Mahone Bay is on the way to Lunenburg and is as “pretty as a picture”. Its crown jewel is the line of three elegant churches – St John’s Lutheran Church (1903), St James Anglican Church (1887) and Trinity United Church (1861) – that grace the banks of its sheltered harbour. These churches have appeared on many postcards.
Lunenburg was established in 1753. This historic Nova Scotia coastal community is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This colourful village is built on a hillside overlooking the harbour.
The view from the golf course shows the red wooden warehouses, brightly hued heritage home and the crystal blue water – a jewel-toned tapestry!
While we were there, the Bluenose 11 was re-launched after an extensive refit. It’s a lovely boat.
The cost to retrofit was reportedly $16 million. WOW!!
Bluenose 1 had never been defeated in her native waters during International sailing fleet championships
We walked around the harbour and joined a walking tour of the old town. It was really interesting.
One of the sites was St. John’s Anglican Church. It is the second-oldest Anglican Church in Canada and is a National Historic Site. The church was devastated by fire in 2001. Several years before it burnt it had been surveyed and with the help of many volunteers it has been completely restored to its original design and is magnificent! The knave has a special pattern of gilded stars painted on the ceiling. No one seemed to know what the stars represented until the restorer took a copy to a professor at St Mary’s College in Halifax. The stars' alignment was identified as to what they would have looked like in Lunenburg around 2,000 years ago — on Christmas Eve in the year of Jesus' birth.
But who over a 100 years ago could possibly have calculated the astral positions, and how, remains a mystery. Fascinating!
Near Lunenburg is the Village of Blue Rocks. This is an amazing old fishing village built around a rugged rock strewn harbour. It’s like a painting of all the old run down rocky coast fishing villages that you have seen in magazines.
It seems in the Maritime Provinces you have to be an artist of some kind to live here. We really enjoyed our stay with Liz & Larry and their very cute dogs often referred to as “the girls” in their lovely home, Mystic Maples.
From Middleton were drove to Stewiacke, the home of the Mastodon.
During excavations in 1991, during excavations, a tusk and huge teeth were found. Upon investigation, it was determined that the Mastodon was 70-80,000 years old!!
Stewiacke also marks "Halfway to the Equator".
Then we drove through T
ruro, then West along the Minas Basin to Advocate
Harbour,and then along the coast of the Bay of Fundy to Joggins to look at the
fossils cliffs. As the waves erode the cliffs they have become a premier hunting location for dinosaur bones. We arrived to a blustery, windy, damp reception. Our walk along the beach looking for fossils did not take long. The walk down the steps to the beach took longer than the wind assisted ascent of the stairs on our return. Very cool area!
Springhill Nova Scotia is an interesting town. We did a tour of one of the old coal mines and the mining museum.
What really struck us were the two memorials dedicated to the men of Springhill that have died in mining disasters and the 2 World Wars. 139 in the wars and 443 in mining disasters. We were both surprised there is still a town. Keith mentioned this to a man that just happened to be passing by and that’s when he was told that Springhill was known as the "Town that will not die".
Springhill is also Anne Murray’s home town. Her museum is most enjoyable and of course full of wonderful music. Really enjoyed it.
Nova Scotia is a very pretty province. There is lots of history and places to visit.
The people are friendly and we highly recommend spending time exploring!
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