Monday September 19 - Halifax

 Monday we drove into Halifax, and started the day at the Pier 21 Museum – Canada’s version of our Ellis Island.  They’ve got a nice introductory movie, some great displays of the ships and immigrants that have come through, and a nice guided tour of what a new arrival might have experienced. 

Our Museum guide explains the immigrant ship wall

A souvenir tee shirt we saw for sale!

St. Louis ship memorial & holocaust discussion

Inside the Old Ale Pub

Welcome to the Castle

                                                                  

Our docent guides

                                                                                                                                                                    



  After a good pub lunch, we toured “The Citadel”, the massive fort overlooking the city built by the Brits in 1856 to defend the city.  No shot in anger was ever fired, but they’ve got a good tour with reenactors and displays.

"The Last Steps" Arch

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         A walk on the waterfront finished the day.  The Canadians are doing a wonderful job of honoring their veterans, all over the country, and Halifax was no exception.  A particularly interesting display was the “Last Steps” memorial arch on one of the piers.  In World War I, 350,000 Canadian military personnel set sail from Halifax for Europe.  67,000 of them never came back.  

    

Halifax Heroes - Navy ship

Snookie walks past the Dalhousie Nurse Memorial

HMCS Sackville - a Corvette

     A special treat was seeing the iconic Canadian sailing vessel “Bluenose II”, a replica of their internationally famous racer that we saw being rebuilt several years ago in Lunenberg-it was coming in for an open house the next couple of days, and it entered the harbor while we were on the dock.

The Bluenose II

Halifax Bridge

  On the way home, we met their daughter Suzie for a pizza dinner, and enjoyed catching up with her and her daughter’s doings.