HAL Veendam - Canada/New England Cruise - day #8 (11 july 2013) - Halifax, Nova Scotia

Thursday, 11 July 2013 –Halifax, Nova Scotia

We had another morning to sleep in - our "tour" didn't start until around 10:30 am.  When I went up to the Lido buffet to fix my coffee cup, it was very foggy outside and the ship was a bit late in docking.  I could hear the fog horn going off frequently.  It was drizzling outside too.

When I returned to the cabin, Amina was already up so we packed our things and went up to the Lido buffet for breakfast.  I have to say that I was really looking forward to the fresh squeezed orange juice available in the buffet.  I don't normally drink juice but there's just something about fresh squeezed OJ.

I had done just a little research on this port and made a handful of inquiries but everything that I was interested in booking were already full so at the last minute, after consultation with Amina, I had bought the Halifax Urban Quest Scavenger Hunt for us to do ($29 per "team").  We exited the ship and started off on our scavenger hunt - the rain had stopped and it was a bit humid but still pleasant.

We had never done something like this before but I had previously printed out the "clues" and we walked to our starting destination which was the peace officers monument at Grand Parade.  The quest used a letter system to act as coordinates on a grid for the letters of the final clue.  We wrote down the inscription on the floor of the monument which contained 2 letters that would correspond to the grid location of the first letter of our final clue.  The second task was to figure out which names listed on our page were not listed on the monument.  This clue was pretty easy although some of the names were similar and we had to go back and eliminate a couple of names off our list.

We followed the walking instructions and found our next location - the statue in front of the provincial legislature but had a tough time with this clue.  I ended up having to google search the answer to what war the statue was a monument to.  The answer was not immediately obvious on the statue.

We were then directed to our next location sort of vaguely so we walked for a bit and happened upon another Cow's ice cream so we stopped for a cone and to ask for help finding the next location.

We back tracked a bit and found the pedestrian mall.  The clue at this location was a bit tough too - we had to look up what a "window keystone" was (again, thanks google and for international data that I had bought before the trip through AT&T).

Our 4th location wasn't too hard to find and the clues this time were pretty easy.  We had to check off a list of items like anchors, buoys, cannons, masts, etc that were easily spotted on the harbor front entrance.

Our next location was on the boardwalk.  Another google search found the answer to one of the clues and the other 2 we did find pretty easily on the boardwalk.

By this time, Amina was getting tired of walking and didn't have the right shoes on so she got a "walking taco" from a stand and sat while I looked for the next few clues.

Our last location was marked by "flags" but they were kind of hard to see - we had to walk a good way down the boardwalk to find the last location.  We also didn't know what some of the terms were on the list (admiralty anchor, stockless anchors, and life rings).  We are obviously not familiar with living by the sea.  With the last clue solved, we figured out the final answer and I got online one last time to enter the answer on the Urban Quest website.  I had also signed up for reservations at a "mystery restaurant" but when I entered the final answer on the website, it told me that I had already completed the quest.  Since we had no idea where the mystery restaurant was, we decided to go back to the boardwalk and have lunch at the poutine shack that we had spotted. 

We had poutine for the first time while on a culinary tour of Victoria, British Columbia.  We got the triple pork poutine:  bacon, sausage, and pulled pork with cheddar curds and gravy on top of french fries and shared.  It was more than enough for lunch and absolutely delicious.

We walked the boardwalk back to the ship making a stop at a candy store to try some local chocolate.  I have to say that the Urban Quest was kinda fun but neither of us *really* got into it and it was more walking that Amina had anticipated.  It did take us 2 hours to finish with just a couple of diversions along the way and maybe it was a good thing that we didn't find our mystery restaurant because of the snacking we had done too.

When we returned to the ship, I went for a run in the gym and then spent some time getting caught up on my travel blog.  Dinner was in pinnacle grill tonight and I was really looking forward to it.  There were a lot of choices on the menu and we had a hard time deciding what we wanted.

The pinnacle ocean platter was good - 2 types of salmon with well cooked (ie not overcooked) scallops and shrimp.

