Coastal Adventure # 5 and # 6: Two Quick City Posts

This is going to be the quickest post of the trip -- and I'm sure the reasons why will become obvious in due course!

We docked this morning in Halifax.  I've been to this city of the sea, the "warden of the North" (Kipling) so many times now that it's almost superfluous for me to add anything.  I've also blogged about three separate visits to Halifax, and those blog posts certainly covered the ground.  (hint: select the label "Atlantic Canada" from the list, and you'll get them all in that group)

As one of my friends said, I should probably be giving tours of Halifax myself during this stop!

Although it was a chilly morning with a stiff breeze, I carried out my plan to take a brisk walk along the waterfront boardwalk from the ship to the Dartmouth ferry terminal and back (it's about a mile, or 1.6 km).  A few doors from the ferry is a branch of that renowned Canadian institution, Tim Hortons.  A big cup of dark roast and a toasted bagel were a useful antidote to the rigours of walking the Halifax waterfront on the verge of winter.

After that I went up a couple of blocks into town, and walked back along Hollis Street so I could avoid the raw wind blowing along the harbour.  And so back to the ship and back aboard.  I may or may not go out again after my nap.

But before I even got ashore, the captain had already announced that our port call tomorrow at Saint John, New Brunswick, was cancelled due to gale warnings.  Sensible precaution -- I wouldn't want to handle a big ship in the Bay of Fundy on a day with heavy winds.  With said winds expected to be blowing against the Bay's famous super-size-me tides, it's no wonder that the forecast calls for swells of 15 feet or more.  

So instead, we are staying right here, tucked up at our pier in Halifax until 0600 tomorrow morning, at which time we will sail directly to Bar Harbor in Maine.  Good thing I had that Timmy, that's probably my last chance for over two weeks!