Halifax Waterfront

We spent the day in Halifax, down on the waterfront. Our first adventure was to find parking. We wanted to go to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic down on the waterfront, so we found the building and then a parking lot down the street.

The lot was one of those where you park and then go to a kiosk to deal with paying. It offered payments in $3/hour or $12 maximum for 24 hours. We didn’t know how much time we’d need, so we opted for two hours and $6. Then to the museum. What we couldn’t determine from the information at the lot was whether the fee was for one bike or one space.

At the museum, Gary asked a guy selling museum tickets whether or not the payment would cover two bikes in one space or whether we needed to pay for each bike. The attendant said the parking lot guys were pretty strict and might ticket or tow one bike if not paid. So, Gary went back and bought two hours of time for his.
After two hours, we went back to the bikes to buy more time. Not knowing how much time we needed (still had more museum to see, needed lunch, and needed to see a ship, we decided to buy the rest of the day for an additional $12 per bike. So, we spent $18 each for parking! Ridiculous, but we didn’t know what else to do.

The museum was great! Pictures, articfacts, model ships, boats, everything nautical was in the building. We didn’t see everything; it would take all day to see it all. With the museum was a real ship out on the dock. You could go onto the Acadia and tour the entire ship. Very interesting and worth the time to see it.

It rained on and off all day. Some of it was showers, but some was real rain. According to the locals we talked to, it has rained all summer. Apparently all of the northeast part of the Americas has been wet, hurting tourism and spirits.

We needed to exchange some money, so we found a bank. We both thought the exchange rate was $1.20 Canadian for every US Dollar. We got $1.08 per dollar, disappointing, and making it not worth the trouble to do it.

Had a great lunch at a local pub. I had a roast beef and swiss cheese sandwich and a bowl of Mussel soup. The soup was delicious, some of the best I’ve ever eaten. I wished I had ordered just the soup, although the sandwich was good, too.

We left the waterfront area to find a cemetery where some of the bodies from the Titanic are buried. It took a while to find it, but we did. A sad place indeed.
Then back to the motel for the night.

A good day of doing touristy things in Halifax. Rode maybe 20 miles.

Tomorrow—More of Nova Scotia.