After leaving New York City and spending a day at sea on the Viking Neptune sailing up the coast of the USA, we arrived at a damp and cloudy Halifax in Nova Scotia. We had decided to take the “Best of Halifax” optional tour that was one of the first to leave the ship at 9:30am. We were prepared with our red Viking umbrella and even waterproof pants to brave the rain and wind of this Nova Scotian port. The coach ride to Peggy’s Cove was not long, and we were deposited for several hours in this famous beauty spot, which included a lunch by the lighthouse overlooking the port. But it was wet!
As a photographer, it is always disappointing when the weather doesn’t provide the light and colors that I was hoping for, but, of course, you make the best of what you have. We visited the tourist information center first to get out of the rain and then paid a visit to the famous rock sculpture carved out of the solid granite rock by William deGarthe to commemorate Nova Scotian fishermen.
Feeling a little sorry for ourselves, we made our way down towards the harbor in the rain and had a good look round one of the galleries overlooking the water. It was warm in there! And I started to notice that the harbor on this gloomy day probably illustrated what all the fishermen from this area probably saw as normal and they had to cope with far worse out at sea catching fish and lobsters.
I’m sure this little cove is normally overrun by tourists so chalk up one positive from being there in the rain!
And, when I started to work on these photos at home, I decided that an oil painting treatment would be perfect to give a feeling for what this port was really like.
Keeping this idea in my mind, I made my way further towards the ocean where I spotted a lonely fisherman’s cottage on the headland. The rain was tailing off by this point and so I was quite happy trying to get the best composition for the image.
I think the clouds actually add quite a bit to the lonely feeling of this image. You can perhaps imagine the fisherman’s wife waiting and watching for the fishing boat coming back from a stormy trip into the North Atlantic.
The lunch in the restaurant on the headland was pretty good with a lobster bisque soup on the menu, and was included in the tour. We then could explore more on the stark granite headland. Although we were given plenty of warning about avoiding the dark areas by the ocean itself which are slick and have caused quite a number of tourists to slide into the icy cold water around the coast here.
The lighthouse here is perched by the ocean, but I thought this image from a little further inland gave a better feeling of how isolated it is.
After this excursion, we were back on the coach headed into Halifax to first visit the graveyard where many of the passengers from the ill-fated Titanic were buried. The Fairview Cemetery holds the largest number of those drowned, 121 in total. The shipping company paid for small granite grave markers with simply a name and a date of death inscribed. Some families paid for a larger stone, but many of the passengers who drowned were trying to reach America to start a new life and had few funds. Many could never be identified.
One of the most poignant is the memorial to a small child pulled from the water and for decades was unknown. In 2002, he was finally identified as Sidney Goodwin who died with all his family when the ship went down. And, yes, there is a grave marker for a J Dawson, made famous in the Titanic film. The marker is actually for a sailor from the ship’s boiler room who went down with the ship.
Around this time, I realized that although I had packed waterproof clothes and a hat, I had neglected to pack any gloves! So, I left our tour at the final stop, the Public Gardens, and ran through the town trying to find a good pair of gloves. Amazingly difficult in May to find warm winter gloves, but someone in MEC managed to find a box of gloves in the storeroom and I was able to get a pair! I walked briskly back to the dock to rejoin the ship and actually beat the tour.
We then took up position on our balcony to say goodbye to Halifax as we sailed on towards what was planned to be the next stop – L’Anse aux Meadows and then on to southern Greenland.
You can read the next installment of this extended review of the Viking Iconic Iceland, Greenland and Canada cruise where we arrive in the capital city of Greenland, Nuuk.
