It was Monday and so unfortunately that meant back to work for me while the rest of them continued to enjoy their holiday. The good news is that the weather really looked perfect yesterday – around 22 degrees C, no wind and the view was so clear that you could theoretically see across Lake Ontario to the US. For me it still looks like the horizon haze but people from Toronto say that is in fact land that you’re seeing (I’ll take their word for it!).

I had some online meetings until just before midday so worked from the apartment. S, K & H headed out before 10am and took the subway up to where they were taking a hop-on-hop-off bus trip around Toronto. The tour takes 2 hours on the bus and then there is included a 45-minute boat trip (which they plan to do today). They said the tour guide was excellent and H said it was probably the best one of these bus trips she has done (and we have done a few of them in numerous cities around the world). It is a great way to get a feel for a city.

Meanwhile I had both lunch and dinner with clients and worked the afternoon in the Toronto office (where there were only 3 of the total staff from Toronto actually in the office yesterday – apparently they generally don’t come to the office on Mondays at all).

I got back to the apartment just after 8pm and all the family (including my sister and her family) were winding up dinner in our apartment. Nice to be able to join in the conversation. Then (believe it or not) the fire alarm went off again! This is becoming seriously irritating now. We had the window open and we could smell people smoking on their balconies (including cannabis smoke – it amazes me how often we have smelt that over the last few days of being here). It seems some idiot though (on 27th floor again, same as Sunday) has decided that smoking in the stairwell is a good idea and sets off the fire alarm. We could see five fire trucks from our balcony. This time we waited for the announcements and didn’t head downstairs and again it was determined to be a false alarm. Someone needs to figure out who the idiot is and lock him/her up or do something. From the tour today, H said that one fire station they passed gets 5000 call-outs per year – that is just over 13 per day!

On another note, the stadium roof was opened yesterday as the Toronto Blue Jays were playing baseball there yesterday evening. You could hear the occasional roar of the crowd. The roof takes 20 minutes to open and close. They closed it again around 10:30pm obviously after the game was finished. I didn’t get to see it open (the others did) but it was nice to see it closing. Strange how small things like this can bring you pleasure!

Until tomorrow …

P, K, S & H

We packed up and headed to the airport first thing in the morning as we had to be there at 8:30am for our flight at 10:25am. Halifax airport was about 30 minutes from where we were staying. We had to fill up the car – fuel is basically the same price as in South Africa it seems so you pretty much have to mortgage your house to pay for a tank of fuel for a Buick SUV!

Check in was painless and while there was a small wait at security it also went relatively easily. We were able to get into the Air Canada lounge (theoretically we were one person short of access rights but the lady at reception didn’t seem to care). The flight to Toronto was absolutely full. H actually remarked at one point (when people just kept coming onto the plane) that she wondered if they weren’t exiting out the back again! Unfortunately S & K had middle seats as by the time they checked in there were no aisle or window seats available. They seemed to have survived the flight though.

We landed 30 minutes early in Toronto. The plan was to try find somewhere for lunch at the airport but basically there were no decent options at all so we took a taxi and headed into the city. We couldn’t check in to our AirBnB apartment until 4pm so we had 3 hours to kill. We found a Subway store and ate a sandwich lunch. S managed to message the AirBnB host and he said he could let us leave our luggage in the apartment while they were cleaning. That was quite helpful and then we headed out for a walk along the shore of Lake Ontario. Ice creams, some birding, people watching and some grocery shopping managed to ensure we killed enough time to get into the apartment. They were just finishing off cleaning when we got in but within 5 minutes they were gone.

We are staying in an apartment on the 56th. The views are incredible. Hopefully some of the pictures will do the views justice! At about 4:30pm the fire alarm went off. No, I’m not kidding. After waiting a bit to see if it was faulty we went out and both K and I could smell smoke! So we grabbed our backpacks/passports etc and started down the 56 flights of stairs. One guy ahead of us but no one else at all descending. The alarm rang on. At the 22nd floor we met a guy coming up who is a resident in the block and he said it happens all the time but they usually do an announcement to tell you to remain in your apartment. No announcement this time. He continued up. We headed down. The AirBnB host said we could use the lifts. Tried them but they were shut off. Annoucements started shortly afterwards saying the alarm was triggered on 27th floor and the fire department were on route and then as we got to the 10th floor they announced it was a false alarm. At that point we took the elevators down to ground (because the lower levels are not connected to the upper levels) and then we took them back up again to our apartment. Change of shirt and showers needed!

