Lunenburg and Peggy's Cove

Saturday, July 8, 2017  Halifax
We’re mostly dry.  Except for some heavy socks, everything else has dried out, and the suitcases are barely marked by the water.  We’re OK.
Our day began with a visit to the coastal town of Mahone Bay, on the way to Lunenburg.  This is a lovely small village with three bay-side churches, one Anglican, one Lutheran and one Presbyterian, so close to the water that the early morning fisherman could tie up and attend a service before going out.


We continued on to Lunenburg, a beautiful town which has been named a UNESCO World Heritage site for the very well-preserved 19th century structures.  We began our walking tour of the town at the Lunenburg Academy, a public school opened in 1895, and only closed a few years ago:

The local architecture includes a unique feature called a “Lunenburg Bump” which is a very large and protruding dormer on the upper floor of a home.  The town is full of very old homes, many of which have such a bump:



A major feature is the St. John’s Anglican church which dates from 1754, but has been expanded and updated a number of times, the last being in the 1890s.  Here they call it “Carpenter Gothic”, that is, the kind of Gothic church usually built of stone, but here built in wood.


We had lunch in the town (I had an absolutely delicious fish chowder), and then went on to a most picturesque town called Peggy’s Cove.  The town is full of artists and craftspeople, and is quite charming:



Finally, we stopped at the Halifax Gardens on the way back to the hotel.  This is an enormous formal garden right in the middle of Halifax, heavily used on a pretty Saturday afternoon:


There’s a large statue of Queen Victoria in a very fancy fountain, erected to her honor at the 60th anniversary of her reign:

Back to the hotel for a lovely three-course dinner at the hotel restaurant, Gio.  It was very good.  Tomorrow we tour Halifax and then leave for Moncton, New Brunswick.  

Comments

  1. SheilaPJuly 8, 2017 at 6:46 PM

    What a beautiful part of the world. As usual, Victor, I am enjoying reading your blog and travelling vicariously with you and Joyce.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rwa442July 8, 2017 at 6:58 PM

    Beautiful photos. A couple of comments - are these coastal towns concerned about sea level rising? Some look awfully low lying. The interior of the Anglican church is very impressive wood craftsmanship. Those wooden beams are a very old master carpentry style called hammer beam truss. Very beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ralph P. LockeJuly 8, 2017 at 7:07 PM

    I love the interior of the Anglican church! Fascinating to think of trying to do in wood what is normally done in stone. I wonder if there are cases of the reverse somewhere in the world? (Stone imitating wood.) Art is often about making a material do something different than it would seem to "want" to do.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Victor PoleshuckJuly 9, 2017 at 1:39 PM

      After completing the Erie Canal the stonemasons of Western New York turned their skills to small homes, building with cobblestone in the size and shape of homes which had traditionally been built of wood. Is that perhaps the kind of thing you're thinking of?

      Delete
    2. Ralph P. LockeJuly 10, 2017 at 5:26 AM

      Wow, that's exactly what I had in mind, only I didn't know that it had ever been tried. How ingenious humans can be, especially when they've gotten good at something--they want to keep doing it wherever they can. (A danger with retired academics like myself--sometimes people have to tell us "Enough already.")

      Delete
  4. UnknownJuly 8, 2017 at 7:36 PM

    TAuck is wonderful. Did their Canyons tour many many years age. Keep having a wonderful time.
    Julian Y.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Victor PoleshuckJuly 9, 2017 at 1:41 PM

      This is the 1,132nd time they've run the Canadian Maritimes trip. They must be doing something right!

      Delete

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