Travels

 

Travel can be a wonderful and surprising event. Even places that you used to know from years past can become different.  My friend, Lorraine, and I recently returned from a road trip to Nova Scotia. It turned out to be a great trip with several highlights. The highlights included places, events and people.

You know you are in Nova Scotia when you see and hear this.

The Piper at the Nova Scotia Welcome Centre

Places

Have you ever eaten breakfast on Wedgewood china? That was the case in Pictou, Nova Scotia at the Scotsman Inn, a bread and breakfast accommodation. The place was run by, you guessed it, a Scotsman and his wife. In some ways, it was almost like a museum with some of its exhibits and wall hangings. An excellent and healthy breakfast was served each morning on the Wedgwood and other fine china.

The Scotsman Inn Dining Room set for breakfast

One of the wonderful things about this and some other places was the existence of a veranda where people could and did get together in evenings and talk. You get to meet your fellow guests and find out about them.

The second B&B we stayed in was in Lunenburg, a most interesting town. Lunenburg is a World Heritage Site and is very picturesque. The B&B was called the Rose and Thistle.  The owner, appropriately, was Rose and her husband George (‘Thistle?’). This was an old house that had three suites and, of course, a big veranda.  The veranda wrapped around two sides of the house and was another place for guests to meet and talk. The dining room was a bit more modest than the Scotsman, but we still ate on china.

The other places we stayed at, the Courtyard Marriott in Halifax and the Old Orchard Inn in Wolfville were just big hotels, comfortable and full of amenities, but not much character.  The exception was the Algonquin Hotel and Resort in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. This has always been a favourite of mine.  An old railway resort hotel, it has kept up the luxury of those types of hotels in Canada. It is now under the management of a major chain who have done a great job of refurbishing the hotel without compromising its character. The hotel also has a large veranda where people sit out and meet each other.

Veranda at the Algonquin Hotel

Events

The Nova Scotia Tattoo is still as great as it was when it started in 1967 as a centennial celebration. Lots of great bands, both brass and bagpipes and drums.  The bands came from all over Canada and from Europe and were universally good. There were also gymnastic displays and the Navy Gun Run. This latter event has been going on for many years. We were sitting in the front row so got the full effect of the bangs when the guns were fired (with blanks of course).

We also attended the Pictou Lobster Carnival, an annual event that celebrates the end of the local lobster fishing season. We ate lots of lobster that weekend.

People

The really wonderful part of this trip was meeting other people, almost always on the verandas I’ve mentioned earlier. We met people from many places. Many of them were from Canada, different provinces including Quebec and B.C. But we also met people from different countries including the US, England and even Argentina. Everyone was very friendly and willing to talk about themselves and exchange experiences. A gentleman from England kept me late one evening questioning me about Canada and particularly the US.  He could not understand why the US, the richest country in the world, did not have universal health care. I had to explain about the power of rich lobby groups that had such influence in government policy. Other discussions were equally inciteful on different topics. We were never lonely on a veranda.

Irritants

Of course, not everything was perfect.

There were some spots on major highways that were so rough that I sometimes had concerns about my car’s suspension.  Quebec, are you listening?

Some drivers can be very annoying.  I have problems with drivers that slow down at curves in the road or when they pull out to pass other vehicles such as transport trucks. I am convinced that speed doesn’t kill, speed differential does. I thought of that when a car passed my doing about 150 to 160 km/hour. The rest of the traffic was doing 115 – 120. I also have a problem with drivers that tailgate in hopes, no doubt, that you will speed up to their speed. I would like to make a bumper sticker that says, “It’s not my job to stay ahead of you, it’s your job to stay behind me.”

Slow service by wait staff can be tedious, particularly at upscale places.

Toilet paper that is so thin you can read through it now seems so popular, too popular.

Plaudits

In Nova Scotia we took a number of secondary highways. In almost all cases these roads were very well kept and smooth. It made travelling on them a real pleasure.

There are many interesting places in Canada for travel and vacations. Congratulations to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick for hosting us for a great vacation.

I apologize to my friends in Nova Scotia for not contacting or visiting them. We were on a fairly tight schedule.