My sister and brother-in-law and their family (1 nephew & 2 nieces) have joined us in Toronto. Crazily enough they are booked into the same apartments as us (done totally independently except for me suggesting the general area). Even more crazy is that they are staying on 57th floor in the apartment directly above us! We met up for dinner at one of the restaurants on the shore – Pie Bar Pizzeria. Nice to see and catch up with family.

Lots of walking again (and step descending) and so we were all ready for bed relatively early.

P, K (only one not criticizing the blog yesterday), S & H

It was again reasonably nice weather most of yesterday. The day started off clear but it became a little overcast later and then cleared up but the wind picked up in the afternoon/evening. As we had all woken up relatively early, we headed out before the original plan (which was to leave at 10am). Halifax has a waterfront area. There is a boardwalk that covers 2.6km of harbour area.

It was about a 15-20 walk down to the area and we started at the Farmers Market which is only open on the weekend. It was nice but didn’t really compare to Oranjezicht City Farm Market in Cape Town which is held on a Saturday. After the market we walked around the entire boardwalk. It is really nicely done with a few restaurants, lots of chairs to just sit and look out to sea, some hammocks (people were in them reading) etc. There are also boutique stores, play parks, dog parks etc all in different sections of the waterfront area.

We then headed up into town and then up more to the Halifax Citadel. At the top you have a view right over the city and some history of Halifax. What we had never heard of is that in WWI, two ships collided in the harbour – one of was a relief ship and the other a French armaments ship. The French ship caught on fire and within a few minutes the fire spread to the hold and the ship’s ordinance it was carrying exploded and flattened 2 square kilometers of Halifax. More people were killed that day than all the Canadians lost on the front lines of WWI.

We then walked back to our apartment and stopped in at the supermarket across the road to buy some lunch. No shortage of walking yesterday – I did 13.1km in total yesterday. We had an early lunch with the intention of having an early dinner and then we basically just relaxed the balance of the afternoon in the flat (my feet were very sore!).

We wanted to have dinner at one of the restaurants in the waterfront area. We got down there before 6pm and there were already queues at the restaurants. We enquired at one restaurant and they said the wait was over 2 hours for a table. We decided to head back up into city area rather as S had seen some restaurants in that area marked on Google maps. We found a place called Two Doors Down. The food was very good. We had BBQ pork chop, Korean chicken (x2) and Scallops Spaghettini. Short walk back to the apartment via the grocery store again (to buy ice cream).

We all slept well but are all up relatively early as we need to head to the airport shortly as we are flying to Toronto today.

P, S, H & K

The weather had improved dramatically yesterday. The interesting thing is that the town didn’t look so run down in the clear skies. The bright colours of the buildings came through more brightly and some of the faults of the town seemed to fade away in the light. Amazing the difference sunlight makes!

We had another walk around the town before heading out. Halifax is only about an hour away from Lunenberg and so the plan was to take a slow drive along the coast and through some of the other recommended towns on the way back to Halifax. The first place was Mahone Bay. We did the extensive walk through the town and into a few of the stores in the town as well. Again a very prett town with lovely views over the bay but we all concurred that Lunenberg was a better place for us to have stayed.

We then headed on to Peggy’s Cove where the plan was to have lunch before finally heading into Halifax. Peggy’s Cove has 35 residents in the summer which drops to 30 residents in the winter. However it gets 700 000 visitors a year. That has to be the epitome of tourist town! It is known for it’s lighthouse and its treacherous seas. What I didn’t know was that it is the nearest place to where Swissair Flight 111 crashed in 1998. The flight was traveling from NYC to Geneva and a fire started in the cockpit which eventually consumed all the electrics on the plane and caused the crash. There are two memorials in the area to the 229 people who died in the crash.

