A lovely mural outside LF Bakery
After the excitement of graduation day, we still had a couple of days to explore Halifax before we were heading out of the city.
We had Saturday with the Harrisons and then Sunday we were meeting Mitchell to explore the Citadel. The weather was not looking promising, but we’d make the best of it and see as much as we could!
Saturday
Saturday was spent exploring the city with Alex, Matt, Carolynne and Graham. As Alex and Matt had both lived here for a time, we had a chance to get to see a bit more of the city with local guides! They had some great sounding ideas for the day and we were looking forward to spending time with them.
We woke to a grey, cold and windy day, which was not ideal. We had hoped we’d have a nice day to explore, but if there were fo be days with a bit f weather, the ones in the city seemed like the best ones for it. We were not in a big rush, and after sleeping in a bit, Justine and I walked for about 15 minutes down to LF Bakery, a spot we had been told about by a couple of people. It was almost in our neighbourhood - about a 20 minute walk away, and half way to where we were meeting the rest of the group.
Yes, there was a line up out the door, and it was worth it.
The bakery was about halfway to where we were meeting the group at the Maritime Museum, and while the weather didn’t look great, it held off. At least that far. The bakery was amazing and we ordered some croissants and Justine got a coffee. It was a busy place - lined up well out the door - and so there was no place to sit and eat. So we decided to continue on. Just as the rain started. It started fairly lightly, but we had about another 15-20 minutes to walk, and the rain got heavier as we went. By the time we got to the Maritime Museum it was purging and we were soaked!
We had arrived before the rest of the group, but they were not long before joining us. Matt, being in the military, got us a group discount and away we went. It was an interesting place. A lot of great information about the city of Halifax and how/why it ended up having such a rich naval heritage and centre of the Canadian Navy. There was also a lot of great info about the local First Nations and their heritage. There were also lots of great exhibits, models of ships and interesting details on Canada’s participation in World War II.
This was my favourite model in the museum. It was a ferry that they used to use to run train cars - 16 at a time - between the main land and PEI. Of course they must have done that - it had never occurred to me! I can only imagine loading and unloading trains cars from a dock as the tides are changing.
There was also a really cool exhibit on the Great Halifax Disaster from World War I, where a ship carrying explosives collided with a cargo ship, resting in a huge explosion (3 megaton equivalent) that wiped out half of Halifax. From Wikipedia: On the morning of 6 December 1917, the French cargo ship SS Mont-Blanc collided with the Norwegian vessel SS Imo in the harbour of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Mont-Blanc, laden with high explosives, caught fire and exploded, devastating the Richmond district of Halifax. At least 1,782 people, largely in Halifax and Dartmouth, were killed by the blast, debris, fires, or collapsed buildings, and an estimated 9,000 others were injured. The blast was the largest human-made explosion at the time. It released the equivalent energy of roughly 2.9 kilotons of TNT (12 TJ).
I had been aware of the story, but it was interesting to see all the real details and see some of the artifacts from the time. They also had a great collection of small, historic boats, and upstairs a great collection of model ships from the steam age. They were very cool.
The last exhibit we spent time in was the Titanic exhibit, where they have all the details about the disaster. There were lots of interesting details I had been unaware of, and some cool artifacts from the ship. All in all, it was a great way to spend a rainy day. Sadly the rain was still ever present, but we braved it and walked a bit of the boardwalk. We headed to a coffee shop to grab a warm drink to help everyone warm up. It was a nice little diversion.
From there, it was time to grab some lunch, so we walked over to the original Alexander Keith’s brewery. It’s in this great old building that they have converted into a small shopping centre. There was a pub, The Black Sheep, where we had an excellent meal. At this point, it was time for us to go our separate ways. Alex and Matt had apartment things to deal with, and Carolynne and Graham were helping them out, and getting themselves organized for the long drive back to Ontario the next day. It had been really great to spend time with them, and we were really grateful to be included in Alex’s convocation.
We didn’t go into this brewery, but the nearby pub was great.
Justine and I kept exploring downtown. The rain had mostly let up, and we continued into the port area and made a stop at Garrison Brewery. It was a cool spot in an old warehouse, and we shared a full flight of all their beers. It was pretty great. Tired of walking, we took an Uber back to our little apartment.
We relaxed for a bit, watched qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, and then headed back out to do some exploring. There’s a large bridge that goes from Halifax over the water to Dartmouth on the other side, and we hoped that the fog was still lying over the water, providing a good photo opportunity. It was only a 15 minute walk to the bridge, but sadly the fog had lifted. So instead, we walked about halfway over the bridge to get a view of the city. There were a few navy ships at the docks, and we had a good view of the skyline.
On the way back to the apartment, we stumbled across a small distillery, Compass Distillery. We decided to stop and have a cocktail, and really enjoyed the place. Their spirits were quite good, and I ended up buying a bottle of gin to bring home. The guys running the place were pretty entertaining, and we enjoyed chatting with them.
