Friday 1 September - Halifax, Nova Scotia

We knew that we wouldn't dock in Halifax until 10.30am so decided to have breakfast in the main dining room.  We were among the first to arrive and were shown to a lovely table by the window. It was a beautiful sunny morning.

Smoked salmon in the dining room.  Far too much!

Pilot arriving

As things turned out, it wasn't the best of days. We docked later than scheduled and our excursion group was just about the last to leave the ship.  The excursion had much more coach time than we expected and the traffic was bad at times with Labor Day weekend starting.

Routemaster bus from London - with the entry/exit door on the wrong side for driving on the right!

Homeless allowed to camp here

Cricket match in progress

Also in this cemetery are some of the identified victims of the Halifax Explosion.  This was a massive explosion which killed thousands of people around it.

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For information on the Halifax Explosion, see Wikipedia

If those who perished were later able to be identified from DNA samples their names were added on the front on the headstone

No, not that J Dawson! This is Joseph Dawson

The body which broke the hearts of the recovery team - a young boy lying face down in the water whom they thought might be about four years old but, when identified later, it seems he was younger

As a result we had only 40 minutes to look round Peggy's Cove and we arrived back at the ship an hour late.  That gave us very limited time to explore Halifax's famous Boardwalk but we were able to sample it and it reminded us very much of the walk from the cruise terminal at the Sydney down under round to Darling Harbour.

Anyway, back to our excursion today which was the Titanic cemetery in Halifax and to a famous beauty spot called 'Peggy's Cove'.

Our guide, Myles, was extremely lively and loud! Our first stop was the Titanic cemetery. The cemetery is beautifully kept. The guide was extremely knowledgeable and pointed out headstones of particular interest including that of Sidney, a young child.

He also pointed out the grave of a J Dawson whose name may well have been the inspiration for the Leonardo DiCaprio character in the film.  

We were told that interest in the disaster had waned until the film came out, after which people would stand around Joseph's Dawson's headstone playing the Celine Dion track and leaving gifts.

We then began the drive to Peggy's Cove which turned out to be further than we'd expected and the roads were at times quite congested. However we drove through some lovely places whilst Myles talked incessantly

The heiress in the McCain family is putting a lot of money into this community to upgrade the look of the buildings.

Peggy's Cove was a pretty little spot and we had a nice walk round. Unfortunately we only had 45 minutes to explore. We then set off back and Myles continued to talk non-stop such that I began to wish I had taken my noise-cancelling headphones with me!

Memorial area to the Swissair flight 111 which crashed near here with all on board being lost

For more on the doomed Swissair flight, see Wikipedia

The Halifax Explosion took place in the water between here and the three chimneys

We were quite late back to the port so we put our best feet forward and managed to see a little of it. We thought it was lovely and we're sad to not have been able to spend longer there.

Then it was back on the ship for a beer on the back deck in the beautiful sunshine before getting ready for dinner.

Thursday evening and we had another good dinner. This time we hit the jackpot with our table as we were right next to the massive window at the back of the ship.

We felt like minor celebrities tonight. The girl who showed us to our table was excited that we are Atkins as her favourite scientist is Robert Atkins of the diet fame. E told her that G's brother is Robert Atkins but, in the words of James, "not that one!"

Then halfway through dinner a man came to our table and said G reminded him of Johnny Carson (who is dead by the way!). It didn't mean much to us but what with G being told in the past that he resembles Elton John, Phil Collins and Ian Hislop, who exactly is E married to? 😂

After dinner we went to see Shades of Bublé - Three young men singing Michael Bublé songs in their own style – and they were very good.

Then it was hot chocolate and bed. 

Lydia, our assistant waiter for the evening, was a rarity - a woman from Zimbabwe who was pleased to have a job where she could send money home to help her family. She said that unemployment was so high in Zimbabwe.