A leisurely overnight journey took us further down the coast to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Still the Celtic links and none more obvious than when we got to the Citadel, a fortified building at the top of a hill, encircled by cannons, guarded by soldiers in bearskins and kilts. Changing of the guard every hour and the noonday cannon made it a popular tourist destination, mind you there was another cruise ship in with us in Halifax. An amusing sight of Routemaster buses being used as hop-on hop-off transport from the central pier area at Pier 21, up to the Citadel. There was a fine clock tower there, reputed to have been built by Prince Edward, the then Commander in Chief of all armed forces in British north America who was fed up with troops arriving late on duty. It must have been a daunting prospect for enemy troops attacking the Citadel to get to the top of the hill, thinking they were there and then seeing the moat they had to get across.
We also visited Halifax Public Gardens, reputed to have a fine collection of dahlias which were out – the bees were going mad, getting the last of the nectar before winter arrived. On the way up to the gardens we passed the Public library – it is reputed to have been designed to look like a pile of stacked books.
The walk back to the ship took us onto the boardwalk along the seafront where there were numerous cafes, restaurants and bars with the occasional busker. We enjoyed Halifax – a lot.