I had enjoyed the cod the night before so much that I ordered cod again on a cedar plank with shrimp scampi.  I asked for the cilantro butter to be placed on the side because I really really hate cilantro.  Unfortunately, when my entree arrived, it had the cilantro butter on top and I was told by the waiter that it could not be separated.  Hmmm.  If the cruise line wants to pride itself on world class service and food, this should not have been a difficult thing to do.

We also wanted to try the lobster macaroni and cheese so our waiter suggested a side dish of this and we each received one.  Suprisingly, there was no lobster in the mac and cheese.  I would describe it as mac and cheese with a bit of lobster bisque.  It was a bit disappointing but maybe the full order would have actually had lobster in it.

For dessert I had the Not-so-classic baked alaska which I think was my most favorite dessert of the whole cruise.  I love cherries and this dessert was full of them - much better than the classic baked alaska that they usually have on the last night of a cruise.  Amina had the cheesecake which also didn't look quite classic.

I returned to the cabin to just hang out and watch some tv - there was a creature on our bed that Amina and I debated on what it was.

HAL Veendam - Canada/New England Cruise - day #7 (10 july 2013) - Sydney, Nova Scotia

Wednesday, 10 July 2013 – Sydney, Nova Scotia

We got to sleep in just a bit this morning as we weren't meeting until 10 for our tour with Tartan to Fortress Louisbourg.  We went up to the Lido buffet for breakfast for the first time and then made our way off the ship to the terminal.  There was also wifi in the terminal but it seemed a little slow.  I had gone into the terminal earlier this morning just after 8 am when Amina was still sleeping to check it out and had run into Tatiana and Alex who were going on the tour with us.  They thought we were meeting at 8 instead of 10.  I walked briefly around the little shopping area and then went back to wake Amina up.  When we came back down to the terminal, Amina found some earrings that she wanted to go back and buy after our tour was over.

Our tour guide actually arrived a bit early.  We all gathered in the terminal (Me, Amina, Tatiana, Alex, John, and Leslie) and then went out to meet our tour guide.  The van that we climbed into seemed nice from the outside but as soon as I climbed into the back seat, I was not happy.  The van reeked of cigarette smoke.  The ladies had a nice conversation on the way to the fortress and we soon arrived at the visitors' center.  Our driver told us to meet back at 2 pm.  It was just before 11 am.  At first, I thought it was a little chilly in Sydney but by the time we arrived at the fortress, it had warmed up a good deal and was probably in the 70's and sunny while we were there.

There was a decent sized line in the visitors' center and we waited to purchase our tickets.  There was also decent wifi in the visitors' center.  We had just missed the bus so we went downstairs and took a few pictures before boarding the next bus.  You ride the bus to the actual entrance to the fortress.  While on the bus - you should sit on the left side to get a view of the fortress beyond the water.

We walked through a small building with a few park interpreters and then walked the dirt road to the entrance of the fortress.

We were stopped just in front of the bridge and given instructions such as park closure, not climbing on the walls, etc and then made our way across the bridge and into the fort.

Tatiana had been told by her ticket agent that there was a cannon demonstration at 11:45 so we made our way in that general direction making a few stops along the way to see a blacksmith and bakery where we bought a small loaf of "soldiers' bread" for $2.50 just to get a taste of what the soldiers ate.  Not surprisingly, the bread was heavy and not terribly tasty.

We climbed the hill towards the building where the cannon demonstration was going to be and saw a good sized crowd headed the same way.  To the immediate left there was a church and the park interpreter stopped us to ask where we were from and then proceeded to explain about the church and the various objects in the room.  He obviously really enjoyed his job and did a great job telling us what he knew about the church.

I asked him where the bathroom was and he was very sweet to walk us to the where the bathrooms were.  When we were done it was getting close to 11:45 so we found an open space in the grass and sat down.

The same park interpreter came back, found us, and told us that we were not sitting in the best spot and proceeded to take us to a much better location to see the cannon fire.  He then explained to us what to expect....the soldiers and band would march out to the lower grass courtyard, do a short demonstration and then fire their muskets.  Then they would march up towards the cannon and the muskets would fire in turn followed by the cannon.  He was so helpful and we thanked him for the information.

