I was up early and beat the excursion crowd to breakfast. I went back to my pancakes, cottage cheese, sour cream, and jelly medley combo today. Still yummy as are the mini-biscuits. I brought Ellen her breakfast when the people density in the Oceanview Café reached critical. Back in the room, we could see the final approach to Halifax.
It's a beautiful day in Halifax and warm enough to walk around.
Here's where we are docked.
Eclipse is docked behind the HAL Zuiderdam, which we were told by one of their crew, was “the really big ship”. In reality, the Zuiderdam is smaller than Eclipse. The hypermodern Seabourn Quest is parked at right angles behind us. The ship looks like it sailed in from the future.
At about 10:30 AM, we disembarked and started walking toward the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. Originally, I had wanted to see the Titanic Child’s shoes but spending the day in a museum on such a nice day seems like the wrong thing to do.
The ship is docked in an area teeming with monuments. The first one we encountered was the tribute to Ruth Goldbloom (1923-2012), who co-founded the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21.
Pier 21 served as an immigration destination and drop point from 1928 to
1971. Ruth, a philanthropist, raised
millions of dollars to revitalize Pier 21 and establish the Museum. Ellen joined
Ruth on a bench for a brief chat about her contributions to the Halifax Cruise
Terminal. There was a large queue for
the Museum so we kept moving.
Next up was a huge bronze statue of Samuel Cunard,
a native Haligonian (that’s what they call
themselves), whose name is associated with Ocean Liners and the current Cunard
Cruise line (QM2 and her sister ships).
In 1840, the mail-carrying steamship, Britannia, arrived in Halifax
after a 12-and-a-half-day voyage from Liverpool England. The ship would be the forerunner of the
iconic Cunard Line. We are carrying on
that tradition by having sailed on the QM2, QE, QV several time and hoping to
grab a gig on the new Queen Ann.
The statue, “The
Emigrant” by Armando Barbon, and unveiled in September 2013, recognizes the
immigrants who entered Canada at Pier 21. It depicts a man jumping on the
gangplank of a ship while leaving his family behind.
Next we stopped to admire a set of statues, “The Volunteers” honoring WWII Female Volunteers.
The statues, created by Artist Marlene Hilton Moore, was revealed
in 2017. There are several scenes each
depicting activities supporting Canadian troops in the war.
We passed through the entrance way to the Halifax Boardwalk
and continued along the well maintained path. There were plenty of
people out today because of the mind weather and the presence of two huge
cruise ships.
The next statue we passed was a huge granite structure with a rectangular opening – one side is a polished blue gray color and the other side was painted red (for passion).
The statue, "The Passage", was carved from a 9 ton boulder by scuptor Vassillis Vassili
and installed on the waterfront in 2015.
It is a tribute to Anna Leonowen,
the governess to the King of Siam and the Anna of “The King and I”. After her employment in Siam, she moved to
Halifax to lecture and write. She also
participated in the education of her own grandchildren and became a social
activist for women and children.
We also spotted a group of costumed Spider-Men – (the
costumes looked pretty good) and I guessed they were going to put on a show for
kids or maybe just walking around as street entertainers.
The harbor area provides plenty of areas to sit and watch the water. We found some Adirondack Chairs (where I attempted one of my “selfies”)
and spent a while just observing. Across the way was a Canadian Naval Memorial,
consisting of a vintage
ship and probably a gift shop. Lots of folks were lined up to visit that. We also saw a Canadian Police Zodiac (armed
of course) patrolling the waters and coming quite close to our position.
The Boardwalk is saturated with shops and eateries. We checked out a number of places but settled on The Summit Restaurant (we saw their ad on the boardwalk). The restaurant is on a terrace overlooking the boardwalk. We shared a generous plate of fish and chips and a Diet Coke.
The fish and chips were perfectly cooked and delicious. I suppose that since Nova Scotia is “New
Scotland”, fish and chips are right at home her.
On the way back to the ship, we stopped at a craft store
and picked up a unique item (a school of fish placed on sticks – much cooler
than my description).
We dragged ourselves back to the ship. This time, it seemed longer to get back than
our outbound journey.
Since the weather was still pleasant, we spent the rest of
the afternoon up on open Deck 5, checking out the scenery and watching the Zuiderdam depart.
Another small pasta cooked to order for me and then the
main course, super good vegan chili.
It was so good I had two bowls, as we watched the Zuiderdam sail away from
Halifax.
We passed on the show tonight – “Rock City” I am guessing,
and also didn’t stay too long to hear DeeZee
in the Ensemble Lounge – he singing voice wasn’t as
pleasant as it was during their previous performance. We instead found
some seats on Deck 6 and listed to Next Stage do their thing.
I got a message earlier that I would be doing two talks tomorrow – the last sea day. The first would be “The Romanovs” at 8:00 AM. (they had to squeeze the Captain’s Navigation Talk in so I am on at 8 followed by Kelley and then Samantha. It's a lecture relay tomorrow morning. Then at 3:30 PM, I would do an encore presentation of "Jack the Ripper" in Celebrity Central.
The talk is so early that I actually ordered Room Service
at 6:00 AM.
Today was a big walking day for us as immortalized on my watch. I certainly feel it.
10,453 Steps (phone pedometer)
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