Georgia to Halifax
Our latest adventure allowed us to take in two more provinces of Canada, leaving only Alberta and Newfoundland on the list of those which Tim has not visited as of yet. Flying into Halifax, provincial capital of Nova Scotia, with Delta is now a year-round option, but I can’t really imagine wanting to be there in the winter. Flying in from Atlanta requires a stopover in La Guardia, which is never really a treat. Delta terminals at JFK are not too bad, but La Guardia is over booked and heavily impacted with more and more flights being scheduled. Put it this way: the flight time is known to be slightly over an hour from La Guardia to Halifax ONCE you are in the air, but they block the flight at slightly over two hours to account for the time you will spend on the tarmac waiting to take off from La Guardia. The neat trick here is that once the aircraft leaves the “gate” (for Halifax from La Guardia this means the spot against the fence that the bus drove you out to) your flight is departed and technically on-time even if you haven’t moved. Once that door closes, you have left.
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Halifax
The crowds and renovation-in-process Sky Club aside, the flights themselves were uneventful. Halifax airport is not really near Halifax, so one is in for a bit of a slog of a good 30+ minutes to get to anything at all resembling civilization. As far as cities go, I would say not to expect too much from Halifax itself. You don’t fly there to see the city, unless you have business I suppose, rather you fly there as a gateway to the province itself. The city has limited attractions, primarily, if not exclusively, the Citadel, an old British fort that has had a largely peaceful history. If you are in the city it is worth a visit but I wouldn’t fly in just for the sake of seeing it by itself. Atlantic Canada, Halifax included, has been heavily battered by economic disasters such as the collapse of coal mining and the collapse of the cod fishing industry. Once those two industries tanked there just wasn’t much on anymore. As a result, the city has a bi-polar personality of the older group of citizens who worked when there was work and have retired and the younger group of residents who are students at one of the several universities in the city. Most everyone else has left for the western parts of Canada where work exists. The city isn’t particularly well maintained but that shouldn’t matter too terribly much because you are here to see Nova Scotia outside of the city.
Nova Scotia by the Sea
Nova Scotia is a province that really exists by the sea. Think of Maine on steroids. Rocky outcroppings, lighthouses, and dense arboreal forests and you have a good idea of what you will get. The interior of the province is relatively unpopulated except by loggers. But don’t worry, you won’t see the scared landscape from the road; you have to remember to look out your airplane window to see the clear cuts.
Nova Scotia is well aware that its rugged coasts appeal to tourists and they work hard to capture your attention and your money with tourist route and attraction signage to alert you to every opportunity to see just about anything along with prices designed to fleece you. Remember that the listed prices will generally NOT include national and provincial taxes that will add at least 10% to EVERYTHING you buy, so be prepared for that $4 box of nose tissue.
Cape Breton
Nova Scotia, which means New Scotland if you were wondering, is a province divided physically. The mainland part is an extension of New Brunswick that dangles off into the Atlantic, while off to the northeast is, arguably, the most beautiful part of the province and where I would focus my time and attention, Cape Breton Island. Technically, Cape Breton, named for the French settlers who first arrived here, if you follow the North American pattern of discounting those who truly arrived first, in this case the Mi’kmiq tribes, is no longer an island since the building of a causeway that links it to the mainland. It strikes me as splitting hairs to call an overgrown sandbar a means to eliminate island status, but you have to see it and then make your own call on it.
Mainland Nova Scotia is a relatively flat space with lots of glacial lakes dotting the landscape, sort of like Minnesota but without the funny accent. Cape Breton becomes a lot more mountainous, especially on the northern side where the national park is. The southern side is fairly similar to the mainland section with the exception of the road signage in English and Celtic. One gets used to dual signage in French and English in most all of Canada, but Celtic was a new one. If you stop for services along the way you will likely catch the conversation of locals that certainly doesn’t sound either English or French and this is a unique and captivating aspect of travel in this part of Canada.
Rounding the Cape Breton Highlands National Park is a must-do if you go to Nova Scotia, and I would argue that visiting the park is reason enough to go to Nova Scotia. The views of the Atlantic are stunning from the high cliffs with bald eagles circling overhead while you watch for whale spumes, which you are likely to see since this is prime whale territory in the summer. You can increase your sighting chances to almost certainty by using any of several whale watching tour services. Even if you never leave the shore keep an eye open for wildlife. The odds of meeting a browsing moose, or two or three, is pretty high and accidents involving them are not uncommon. Typically such collisions end badly for everyone involved so be cautious and take your time. Every now and then park the car and look up because this is nesting grounds for bald eagles and once you see one soaring in flight you will never forget the sight.