We had lunch (Grilled Haddock x 2, Lobster Mac & Cheese & Halibut tacos) at the restaurant which really was well positioned with almost 360 degree views of the Peggy’s Cove and out to sea. You did definitely get the feeling of ruggedness of the ocean in this area and you can see the necessity to have a lighthouse. There are also warning signs all over to be careful of the waves which can suddenly increase and break dangerously near you. every year numerous people are washed off the rocks and drown – the last person that drowned was in April this year. There was also a man playing an Alphorn on the rocks. Not sure if that is in commemoration of the Swissair flight or what but it did add to the atmosphere of the place!

After lunch we headed into Halifax but as check in time at our AirBnB was only 4pm we had to kill a little time which we did at the local mall. A quick grocery shop for dinner & breakfast and then off to do the check in to our apartment for the next 2 nights. We are staying in a 2-bedroom apartment in Halifax which is situated on the 25th floor with extensive views. The decor in the apartment is somewhat strange though. It is filled (and yes I mean filled) with old electronics. As I type this now I am looking at 10 old TVs (think really old), old game consoles, old radio/tape deck combos. They have a working Super Nintendo which was made in 1991 before S & K were even born. I remember playing tennis (which is what S&K played) on it when I was at varsity!

It was nice making our own dinner and not having to eat at a restaurant again (as nice as eating out is). S cooked for us – we had pork chops and salad. The pork chops were really juicy, tender & tasty. N.Americans seem to know how to do pork – I have always found the pork to be really good here. We all headed to bed at a reasonable time – it seems we are over any form of jetlag.

Until tomorrow (or later today depending how I feel) …

P, S (for cooking), H & K

Unfortunately the weather never improved the whole day and in fact got worse later in the day. We didn’t let that deter us and decided to go for a drive in the surrounding area. We decided to go south and west from Lunenberg and followed the coastline for a about 10-15kms. It is very pretty along the coast even though it doesn’t feel like you’re driving next to the ocean as there are no waves at all – feels more like a lake than an ocean. As we exited Lunenberg we drove straight past the farmers market (actually while we were doing a U-turn) so we figured lets go in and take a look around. Very minimalist, some similarities to markets back home, some differences. We head out then for our drive and after driving for about an hour or so we realised that it was going to much of the same and not a lot to explore.

After a stop in Bridgeport at the supermarket – some snacks acquired and general wandering around admiring the range and differences – we headed north. We had read that Wolfville and Grand Pre were nice places to see and they were about an hour and 20 minute drive north from where we were. The first hour of drive was similar to what we had seen before – forested areas with the occasional lake to break the monotony. Just before reaching Grand Pre we encountered farm lands and fruit trees. There wasn’t much at Grand-Pre (or so we thought) so we headed into Wolfville aiming to get some lunch.

First place we saw as we entered was the Church Brewing Co (https://churchbrewing.ca/). It was a brewery that had taken over a Church. The beer choices are on the hymn boards. It is very obvious you’re in a Church from the design of the building, to the hymn boards, to the placement of the toilets, to the stage and the balcony. All that was missing was an organ. The beers were nice and the food was good too (H & I had seafood chowder). After lunch we explored the main road and spent most of the time in the drugstore – again marveling at the range and quantities of things you can buy. What amazes me is that in the US & Canada you can buy a bottle of paracetamol that contains 500 tablets. In the UK, you can’t buy more than 16 at a time and it requires an ID check! Seems very incongruous.

We had managed to google a little more about Grand-Pre and realised we hadn’t actually seen anything of what we should be seeing. It is a Unesco World Heritage site because the original settlers (French Huguenots called Acadians) used their dyke building skills to drain the salt marshes and reclaim very fertile plains. The tidal coefficient is very significant in this part of the world and so it is necessary to control the flooding by salt water every time the tides rise. The tide was out when we were at the coast. You will see how muddy it is (in panoramic picture below) and that it reached quite far out. It is also an IBA (Important Bird Area) in Canada as numerous Sandpipers are found here between July-October (we were just too early).

From the view point over Grand-Pre you can see the fertile soil and the farm lands. The picture really doesn’t capture the view that well but hopefully you will get a sense of it. We did manage to spot a Ring-Necked Pheasant in the fields as we started to head back to Lunenberg – it is uncommon in the area but it is definitely what we saw. Reminded me again that you can bird anywhere in the world and that I should have brought my binoculars with me! Another bird added to my world bird life list (which is dominated still to be Southern Africa but starting to expand a bit now).

