Travel News: On our way home to Toronto

From Halifax, we drive to Digby. It takes us a while to drive out of the city of Halifax as we drive over bridges and a complicated road system to put us on the highway. The terrain is simple and flat with no particular sites to see until we get to Digby. This town is known for its scallops, those Digby scallops. Here we take the ferry to Saint John, New Brunswick.

At the Ferry Terminal in Digby, Nova Scotia 

The ferry crosses the Bay of Fundy which is known for its highest tidal ranges in the world. Apparently, one has to witness the landscape at its best when the tide is out. Unfortunately for us the tide was out in the early hours of the morning. 

While on the Ferry, we listened to the brief announcements coming from the loudspeaker; then the lady on the loudspeaker claimed that the Bay of Fundy is the 8th wonder of the world?? Imagine that!

We pass a fish hatchery as we move out of Digby 

Crossing the Bay of Fundy

After almost four hours of basking in the sun and being wind swept on the deck of the Ferry, we arrive in Saint John, New Brunswick to rest for the night. The next couple of days we drive home via Portmouth, New Hampshire and Albany, New York.

Travel News: Nova Scotia: Halifax and Peggy's Cove

Yacht's a sail from Halifax Docks

Halifax, the capital city of Nova Scotia, has its old world charm. We walk along the boardwalk with the crowds of people enjoying the sunny day; being entertained by the buskers and a musician or two playing out their favourite tunes. From the dock, a yacht sets sail to the open waters.

Signal Hill, Halifax

We walk to the main street and do the long climb to Signal Hill, the historic site amidst the city surroundings. It stands high above the city. See picture on right.

Swiss Air Flight 111 Memorial Site near Peggy's Cove

On our drive to Peggy’s Cove, we stop at the Swiss Air Flight 111 Memorial site created in memory of the 229 passengers who lost their lives when Flight #111 crashed into the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean, fifteen years ago on September 2, 1998. This site is tranquil and peaceful.

Tim among the smooth rocks at Peggy's Cove

We drive on to Peggy’s Cove; a place of smooth rocks that everyone wants to climb despite all the warning signs of the dangers of doing so. The Lighthouse sits at the high edge of this Cove. It is beautiful and tempting to be on the rocks.




Peggy’s Cove boasts a population of 35. Yes, I didn’t omit any zeros; that’s what the sign says; one restaurant and a couple of souvenir shops.

Maria enjoying the view at Peggy's Cove

Travel News: Prince Edward Island (PEI)

On Confederation Bride approaching PEI

It is a beautiful drive on the Confederation Bridge and within an hour we are in our hotel in Charlottetown.

Argyle Shores

The sunny weather is with us as we tour the Island. We arrive at Argyle Shores on the southern part of the Island. The tide is in and envelopes the unusual red sandy beach.

Entrance to Green Gables Heritage Place

We make our way north to stop at Cavendish to visit the Green Gables Heritage Place.

In the evening we walk along the Wharf in Charlottetown and stop for dinner at one of the restaurants overlooking the waters that lead to the Northumberland Strait.

Travel News: Heading towards Prince Edward Island (PEI)

As we come towards the end of the Gaspé Region in full glare of the brilliant sunshine, we drive past small towns; New Carlisle, Bonaventure, New Richmond, Carleton-St-Omer making a stop at the town of Maria for lunch at a roadside diner.

Roadside Diner in the town of Maria

Entering Bathurst, New Brunswick

The landscape flattens as we drive into New Brunswick; we spend the night in Bathurst. The highway drive from Bathurst to the Confederation Bridge, the gateway to PEI is long, dull and slow as we are stuck on a two lane highway with no passing lanes and no service centres.



At last Confederation Bridge is in front of us. It feels strange to be on this Bridge, an excellent feat in engineering. There are no regular bridge suspension trappings. It is like driving on any other highway but high above the waters below us, the Northumberland Strait.

On Confederation Bridge to PEI

Travel News: More of the Gaspé Peninsula

Our first glimpse of Rocher Percé

With the sun shining brightly, we drive through the twists and turns of the highway as we border the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. We turn the corner and there in front of us is Rocher Percé. A gigantic rock emerging from the Gulf waters greets us as we stare at it in awe. As we move closer in we stop the car to take in this beautiful vista.

