United Airlines Soaks Us and the Halifax Citadel

Friday, July 7

A terrible start to our trip.  Everything we have with us is soaked and our brand-new suitcases are seemingly terribly water stained.

So, we’ve got lots of miles on United and planned this trip using some of them.  Not the greatest schedule and routing, but we took it.  We awoke at 3:15 AM, called for our very first Lyft ride to the airport at 3:45, and the car came at 4:00.  It went perfectly, and we easily made our 5:35 AM flight from Rochester to Newark.  We had a four-hour layover, and during that time there was a big rainstorm.  Well, we now know where our checked bags were—out in the rain.  Our flight to Halifax was uneventful, but when our bags came off of the carousel, they were dripping wet.  When we got to the hotel and opened them, almost everything was at least damp, and some things were so wet they had to be wrung out.  So everything we have with us is spread out in the room on every surface, on the bed, on the table, on the lamps, to dry.  Our brand-new suitcases—this is the first trip with them—seem to be water-stained, but I’ll have to wait until they’re dry to know for sure.  I haven’t contacted United yet, I’m waiting until things are dry to see if there’s any permanent damage; I’m sure they’ll be very sympathetic and want to make things right.  At least no one on our plane was dragged off.

In the late afternoon we met our tour group.  We’re on a “small group” tour with Tauck, which means "only" 24 people.  That’s a small group to them.  Everyone seems very nice, and our first excursion was to the Halifax Citadel, a large fort overlooking the harbor. We were welcomed to the Citadel by a bagpiper, dressed in the piper’s uniform of the Scottish regiment who manned the post.   Click on the arrow in the middle of the photo:


According to the explanations we got from a guide dressed in a 19th c. British military uniform, the Citadel was built to defend against both sea and land-based attacks.  There have been four forts here, the earliest in 1749 and the one we’re in now completed in 1856.  By the mid-19th c. this naval station was one of the four principal naval stations in the entire British empire. 
 There are two mast-like signaling structures, one of which was for the ships in the harbor and the other for the local populace: 




There are many old cannons, most of which are muzzle-loaders.  A crew loaded and fired two of them for us:
  




Back to the room after a lovely dinner in the Citadel, to rotate the wet clothes and see what will be dry enough to wear tomorrow.  

Comments

  1. Rebecca DrayerJuly 7, 2017 at 6:49 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Rebecca DrayerJuly 7, 2017 at 6:50 PM

    Mom, Dad, and I did Alaska with Tauck. We really like traveling with them. Expensive, but worth every penny.

    ReplyDelete
  3. xctravelerJuly 7, 2017 at 7:12 PM

    There is NO good airline. Every last one of them is capable of ruining a trip. United maybe more so recently. We just got caught out walking in a rain storm with no protection after a dinner out in Jersey City (yeah I know we get what we deserve) and had to strip off everything just inside the RV door to avoid soaking everything in the coach - its all in the dryer :)

    Enjoy Halifax it is a delightful city with a fascinating history.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ralph P. LockeJuly 8, 2017 at 3:55 AM

    This is astonishingly inept on the part of an airline.I'd say contact United immediately, even if the extent of the permanent damage is not yet clear. -- Fascinating about the naval station: it seems the British really had a system for keeping its troops available around the world and ready to move into action. I can barely imagine the extent of that network, in the days when the British Empire was at its most expansive. I wonder whether the merchant marine used the same station--that's another aspect of history I know little about.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ann Carol GoldbergJuly 8, 2017 at 6:55 AM

    After dinner in Jersey City we walked into heavy rainstorm. We tried UBER but gave up. We are drip dry approved after all. so we walked the 1/2 hour to the rig and did a strip dance worthy of stage lights (if we were significantly younger that is). After toweling off and putting soaking we clothing in the dryer we read your sad tale, once more as victims of United's transgressions. So wet hats off to you two. Humor is such a healing force and you are right there. We have new Briggs and Riley suitcases as well. "Good minds think alike..." enjoy every moment on your trip and do not fall in the ocean unless by choice.

    ReplyDelete

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