Post # 17 A Great Day In Halifax September 24, 2015

    What a great day in Halifax. We were up at 6:30 to see the pilot come aboard. The weather was spectacular. It was warm and sunny all day. We were the first ship in followed quickly by a Holland America (Marsdan?) followed by a smaller ship called The World. We found out later that the world is actually a “condo” ship. Since we had a 9:30 pick up, we ate in the dining room again. Then it was quickly ashore for us.

    We met our very good Halifax friends at the arrange pick up place. Bernie and Loretta have a condo in Highland Lakes. We met them about 5 years ago and have enjoyed many laughs together over the years. They are renovating their recently purchased Halifax condo and took time to provide the best tour possible. Having been to Halifax many times    

Titanic Graves

I wanted to return to the Fairfax cemetery, the sight of the Titanic Graves. I had been there about 20 years ago. Bernie mentioned that there are actually 3 cemeteries with graves from the Titanic. That was something I had never heard of. We headed there right away and managed to get to the grave site before the many buses arrived. It meant that we could get photos without hundreds of people around. The graves look like they have been refurbished. All the markers were quite “bright”.

Now Identified Baby

   

Typical Marker

Next we headed to a Jewish cemetery (right next to the main one) which do have some markers. Unfortunately all the gates were closed and although we could see them, they were too far away to get a photo. It would have been easy to jump the fence but we did not need to do that for obvious reasons. Next we headed to a catholic cemetery with more graves. The Mount Olive site must not be on many tourist maps. It was not as neat and well kept. There were 19 markers of exactly the same shape as the Fairfax cemetery. That is because the White Star Line paid for all the headstones. Of the 19 markers, 14 were identified with 8 being passengers. There is a number on every site but they are not arranged in any order. They seem to be completely random. However the number identified when the body was found i.e. First, second, third, etc. I wondered if this was for Catholics, what about the 5 unknown ones. Also research in recent years have provided more information and some of the original misinformation has been corrected. It was just a wonderful visit to both sites.

 

With Loretta and Bernie

  We then headed out of Halifax towards St. Margaret's

Rope Loft

Bay. We thought of going to Peggy's Cove but by now the tour buses would have arrived and the lighthouse would be obscured by the people. We drove for about an hour with Chester being our destination. It is a beautiful little town with very large houses along the bay. Many admirals retire to this area. We stopped a a very nice place called the Rope Loft where we had lunch. It is the type of restaurant that you would like to eat at all the time. With the warm sunny day we sat outside and enjoyed a leisure lunch. After we wandered down the streets enjoying the flowers, the houses and the boats in the harbour.

   We headed back to Halifax after spending about 2 hours in Chester. We wanted to get

At Chester on St Margaret's Bay

back so that we could enjoy the wonderful boardwalk along the harbour that Halifax has developed in recent years. Shops, bars, sellers populate the area. Besides we had accomplished what we set out to do. Before going back to the ship, Judy did some shopping in the market place and Pier 21. Pier 21 is a large building filled with shops and a museum. We went through it on our last visit here. It is the pier where the immigrant ships from Europe to Canada stopped. My father entered Canada through this building, boarded the train nearby and headed to Windsor.

On The Boardwalk

   After a cup of tea, we watched the bagpipe and drum band of the RCMP perform in the Princess theatre. I did get a call from the Cruise Director. I had sent him a note asking if he could help. I am still trying to find out if my other pictures that I submitted years ago are framed anywhere. He contacted someone he knows in the public relations department back in California. You never know. After a short rest it was time to start the night time activities.

   We had a drink with our friends in their suite and wandered a bit before dinner. After dinner we went to the late show. It was a juggler with a very funny comedy act. His jokes were really off the wall stuff. It was a really good act. He must have been having a great time because he did about 55 minutes. That was way longer than any other act we have seen. Tomorrow is our last full day. They call it packing day - and for good reason. We land in New York on Saturday.