Halifax - Nova Scotia - Canada's City of SailsBy Richard PennickThe bustling old sea-port of Halifax, Nova Scotia may remind you of your own home town at first glance. The business district spills out on to the water; cafes and restaurants have nested in the old Maritime Services buildings. Ferries ply back and forth and commuters battle the traffic on the harbour bridge. Across the harbour is the community of Dartmouth whose tranquil history was violently punctuated in 1917, when it was leveled by the explosion of a munitions ship in 1917, killing 1,600 people! Wednesday night racing out of the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Club (once challenged for the America's Cup), makes this Canada's `city of sails' and weekend sailboats colour the harbour as they navigate ferries, navy ships, trawlers, and container ships. The disused buildings of the old quarantine station line an island hillside within view of Halifax diners, and the Maritime museums tell the stories of Scottish and other migration to these shores.
On the waterfront, standing on original timber poles, old warehouses offer new hospitality, artworks, high fashion, and antiques. The Historic Properties are a labyrinth of old timber buildings that offer the visitor everything – including the a one and a half pound lobster. Restaurants whose various fare is accompanied by music of the Maritimes, boutiques and galleries with tartans and art works influenced by the Scottish origins of the people who live and work here. Throughout the city are the inevitable public parks with carefully tended botanical gardens common where has trod the foot of Imperial Britain, centerpiece often a statue of Queen Victoria. The private gardens around stately Victorian homes witness the need to enjoy as quickly and as colourfully as possible the spring and summer months; for the North Atlantic winter is long and hard. The Provincial Government meets in Province House. A fine stone building completed in 1818, it is a leading example of Georgian architecture, and the oldest legislative building in use in Canada. At the main entrance are a brace of cannon used in the sea battle between HMS Shannon, and the US frigate Chesapeake during the war of 1812. There are many churches dating back to the early 1800s denominating the varied faiths of settlers. However, the only surviving settlement building is St. Pauls Church. Built from timbers brought by sea from Boston in 1749 it was the cathedral of Charles Inglis, first Anglican bishop of Nova Scotia. However, the cemetery is three blocks away inside what was once the city palisade. When it was located within the Cathedral grounds, outside the palisades, scalps from the dead were sometimes taken. Another noteworthy resting place is the Fairview cemetery with the neat rows of graves of those who perished on the Titanic – but that’s another story. Halifax became, in the words of one doctor, “a city of funerals” as over 200 bodies were landed some to be claimed by relatives, but most to be buried in three cemeteries
Using many new artifacts and unpublished photographs, the exhibit traces Titanic’s creation as the hoped-for trump card in the technological race to control Atlantic travel. Promoted as unsinkable even as the first reports of her sinking arrived in Halifax, Titanic brought the term “floating palace” into the language. Lavishly carved oak paneling recovered with her victims attests to the luxury in First Class. A feature that stood out in survivors’ memories was the magnificent oak and bronze grand staircase. The Museum brings the staircase back to life with an almost life-sized photograph, matched with a delicately carved newel post that miraculously survived the calamity. An elegant but empty deck chair, the only intact Titanic deck chair in the world, attests to the fate of two-thirds of the 2,200 people aboard her. Visitors to the exhibit can relive the discovery experience viewing a model of the Titanic wreck through a careful replica of a submersible port as first glimpsed by oceanographer and deep-sea explorer Robert Ballard.
Nova Scotia can be reached by air with Air Canada or Canadian Airlines from most Canadian cities or Boston in the US. There is motor coach service from Boston or Montreal to Halifax and numerous escorted or independent motor coach tours of Atlantic Canada. The autumn foliage tours in September and October are to be recommended. Fly/drive programs are also available from Halifax. VIA Rail operates an overnight sleeper service from Montreal traveling in daylight hours though eastern Quebec and New Brunswick to Halifax. The Province, including Cape Breton Island can be comfortably toured in 5-7 days. Accommodation from bed and breakfast to five star hotels is available. For more information on Halifax contact Tourism Halifax at Tel. 912-490-5946 Fax: 912-490-5793 or visit the website at: http://www.halifaxinfo.com |
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The restaurants take pride in serving fresh fruit of the sea, and one would be remiss for not sampling an Atlantic lobster, or the scallops. Lobster houses are fun. Seated at long tables piled high with fresh bread with a bib around your neck - steamed lobsters, claws and all - are laid before you. Implements include a nut cracker, and if for your waistline, there's hot drawn butter to dip the lobster meat in once you have liberated it from its shell. A bowl of lemon water to rinse your finger, and a towel to dry, and you are ready for another one. Acadian music surrounds - the experience is unforgettable. 
Captain Cook walked the cities narrow streets during stops between voyages to chart the coastlines of Atlantic Canada. He also had time to supervise the building in 1759 of the oldest dockyard in North America. Founded by Governor Cornwallis in 1749, Halifax is the biggest city in Canada's Atlantic Provinces, and the capital of Nova Scotia. The city is actually on a peninsula, and is overlooked by Citadel Hill which is crowned by a huge, star-shaped, stone fort which now accommodates an army museum; a marine museum, and an art galley. The Old Town Clock sits at the centre, and is verified daily by the noon gun, fired daily since the city's founding. 
The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic’s Titanic exhibit presents a fresh Nova Scotian perspective on the disaster. Halifax arguably has one of the most moving and intimate connections with the Titanic tragedy, playing a key role during the sinking and becoming the final resting place of many of her victims and wreckage. 
Bearing in mind that Halifax is only the starting point for a Nova Scotian holiday - take a side trip by bus or rental car the forty km down the south shore to Peggy's Cove. An old fishing community whose inhabitants have long since given their village over to artist and photographer, the trim, brightly coloured houses contrast with the weathered wharves and battered working boats resting in the sheltered harbour. A short walk over wind smoothed rock away from the harbours shelter, a lighthouse stands sentinel against the awesome power of the mighty Atlantic.