It is a short hike to the viewing look out platform. Rocher Percé is naturally carved with its left side standing tall in a peak and gently flattens and slopes down towards its right occupying a large area of this massive body of water. This is the marvel of erosion and wind, nature's tools of sculpture.

Closeup view of Rocher Percé

Community around Rocher Percé 

We resume our driving only to be enveloped in a brief span of fog that further blocks any vistas of the Gulf. It doesn't last long. As the saying goes..."The fog comes in and goes at will. Don't begrudge it. Wish instead that you were as free."

True to form, the fog vanishes to expose the immense Gulf of St. Lawrence.  The peace and tranquility of the communities we pass by is soothing and relaxing.  

Travel News: Town of Gaspé

View from Town of Gaspé

Gaspé is a picturesque town. No matter where you are in this town, the vistas of Gaspé Bay surround you. As we walk along the main street, we read about the British land developer, John Carter (late 1800s). Further down the street we pass by Auberge La Maison William Wakeham; now an Inn, but was inhabited by Wakeham during his time in this town. In 1879 he was appointed by the Federal Government to look after the fisheries industry surrounding the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In conversations with the local people we learn that this is a British enclave. We frequented the quaint Cafe au Artistes, a Bohemian designed cafe with sumptuous breakfasts and lunches.

Cégep in the Town of Gaspé 

Standing high on the hill is the Cégep (a post secondary institution). As we walk up the hill to this impressive structure we learn that this used to be a Cathedral School for boys; René Lévesque (former Premier of Québec) was one its well-known students.

We continue our scenic drive through the Gaspé region.

Travel News: Gaspé Region, Québec

One of the many beautiful vistas en route

We are now in the Gaspé Region. Once again the skyline is dotted with steepled churches and farm silos. As we approach each steepled church we observe a school next to it. We soon realize that each community is built around these two structures and is well populated. We expected a drive through a sparsely populated area. Not so, we passed by thriving small communities; notably Matane/Bai Comeau town--large enough to house a Wal-Mart. Bai Comeau is the hometown of our past Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney.

Wind Turbines Changing the Landscape 

The gentle mountains appear with sprouted wind turbines changing the dramatic landscape of the natural beauty. We turn and meander through views of undulated mountains, some sprawling out onto the huge body of water creating curved look out points of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The squalls of waves come gushing onto the seawall. The tide is in. It is a brilliantly sunny day that shows off nature at its best.

View of the beach while lunching at Ste-Anne-des-Monts 

We stop for the night in L’Anse-au-Griffon; we relax as we absorb the vast expansive Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Travel News: Road Trip to the Maritimes, Canada - Heading towards Rimouski, Quebec

From Toronto we headed East. As we approached Quebec, we drove along the periphery of Montreal. We drove on overpasses and underpasses of the bridges of Montreal; the last one being the Jacques Cartier Bridge that took us onto the highway heading for Drummondville. The bridges in Montreal are decaying and need reconstruction. Our pleasant surprise was driving through the Place Ville Tunnel; a very modern and pleasant drive through this brightly lit long tunnel. It was the best part of driving along the edges of Montreal. 

In Montmagny, Quebec 

We spent the night in Drummondville and then onwards towards Rimouski. We got off the highway at Montmagny to meander through the country road along the St. Lawrence River. It was a cloudy day with some sun peeking in and out through our drive this scenic route; there was no rain. 

One of the many steepled churches en route 

Every 20 - 30 km the skyline is dotted with church steeples and further along they are accompanied by farm silos. We stopped at a c couple of the churches to witness their histories dating back to 1789. These structures are solemn with a strong sense of the dominance of the Catholic Church on its populace that settled in this area.

Rimouski is beautiful. Walking along the promenade beside the St. Lawrence River, we were able to see far and wide beyond the tranquil waters of the River. It was windy; in the distance the waters looked choppy as the tide was out. For dinner, I had Coquille St. Jacques; flashback to the time we lived in Montreal in 1971, where I first tasted this appetizer. I quickly learned to adopt it as part of our homemade cuisine.

View of St. Lawrence River from Rimouski 

It is lovely to relive our Montreal memories within our French Canadian culture. Our next stop is L'Anse-au-Griffon.