One defining feature of the Maritimes is seafood - muscles, oysters, scallops and lobster in particular. Vegetarians are still unusual and Bernadette, our tour manager, worked hard to provide adequate veggie meals wherever we went.
There's pretty spectacular scenery too, especially on the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton Island and on the Fundy Trail in New Brunswick. The trees were sporting their amazing autumn colours - yellow, brown, red, orange.
The Maritimes are still thickly forested, with little sign of the commercial interests like mining and fracking that are threatening much of Northern Ireland's natural beauty. And there are lots of unspoilt little fishing villages.
We learnt about some of the indigenous communities that fought for their survival against invading English and French forces - such as the Acadians, the Mikmaq, the Inuits and the Glooscap. They refused to be cowed into submission.
At the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck, we discovered that Bell not only invented the first practical telephone, but invented many other things like metal detectors, the hydrofoil, the audiometer and the wheat husker.
We learnt that New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province in Canada, and many of the inhabitants speak both French and English. Jenny and I soon realised that our pathetic grasp of French hardly mattered as English is spoken everywhere.
The residents of the Maritimes are keen on lighthouses, with over 160 in Nova Scotia alone. They also like model lighthouses, which pop up in people's front gardens and other unlikely spots.
Like our guided tour of New Zealand in January, this tour gave us a great overview of the area and what makes it distinctive. We more than satisfied our nagging curiosity.
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We were hoping to meet up with Wise Web Woman. But like most people, I confused St John's Newfoundland (where www actually lives) with Saint John, New Brunswick. So we never met up. Maybe some other time....
Someone has asked me if we went to the Anne of Green Gables houses. Yes we did, but as neither of us is an AOGG fan, it was a bit of a non-occasion for us, apart from the scenery.
ReplyDeleteThe two countries I'd most like to visit are Canada, and New Zealand!
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed your travels.
Sx
I'd recommend Vancouver and the Rockies in particular. Both are spectacular. But flying is getting a bit iffy what with its devastating effect on the climate....
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like an enjoyable trip. I remember my parents visiting that area and loving it. I thought of Anne of Green Gables, too. That's great that the trees were turning while you were there. Did you hear the Bell story about the metal detector debacle with President Garfield?
ReplyDeleteYes, we heard that story. How tragic that the metal detector was only perfected after the president died and the murderer's bullet was never located.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds amazing! and good thinking to go during the fall colours. I am amazed they aren't too familiar with vegetarians. But then, it sounds quite an out of the way place, perhaps they still prefer their traditional foods there.
ReplyDeleteWow Nick, you did amazingly well on the tour. What a narrow miss on Cape Breton!! You need to "do" Newfoundland, seriously. It is truly spectacular.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you enjoyed yourselves and my favourite yarn shop is in Baddeck, just visited there a few days ago. Baddeck is so picture postcard.
XO
WWW
Jenny: They're VERY keen on seafood. They do love cracking open the lobsters and slurping down the oysters! But we had a fantastic vegetarian dinner at the Canadian Culinary Institute in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. They know all about vegetarian cooking!
ReplyDeletewww: Yes, a narrow miss indeed! Baddeck is charming. But I was especially charmed by Lunenburg, which is so pretty it's a designated historic site and there are strict rules about what you can and can't do to the buildings.
ReplyDeleteLOVE this post!
ReplyDeleteliving shamelessly and wonderfully through you guys! lol. here's to safe travelling and return. XO
A few words in, and I wondered how you survived, gastronomically. Even if you would eat seafood, it is so rich...I'm glad decent vegetarian meals were available.
ReplyDeleteTammy: You're welcome! You're now an official expert on the Canadian Maritimes! :-)
ReplyDeleteJoanne: As I say, Bernadette did her best to ensure decent veggie options where meals were included in the tour. Outside of that, we either went to Italian restaurants, or bought food and picnicked. We didn't starve!
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading I wondered if you had met up with WWW and I am glad that you wrote that PS. I am glad that you had such a memorable time. Canada is a country that I had heard a great deal about but, was never able to visit though I did get up to the border to see the Niagara Falls.
ReplyDeleteRamana: We've been all over Canada. Vancouver and the Rockies are very beautiful, likewise Quebec City. A shame you only got as far as Niagara Falls.
ReplyDeleteI took my sons to Nova Scotia when they were teens. We are all big seafood fans and they had their first lobster there. We even went to that Alexander Graham Bell museum! I think my favorite thing we did while we were there (other than eat) was go to a ceilidh. Glad you had a good trip!
ReplyDeleteAgent: We didn't go to a ceilidh, but we did hear some great musicians on our trip. I must say it's pretty weird watching people using nutcrackers to break open lobster shells. I couldn't do that!
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