The drive back to Lunenberg was quite difficult as it started to rain heavily. The roads have poor drainage so lots of water on the road and lots of aquaplaning. Not easy to drive but we made it back safely. S volunteered to go to the restaurant at around 6:30pm and secure a table for us. It was deluging at the time and the short run there and back left him drenched. We decided to drive to the restaurant – Salt Shaker Deli (https://www.saltshakerdeli.com/). Downside of that was that we couldn’t find parking so while 3 people got in safely and not wet, the driver (after three times round the block) had to park the car up the road and run to the restaurant. Fortunately wasn’t raining that hard at that point so only got slightly wet.

Diverse choices again for dinner by all of us. Seafood stew, salmon risotto, prawn tacos & hamburger and wedges were what we ate. H & S has Dark & Stormy cocktails (it is a rum making area as you can tell from the name of our Inn) and I had my first Nova Scotia wine – Pinot Grigio. When we were finished eating it was like a monsoon outside. And guess who had to go fetch the car from up the road! By the time I got to the car I was soaked. Even the other 3 just running from the entrance into the car got them seriously wet. Fortunately there was a parking spot right outside the Inn front door so getting back into our room wasn’t too difficult.

The weather this AM is much better than the last two days. The sun is out and shining and hopefully will stay this way for the next few days (or so says the weather forecast).

Until tomorrow …

P, S (for his running in the rain to get a table for us), H and K (she couldn’t go lower so I had to use spaces to differentiate us … she was making suggestions on the re-ordering of names for sign-off … highly inappropriate, she should know better)

Our flight from Montreal to Halifax left at 11am. The airport was pretty quiet with no one at check in and very few people at security as well. We go through all of those very quickly and we found ourselves at the gate by 9am with more time to kill before our flight departed. Montreal is an interesting place in that everything is in French first. Everyone talks French to you and only when you clearly show you can’t understand them do they switch into English. 50% of people in Quebec can only speak French and 95% of population speak French which is higher than you would even find in France! Signage is first in French and then in English. It really is dominated by French.

Nova Scotia though is entirely different. Definite European influence. The Scottish links (not surprising given the name) are clear throughout Nova Scotia with numerous towns sharing names with Scotland like Inverness. The flag of Nova Scotia looks very similar to the Scottish flag as well. Apparently the land was originally given by King James of Scotland to William Alexander (the poet) to colonise and explains the strong Scottish influence even until today. 30% of the residents today have origins in Scotland.

We landed in Halifax at 13:46 – that was the scheduled time of arrival. Pretty impressive from Porter Airlines to land exactly as planned. First time flying on them and I was impressed by their efficiency and friendliness. It was a small prop plane (first for K) but comfortable seating (despite being quite narrow) and generally a comfortable and easy flight. Luggage and collecting the car went smoothly and then we headed out for our destination for the next 2 nights – Lunenberg. The drive took one and half hours but we did stop midway through for some lunch at Tim Hortons. It is a Canadian fast food chain which is well loved by Canadians.

We arrived in Lunenberg at just after 4pm. Unfortunately the weather isn’t great. Very overcast and raining on and off. Around 18 degrees C. We are staying at the Rum Runner Inn (https://www.rumrunnerinn.com/). From our wanderings around the town, it definitely seems like we picked the best place with the best view.

As the rain abated, we decided to do a walk through the town and also pick a dinner place. It is not a very extensive town so you can walk the main road (which is the road our inn is in) in about 10 minutes I reckon. We even managed to walk to a grocery store at the end of the town and bought some breakfast stuff. The town definitely seems run down and in need of some TLC. We assume it is the impact of Covid. Canada was shut through two tourist seasons (2020 & 2021) and only really now is opening up for tourism. There are number of stores standing empty that clearly never made it through Covid. A town of this nature, which is fueled by tourism, clearly was very effected by the lack of tourism. It is a shame to see because you could see that it could be quaint. We keep comparing it to Boothbay Harbor in Maine and it is falling short in every aspect.

