September 17, 2009 – Halifax

So this morning we were off to Halifax to see what we could see. Our first stop was the Citadel, a fortification overlooking Halifax Harbor. As with the town itself, the Citadel has quite a storied history. Housed with in the walls is a museum of Canadian Military history and artifacts dating from the Seven Years War. Of all the military armament, uniforms and other paraphernalia on display, on of the most interesting is a bottle of Champaign. The story is the members of a platoon from WWI, bought the bottle with a pledge the last remaining soldier would receive it. Then sometime in the seventies, I believe, the last two remaining members of the platoon said to hell with it and donated the bottle to the museum.

In its heyday, the Citadel could house a thousand troops. Today, as a historic site, there are pipers piping and drummers drumming, a changing of the guard ceremony and a firing of the noon cannon. Everyday, except Christmas, they conduct a demonstration firing of a 30lb smooth bore cannon at noon. We were standing a couple of hundred away from the cannon and could still feel the concussion. It was quite an awesome display.

The Citadel became busy right after we arrived. There were four cruise ships in port which added another 10 thousand people to the population. Obviously, the Citadel is high on the shore excursion list. While there are several things to do in Halifax, we elected to just walk the streets and check out the shops. Carol found an interesting little yarn shop. Eventually, we wound up harbor side with all of the passenger comings and goings. The port has all the typical trappings of a cruise port, pricey restaurants and glitzy shops, but it was fun watching the people and good exercise for Spice.