most popular works is this outcrop of granite in his back yard. He transformed it into a monument to the fisherman of Peggy's Cove. |
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 Peggy's Cove is also a picturesque spot for wedding pictures, as this young couple is having done. |
 On the way back we stopped at this modest monument for Swissair flight 111 that crashed off shore on September 2nd 1998 with the loss of 229 men, women and children. The surrounding communities were called into action for the recovery operation. |
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 The next stop was at a local fish market where some of our members purchased fish and mussels for dinner. |
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Click here for a Google map of above pictures. |
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