We had breakfast delivered to our room (is free onboard). When I unstacked the cereal bowls, there was a piece of black paper stuck inside the bottom one. So we used the same bowl and I put a note in the dirty one that maybe it should have been noticed. Within an hour we had a call from the head steward apologizing profusely. When we returned to the ship, this tray was in our room and that night at dinner he came to our table to apologize again. He asked us if this incident was so serious that we wouldn't consider sailing with them again and we assured him it wasn't. This is a very competitive business and they want to keep people happy.
This morning Tom went to The Citadel, a fortress built in the 1700's to protect the port of Halifax. Of course he took a lot of pictures.
I had a ticket for a hop on/hop off bus tour of town, too, so I left at noon. This company's busses are painted pink and a percentage of the fare goes to breast cancer causes and a children's wish foundation. We highly suggest these tours in cities, because the guides give you so much information and you can ride around and decide where you want to get off and then get back on in a half hour, or later.
Halifax is on the same latitude as southern France. We passed an Irish Catholic cemetery. This whole area was Anglican, so it was a feat to get permission to build this. They were told they could build it, if they could build a chapel onsite in 24 hours! Little did they know that 2,000 Irish men would show up and accomplish it!
I walked around the public gardens, which had beautiful flowers, statues, a pond, and a bandstand which was built to commemorate Queen Elizabeth's 50 years on the throne. Concerts are still held there every Sunday afternoon.
We passed baseball field where 7000 people once watched Babe Ruth display his batting ability. Six hospitals in town. Are building a new conference center with hotels. The Scotia Bank Center holds 10,000 people. The Nova Scotian military tattoo is held the first week of July every year, with a cast of thousands. (We attended one in Edinburgh, which was fantastic. There were 7 pipe banks from the various colonies performing separately and together.)
The Armouries, built in the 1890's, has a building large enough to allow large military vehicles inside for training.
Early German settlers were used to colorful houses at home, so they painted theirs here in bright colors and many still do. On the North End small houses sell for $300-400,000 today. All the major employers are on the peninsula, so houses on it stay up in price.
Halifax was the staging area for ships sailing during WWI and WWII. Once there were 2 ships in the harbor that held flammable materials. They collided, causing a huge explosion. 6000 homes were destroyed or damaged, 2000 died, and 6000 were injured-many from eye injuries from looking toward the harbor. It was the largest manmade explosion until the atomic bomb. The next day a blizzard hit and there were thousands of people camping out. When the governor of Massachusetts heard of the tragedy, he sent a trainload of supplies, doctors and nurses. To this day, as a thank you, a large pine tree is sent from Halifax to Boston to be used as its official Christmas tree. Today the harbor has many cargo containers filled with Christmas trees waiting to be shipped elsewhere.
Pier 2 is like America's Ellis Island. At the end of WWII, 40,000 war brides and 20,000 children came over.
From May through August, there are usually 3 cruise ships in the harbor each week, but in Sept. and Oct. there are 3,4,5, or 6 each day!
The show onboard tonight was two young (ish) sisters from Nova Scotia playing traditional music with a 6 string guitar, piano, and fiddle. They were great musicians-one played that piano like a ragtime player. They also did some of their dances, sometimes simultaneously with the playing.
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