Wednesday, July 3, 2024, Move to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada

Our move to Lunenburg from North Sydney was the longest of the tour at 300 miles. Unfortunately, because of the change to the Tattoo schedule in Halifax, the tour route was juggled in a way that we had to retrace the exact mapping we had just driven from Halifax to North Sydney only in reverse with an additional 50 miles tacked on. I would have preferred a different route to see something new but the familiarity made it easy to follow.

Crossing the causeway we left Cape Breton Island behind.

I do mean we followed the exact mapping passing by the same landmarks. The oddly proportioned church below was just before the right turn into the Woodhaven campground. We waved as we went by.

The same schedule juggling meant the Lunenburg campground did not have accommodations for our entire group, so several of us had to set up in the lower section for a night before moving to the upper sites to join the group.

We drove to a Google-recommended "Lunenburg Photo Spot" to view Lunenburg across the water. This town was the most picturesque we visited to date. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Established in 1753, it is the best surviving example of a planned British colonial settlement in North America.

After our drive around town, we decided to explore some more on foot. Lunenburg has some very steep hills but overall it was a very walkable place.

Along the waterfront, restaurants, businesses and museums reflected their nautical history. 

The Bluenose II was at the dock and allowed us to roam the deck. The original Bluenose was an award-winning fishing vessel.

The ship's bell was rigged to prevent people like me from ringing it.

I wondered if they might let me take the helm when we sail on Friday.

It was a short day of exploring after a long day of driving but it was clear the town had a lot of potential for being our top spot on the Maritimes Fantasy Tour.

June 13 thru 15, 2024, St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada

Joani plotted our trek into St. Andrews down Prince of Wales Street on the north side of town. The Algonquin Resort was built over the street joining the north and south wings of the hotel. There was plenty of clearance for the coach, it was just tedious with all the foot traffic. We had the breakfast buffet here on our 51st wedding anniversary (June 15th) where I ate way too much but it was so delicious! 

Several times we took a trail from the campground that led into town. Along the way, we found fields of Lupine and very tame deer. One woman said when she would have popcorn at her camper the deer would come up to her for their share.

Most of the town's shops and restaurants were along Water Street, an easy three-quarters of a mile stroll. We tried the hardware store for a cabinet latch and while the store had been in business for many years they did not have what we needed. That's the side of the hardware store below. We dined out three or four times during our stay so it was good that we walked almost every time.

The amount of tide change depends on a number of factors. In St. Andrews it can be as much as 24 feet, however, it was more like 16 to 18 feet between high and low tide during our stay. I lost track of how many times Joani combed the shoreline for interesting rocks, I just know the car is loaded now. 

I found this live crab in a tidepool.

The deer below were at the edge of our campground. They were not bothered by people walking or cars driving by on the road. We counted five several times so we assumed they ran together but maybe there were more. We saw them around town in people's yards as well.

I don't know why I like sailboats - I've never had one, will probably never have one, and can't quite imagine sailing on one - I guess they will always just be nice subjects for photographs.

Below, I tried to center on the lighthouse at high tide and again at low tide to show the difference. I was impressed. Now I can't wait to see the tide at the Bay of Fundy in a couple of weeks.

At low tide, the array of rocks seemed never-ending.

The Celtic Cross was dedicated as a memorial to the Irish immigrants who died on Hospital Island just offshore.

We never had a clear evening for stars and we kept looking for color at sundown. Unfortunately, while nice, the sunsets never blossomed into a full technicolor display.  

Tuesday, June 11, 2024, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada

It was a short drive to Sherbrooke, Quebec, from our campsite in Magog. We explored Sherbrooke's highly-rated murals. A stop at the information center gave us all we needed for a walking tour and a more extended driving tour of more than 20 murals around the city. 

The Information Center Building was covered with murals, the one below is the most appropriate.

It was overcast but we thought the chances of rain were slight so with our car parked in an approved space we set out following our map to the murals. The first large mural covered the side of a three-story building. You can see me at the lower left for the scale. The detail was amazing.

In general, the people in each mural were painted life-sized so even if I'm not in the picture you can get an idea of the scale.

The mural below was one of my favorites with so much going on and it wrapped around the back (although a tree obscured that detail from this angle).

The sky started to clear a bit. A little more blue and it could have matched the mural.

Below the power pole on the third story of the building blends right into the mural. Again, so much detail and activity you could spend quite a bit of time studying and still miss some of the subtle humor.

We were pleasantly surprised at the beautiful architecture we found in Sherbrooke. The 120-year-old Hotel de Ville de Sherbrooke (below) now serves as City Hall.

In French, "ARRET" means "STOP" and below the stop sign you can see their pictorial to let you know it is a 4-way stop. Not everything in French was so easily understood.

All of the walking around worked up an appetite. We found a Mexican restaurant that perfectly hit the spot. Our server spoke French, Spanish, and a little English so she had trouble describing the menu as she mixed words from all three languages.

These last two murals were towards the end of the driving tour so I had to find a quick place to pull over while Joani jumped out to get her pictures.

We found Sherbrooke to be a pleasant and safe city. There was plenty to see and do so I suspect it might make the visit again list.