August, 28, 2019 – Halifax

Today was a beautiful sunny day so we decided to head back to the Halifax waterfront to take the ferry to Dartmouth, a little town right across the harbor from Halifax. The ride also gave us a chance to see the bridge over to Dartmouth…….which would have been faster way to go to Dartmouth, but not near as much fun!  The ferry ride was all of 15 minutes.  We walked to a nice lunch spot called The Canteen and shared a cold, seared tuna noodle salad, and a pan seared haddock sandwich. The food was fresh and very good.  Then we walked around the  downtown Dartmouth and headed back to the dock to take the ferry back to Halifax.

When we got back, we headed for the Halifax Public Gardens. We really enjoyed walking around the oldest Victorian garden in North America in downtown Halifax.  The gardens were opened  in 1867, and designated as a National Historic Site in Canada in 1984.

Captured a bee just as it was about to land (completely by accident of course!)

Next we walked to the Old Burying Ground, the original cemetery for the Halifax settlement…..both were established in 1749.  There are approx. 12,000 people buried in what looked to be about two city blocks. But sadly, only 10% have a headstone. The cemetery operated from 1749 until 1844 when it was closed to burials.

There’s another historic cemetery nearby, Fairview, where 121 of the Titanic survivors are buried, and about a third of them are still unidentified. The cemetery also has some Canadian war heroes, and many of those killed in the deadly 1917 Halifax explosion that killed 2000 people and injured 9000.  I don’t remember ever reading about this…..but apparently, it was one hechuva an explosion. It happened when a ship carrying heavy explosives collided with another ship in the Halifax harbor.  When we got home, I checked the internet to learn more. Per Wikipedia,

“The blast was the largest man-made explosion at the time, releasing the equivalent energy of roughly 2.9 kilotons of TNT……..Nearly all structures within an 800-metre (half-mile) radius, including the community of Richmond, were obliterated. A pressure wave snapped trees, bent iron rails, demolished buildings, grounded vessels (including Imo, which was washed ashore by the ensuing tsunami), and scattered fragments of Mont-Blanc for kilometers. Across the harbour, in Dartmouth, there was also widespread damage.A tsunami created by the blast wiped out the community of the Mi’kmaq First Nation who had lived in the Tufts Cove area for generations.”  

We have seen a lot of cool old churches in Nova Scotia….this one in downtown Halifax

It was a beautiful day in Halifax! Tomorrow we head to the Bay of Fundy….