We wanted to have dinner at one restaurant (after checking them all out) and when we went back there, they said the wait was at least 30 minutes. We decided not to wait but rather to try another place and so we headed to the Fish Shack (http://www.southshorefishshack.com/) instead. Much more casual and rustic. You order upstairs and then get a table downstairs. Everything comes with fries (which were really nice and in a large quantity). We all had something different – fried scallops, lobster roll, fish burger and fried haddock (if you know us you could match the food to the person relatively easily). By the time we were finished eating all of us were feeling tired and so we headed back to our Inn and to bed. I tried my best to keep awake as long as possible but only made 8:20pm (H made 9:30pm) but the good news is that we both slept through the night and I woke 5:30am and H at 6:15am.

Weather today looks worse than yesterday at the moment. Very misty and overcast so hoping it will lift somewhat so we can go do some exploring in the surrounding areas.

Until tomorrow (or later depending on my energy levels!) …

P, H, S & K

We have eventually arrived in Canada. Unfortunately everything didn’t go smoothly but we have arrived.

We got to Heathrow at around 3:45pm and when we were clearing security we heard that the flight was going to be delayed for an hour. That hour turned into 2 hours and then eventually 3 hours. fortunately we were in the BA lounge and so we were comfortable at least while we waited. They have a new ‘build your own burger’ bar so that was an early dinner for 3 of us (S,K & me).

The gate eventually was allocated and we headed there only to discover they couldn’t board us (onto buses) because there was only one gate agent and they apparently to board you need two. So we stood waiting for at least 20 minutes before the other person arrived. They then finally boarded us onto buses that took us out to the plane. The plane was on a remote stand because the plane that was meant to have taken us to Montreal had a technical fault. The pilot told us that they couldn’t find anyone to tow the plane from the hanger which was the original reason for the delay. Then they couldn’t find bus drivers for the buses. Heathrow (and the UK travel industry it seems) is in a total mess at the moment.

After finally boarding the flight, the pilot told us that there was a further delay because they had to offload bags of passengers that didn’t arrive. Apparently they missed their connecting flights and so wouldn’t be on our flight. How their bags made it but they didn’t is a mystery to me!?! Then we had a further delay in there was no tug to push us back from the stand. In the end we left over 3 hours late but we managed to catch up an hour inflight and so landed 2 hours late.

The service on the flight was very good – the best I have had recently on a BA flight (and I am back to flying regularly for business). The food was also probably best I have had for some time (I had chicken, mushroom and leek pie – so did K – and H had beef cheeks which she said were also good). We all managed to get some sleep on the flight – I slept solidly for 4 hours. We landed at 9:45pm (Montreal time). Immigration is very slick in Canada – there are machines that you go to and enter your passport and details and it prints a receipt for you and then you hand that to an officer and they only pull over those that they are concerned about for further checks. We went straight through and collected our luggage (which came off quickly too) and then out to get the shuttle to the hotel. We stayed last night at the DoubleTree by Hilton at the airport.

We got into bed around 11:30pm and were all asleep by midnight. Unfortunately, at 4am I was wide awake and got up. S woke at 4:30am and K at about 5:15am. H just slept on and eventually woke at 6:15am. She will definitely be over the jetlag first it seems.

Just had breakfast at the hotel and now heading back to the airport to take a flight to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Until later …

P, H, S & K

Yesterday evening we departed from Cape Town heading for Canada. This was the trip we should have done in June/July 2020 but obviously the pandemic intervened. We are grateful to be able to reschedule it to now. When I say ‘We’, it is just 4 of us – me, H and then my son and daughter-in-law (S & K).

We are flying via London and so we had the day today in London. The flight over was unremarkable except that we left slightly late because the air-bridge broke down before they got it back far enough to allow the plane to be pushed back. They eventually had to use the tug for our push back to pull the air-bridge back to allow us to be able to get out. No more masks needed on the flight – even the aircrew were maskless. Seems Covid is finished in the UK.

I decided to work today rather than take a day off. The other 3 have just chilled for the day and have done some small outings just around the flat in London. H & K went to do some shopping in the vicinity and then S & K just returned from a walk in St James Park. We leave shortly for Heathrow as our flight is at 17:40 to Montreal.

Hopefully tomorrow when I send the next update we will be safely in Montreal!

P, H, S & K