The northern portion of Cape Breton Island retains its French flavor in towns such as Cheticamp. Technically, the residents are Acadians and their flag is the French tri-color with a gold star added in the left hand blue field. The Acadians settled parts of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island separately from those French settlers who headed for Quebec. Problem was that the French and British have hated each other since roughly 1066, the last time the British Isles were successfully invaded by the way, and this dislike carried over into the New World as well. As the French and British squabbled over who would control what parts of what is now Canada, which was an overflow of wars taking place in Europe, the settlers were once again caught in the middle of a dispute they may well have left Europe to avoid in the first place. The Acadians refused to swear allegiance to the English King not because they intended to revolt but because as strict Catholics they felt that they could only swear allegiance to God, not to a man. As you might imagine, this didn’t go over so well with the British who proceeded to round up and forcibly expel the Acadians from their homes, farms, and land. Some of them would return later and it is their descendants who form the Acadian populations of today.
Prince Edward Island
The other place Acadians settled was Prince Edward Island. The Prince Edward in question was the fourth son of King George III, and I would daresay that if not for having this smallest province of Canada named after him, he well could have disappeared into history. Being an island, a ferry is involved in getting here from Nova Scotia. Ferries are a fairly common fact of life in Atlantic Canada, but since they are unheard of in most of the United States and certainly no longer an active part of life in Georgia (although street and place names assure one that ferries once were a reality here too), the hour long ride from Caribou, Nova Scotia to Woods Island is part of the adventure.
Prince Edward Island is known the world over as the home of the fictional Anne of Green Gables, the heroine of a series of books for children that I confess I have never read. I can’t, therefore, claim to understand her worldwide appeal, especially for Japanese women (hence the B&B’s that advertise English, French, and Japanese spoken or the direct flights from Tokyo), but the appeal is global and compelling. The island capitalizes on being the home of Anne and does an even more effective job of routing tourists along designated marked road paths with over the top signage than is to be found in Nova Scotia.
The other thing that Prince Edward Island (PEI) is famous for is being the birthplace of Canada. Prior to Confederation in 1864, what is today Canada consisted of a group of separate provinces. Representatives of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and the province of Canada (consisting of what is now Ontario, and Quebec) met in Charlottetown, named for the consort of King George III, and discussed uniting into a consolidated colony. It took a while to work the kinks out, ironically mostly introduced by Prince Edward Island itself which even considered joining the United States, until Confederation was completed in 1873. Newfoundland and Labrador, not invited until too late to the original conference, wouldn’t be given over to Canada by Great Britain until 1949. I don’t know that anyone was happy about that arrangement given that it passed with only 51% of the vote, but that is a tale for another narrative.
Aside from Anne and Confederation, PEI is all about shellfish, especially lobsters, mussels and clams (look for PEI shellfish on menus worldwide), and potatoes, also available worldwide. We ditched the designated, and heavily congested, tourist route across the island and instead drove off on small roads that took us into the heartland of what is truly an agricultural backwater. PEI tourism officials with their signs and routes may fool you, but in reality, PEI is a gently rolling bucolic paradise. Don’t expect much in the way of services or attractions away from the main routes, but the countryside is beautiful in its quietude and solitude.
Back Through New Brunswick
A ferry is no longer required for reaching, or leaving, PEI following the completion in 1997 of Confederation Bridge between the island and the mainland province of New Brunswick at Cape Tormentine. The bridge, which spans the Northumberland Straights, at roughly 13 kilometers in length, is the longest bridge over ice-covered waters in the world, at least during the winter. There was no ice to be seen in August.
New Brunswick is a work-a-day province of paper mills and yet more potato fields and you won’t spend much time in the province until returning to Nova Scotia once again if you have crossed over the Confederation Bridge. The route back to Halifax airport takes you through Truro, a city which at some point thrived on mining but today is just a depressing and depressed pit stop on the road to somewhere scenic or prosperous, preferably both.
The Other Canada
If your only experience of Canada is the bustling world-class cities of Montreal, Toronto, or Vancouver, or the splendor of the Rockies, Atlantic Canada with its tiny towns and glacial pace of life may come as something of a shock. However, for sheer natural scenic beauty, for friendly approachable people, and for a glimpse of a style of life that is fast disappearing, the area is well worth a visit. Just remember to bring a light jacket and umbrella for those unpredictable storms, a fairly well packed wallet, and an appetite for lobster!