The demonstration was interesting - the soldiers actually loaded their muskets with gunpowder and fired them.  When they marched up towards the cannon - 2 of the muskets misfired which one of the interpeters standing near us commented that this happened from time to time.  She said that it wasn't unusual for the cannon to misfire as well.

We explored the governor's compound for a bit and then made our way down into the "village" and stopped to see a few exhibits including a very interesting demonstration of lace weaving.  Weaving lace by hand is extremely tedious but the result was beautiful.  The woman interpeter told us that it took about an hour to weave one inch of lace.

We eventually made it down to the 2 restaurants that were available to dine in. I had read that one was for the "upper class" (officers, etc) and the other was for the "lower class" (soldiers, workers, etc).  The wait of the upper class dining was 15 minutes and they served a 3 course meal.  We examined the menu of the "lower class" restaurant and decided to eat there.

We were squeezed in between 2 other couples at what looked like a picnic table and were told that sharing 8 to a table was required.  The guy on one end of the table grumbled about having to share the table with us. We were each given a very large piece of cloth to use as a napkin and a spoon.  Amina ordered fish soup and we shared the mussels as well as some canadian white cheddar cheese.  We chatted with the couple at the other end of the table who were from British Columbia and were visiting all of the maritime islands.  The man sitting next to me ordered the French Toast and when he asked the waitress for something to eat it with, she directed him to use his spoon.  It was really funny and he took it all in good spirit.  The food was really pretty good and not too heavy.

When we finished, it was almost 1:30 so we decided to take the bus back to the visitors' center.  As we were leaving the fortress, the same park interpreter who had talked to us before, found us again and pointed out that the draw bridge entrance to the fort was a weighted lever so that just one soldier could draw the bridge up himself.

Back at the visitors' center, we peeked into the gift shop where I bought a little something for Rhys (a candy stick that you could tear open with your teeth like a packet of musket gun powder and pour the "powder" and gum ball into your mouth to enjoy).  We met up with our driver and got back into the smoke-laden van and he took us to a vantage point with a lighthouse where we got out and took some pictures and the girls found some jellyfish.  We seemed to take a different route back to the cruise terminal and our driver really never said a thing to us. I had already made a decision back at the fortress that this "tour" was definitely not worthy of any sort of tip.  We paid the exact tour fare and went back into the terminal.

We stopped first for Amina to get the earrings that she had looked at but wanted to make the 3 pm Indonesian tea service and we were a bit late so we headed straight for the dining room where they did accommodate us at a table for 8.  Amina got a spiced tea and I got a jasmine - hers smelled better than mine.  We were offered several savory and sweet items including some smoked salmon on toast, steamed cake, and rice balls.  They were all good and we enjoyed talking with our table mates.  One couple was from Grove, OK - just northeast of where we lived.

I went to the gym and did a really quick couple of miles then returned to the cabin to shower and get ready for our dinner at the Pinnacle Grill for their "Evening at Le Cirque" dinner.  Seth and I love to eat at the Le Cirque in Las Vegas at the Bellagio hotel.  It's probably in our top 10 favorite restaurants of all time - we've eaten there at least half a dozen times.

The amuse bouche was a creamy foie gras pate on top of a mildly fruity jam.  I liked it but Amina didn't care much for it.

Amina ordered the caesar salad which was very interesting in the way it was prepared/presented.

I had the trio of salmon, caviar, and foie gras pate which was pretty good but I did notice how sloppy the presentation was - something you would NEVER see at the real Le Cirque.

Our next course was the butternut squash soup with huckleberries which was very good - I liked the contrast of the smooth sweet soup and the tart huckleberries.

For the main course, I had the seared alaskan black cod which was absolutely delicious and my favorite part of the meal.  The cod was very nicely cooked but I was a little surprised that there were bones in it.  It was a very generously sized piece of cod.

I had the famous Le Cirque creme brulee for dessert and was happy to find the recipe for the dessert printed at the bottom of the ramekin so I simply had to finish all of the dessert so I could take a picture of the recipe.

I wasn't interested in the show or the movie this evening so I went back to the cabin to catch up on my blog post for a bit then went to bed.  There was a towel crab on my bed this evening.