Cruise Day 34
Thursday, August 24, 2023
Today we are in Halifax, NovaScotia in Canada, our last port of the cruise before returning to Boston. We were docked by 8:00 AM, but Val and I had no set plans for the day other than get off the ship and walk around. Halifax was the last port on our 2016 Voyageof the Vikings, and we did the same thing today as we did then, we just walked around the port area. By the time we get to the end of a cruise, we have usually lost our enthusiasm for any more bus rides.
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| We sailed from St. John's (the blue marker on the far right) to Halifax (the red marker). |
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| A closer look at the Halifax area. |
We were up around eight but took our time getting ready and getting breakfast. We relaxed for a bit and then decided to go ashore around 10:30. It was a beautiful day; there were blue skies with warm temperatures, quite a change from what we’ve been used to.
Halifax has a nice boardwalk along their harbor front with lots of restaurants and shops and beautiful views of the harbor, and strolling along the boardwalk is what we decided to do today. It was familiar, but it looked like there had been some new development, so it wasn’t exactly like what we remembered. We walked quite a ways down the harbor front, checking out some of the shops along the way and just enjoying the beautiful weather. Besides people from the ship, there were many other people out and about and it looks like Halifax is popular with tourists.
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| This statue honors the emigrant. Halifax was a major destination port for people migrating from Europe to Canada. Halifax was also the destination of the Titanic on it's fateful last voyage. |
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| Looking back at our ship. |
It was getting near lunchtime, so we decided to have lunch at one of the local restaurants. We chose what I guess you would call an Asian / seafood fusion restaurant and we had a very good meal. Val and I shared a large bowl of seafood chowder and also a plate of pork ribs and spring rolls. We sat out on the patio beside the boardwalk so as we ate we could watch the people and boats going by.
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| Enjoying the view while waiting for our lunch. |
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| This was quite interesting showing the places the Acadians were sent when they were deported from Canada. Val read a book about this history of Canada and it was a very sad time, but it is nice to see this monument, and that Eastern Canada remembers the people who were so badly mistreated. |
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| This statue honors the contribution of the women of the area to war effort in World War II. |
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| This is a statue of Samuel Cunard who was a British shipping magnate and founded the Cunard line. He was born in Halifax. |
After lunch we walked back to the ship terminal. In order to get back on the ship, you have to walk by a gauntlet of shops that are set up in the terminal. We browsed through those and then made our way back onto the ship. We were back in our room by two and relaxed for a bit after our long walk.
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| We're almost back to the terminal and ship. |
We decided to do some preliminary packing, so I got out our bags and Val and I both got started. The real packing will be tomorrow, but it felt good to get started as packing to go home is my least favorite thing of the cruise.
It was a beautiful day in Halifax, so we spent some time out on the balcony relaxing and watching the various boats go by. It was soon time for dinner, but there will be no casino for us tonight as we don’t leave port until 11:00 PM.
We gain another hour tonight as we are traveling back into the eastern time zone. The clocks will be set back an hour and we’ll be on Boston time. Tomorrow is always the worst day of the cruise as we have to pack and get everything off the ship bright and early.
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