Halifax in the rain

Yes, the rain followed us ,but it is still a warm, friendly city. We were met in the harbour by a little tug boat, appearing to have a hat on. A further check showed a little face, it was Theodore Too. Just as Thomas the engine has a following, Theodore is a character in a children’s tale, and is also an active escort in the harbour. There was a bagpipe band and the town cryer as well on the wharf. Quite a welcome. It might have rained for most of the day, but as I do this there is a gorgeous pink and red sunset over the water as we head south towards New York.

The rain was solid but we checked out the Maritime Museum – now I am not a big museum fan, but this had artefacts from the Titanic together with photos, and a huge model of the ship itself. There was another event in 1917 which had a much larger loss of life when an ammunition ship was hit in the harbour by another ship, and drifted towards shore when the crew realised what was to happen. The resultant explosion was the biggest manmade explosion on earth until the atomic bombs in Japan. Over 100,000 were killed and blocks of residential areas of Halifax were totally demolished. To my ignorance, I had never heard of this event. Some of the displays are amazing.

We checked out the main street, the Anglican church of St Paul, built in the Wren tradition, 40 years before the founding of Australia. It reinforces how young we really are.

We are on the homeward run, with the morning lecture on what to do for leaving the ship in New York. I can see a paper trail developing. The Canadians were strict, needing to check full passport or drivers licence as well as ship identity. But I can see the US being very strict, so we will sit at the front of the class.

I am going to miss the gentle rocking to sleep by the ship, not having to think about preparing meals (that starts again in London), the wonderful sunrise and sunset that happens outside our door, the ever changing vistas and the new experiences that happen as you travel in this style.

You may see ads for the lifestyle on the waters. I will tell you what I haven’t done on board – I did not use the spa – expensive, and they try to sell product all the time. I am too old as well – the girls are so young and pretty, it is too intimidating. I did not do the cookery classes – too much like work. I did not play the casino – I could not work a slot machine if I tried, though my other half tried to explain blackjack (21), and that was too much.

But we did walk the deck - 3 times round is a mile, so we mounted up the miles. We enjoyed the food, though we kept it simple. We enjoyed breakfast in our suite watching the world go by, waved to people waving at us a s we arrived and left the ports, drank wine on our balcony and thought we were pretty lucky to do all of this.

More soon