We really enjoyed the vibe on the place.
We shared a flight of their excellent spirits. We even bought one to take home.
After getting back to the apartment, Justine was going to chill out for the rest of the night, while I headed to the casino to play poker. The night got off to a big of a rough start, but I eventually found my groove and ended up wining a few hundred dollars. Not a lot, but a win. I got home late, and it was time to sleep.
Sunday
Sunday, was another day of exploration and seeing the sites. We were meeting up with Mitchell, the son of our friends Risa and Jeff. Mitchell has been in Halifax for a couple of years now, and we thought it would be good to catch up. He ended up being free and willing to hang out with a couple of old people, which was nice. We decided to meet at the Citadel, explore they for a bit and then have some lunch.
Heading up the hill to the fort to meet Mitchell.
At the entrance, you got the full historic display.
The Citadel is the original fortification the put Halifax on the map. When the British and the French were fighting for control of North America, Halifax was built to control this critical deep water harbour.
The fort is pretty amazing - this huge star-shaped fortification on the hill above the harbour. As a national historical site, they do it well with people dressed in costumes, lots of displays (musket firing was cool), and a ton to explore. For our visit, the wind was crazy - blowing so hard that at times we were afraid we were going to get blown off the battlements!
Back to our friends at Wikipedia: Citadel Hill is a National Historic Site in Halifax. Four fortifications have been constructed on Citadel Hill since the city was founded by the British in 1749, and were referred to as Fort George—but only the third fort (built between 1794 and 1800) was officially named Fort George.
According to General Orders of October 20, 1798, it was named after King George III. The first two and the fourth and current fort, were officially called the Halifax Citadel. The last is a concrete star fort.
One of the few entrances - easily defended.
The Citadel is the fortified summit of Citadel Hill. The hill was first fortified in 1749, the year that Edward Cornwallis oversaw the development of the town of Halifax. Those fortifications were successively rebuilt to defend the town from various enemies. Construction and leveling have lowered the summit by ten to twelve metres. While never attacked, the Citadel was long the keystone to defence of the strategically important Halifax Harbour and its Royal Navy Dockyard.
Within the site, there were some good displays that showed how the fortress was built, and how it evolved as warfare changed it. They had exhibits that showed all the different guns, how they were positioned to defend the harbour, and how far they could fire. It was kind of crazy. There was this piece of 20 cm thick steel that they had fired one of the original canons at, along side one of the more modern guns. The canon ball dented it; the newer gun just ripped a hole though it.
Some of the older style canons that fired canon balls
Versus the newer style guns that fired shells and mortars.
And this is the difference in the effect of the old canon balls (the lower dent) versus the newer shells (the huge gaping hole) in a piece of cast iron meant to replicate a ships cladding. One of the best displays by far!
We also walked the outer walls, taking in the views of the city. The wind was crazy strong all day, and at times it felt like you might get blown off! At noon, they fire off one of the canons, and our timing was good to watch that from fairly close by. It was quite the procedure, but was cool to see. From there, we wandered down the hill to the harbour and walked the boardwalk along the ocean, towards our lunch reservation at Bicycle Thief.
It was a cold and blustery day, and we appreciated Mitchell hanging out with us!
For our lunch plans, we were staying down in the harbour. We had being told about Bicycle Thief by a number of people, and we really wanted to try it out. We had tried to get dinner reservations for Sunday night, but our only options were either 3:30 PM or 9:30 PM, so that didn’t work. So instead, I grabbed a lunch reservation for 1:15 p.m. To get to the restaurant we walked along the boardwalk and enjoyed the city. The weather was much better than the last time we were here and it was even starting to feel warm.
The restaurant was great and the East Coast Italian feel and I decided to have my first lobster roll. The three of us shared the calamari which was excellent and I really enjoyed the lobster roll. It was quite tasty and the lobster was a lot nicer than what I had had with the risotto at dinner the other night.
After lunch, Mitchell went on his own way as he had a bunch of errands to get done on his Sunday and Justine and I continued walking along the boardwalk. We got past where we had been the other day at the Maritime Museum and found this cool art exhibit/viewpoint called The Rise. It had nice views over the waterfront, and we sat and enjoyed the view for a moment or two. We continued on basically to the end of the boardwalk, where we found some nice Muskoka chairs looking our over the harbour. We sat there for a little while before grabbing an Uber back to the apartment.
We decided to relax for a bit for the afternoon, and watched the F1 race. After the race, we got ourselves organized for dinner. We walked over to a place that was recommended called The Narrows, which looked great. But sadly there was an hour wait, so we headed back to a gastropub in our ‘neighbourhood’ that also looked good. We were not overly hungry, so we shared an excellent charcuterie plate and some olives, had a glass of wine and it was perfect.
Yummy…
We walked home and called it a night. It wasn’t a long stay in Halifax, but we did enjoy it, and I think we got a pretty good feel for the city.