mlchad147
- Sep 2
- 4 min read

September 1, 2024–Halifax, Nova Scotia

Today we set foot on the North American mainland for the first time since we left Los Angeles on February 11, almost seven months ago. It’s been quite a ride, but we’re not done yet, and visiting Nova Scotia has long been on my bucket list.

Halifax is the capital of Canada’s province of Nova Scotia, and with a population of almost half a million it’s a good deal larger than St. John’s, our most recent port of call in Newfoundland. Halifax was also a last minute addition to our itinerary, taking the place of Nuuk, Greenland, which we had to skip due to bad weather. For that reason we hadn’t pre-booked a shore excursion, and were left to our own devices.

We weren’t exactly flying blind though, because yesterday we attended an onboard enrichment presentation on Halifax by Ken Williams, a Vancouver native and superb lecturer, who has prepped us for our visits to many ports of call during the cruise. I’ve become friends with Ken during his two stints on board, and armed with the information he imparted I felt more than comfortable that we could explore the city on our own.

We actually set out this morning as a foursome, with Michele and I joined by Denny and Dianne, two friends and fellow passengers whose home is just across the river from us in Mechanicsburg, PA. Happily, there was no need to start with a shuttle ride, because Halifax is one of those cities where we were able to walk directly from the pier into the downtown area. And what we walked onto when we left the ship was the southern end of a lovely 2.5 mile long boardwalk lined with shops, restaurants, taverns, monuments, a museum and historic ship, and even a casino at the far end. It kept us busy enough that we never got anywhere else.

One thing that I need to point out right up front is that there’s no old town here. Everything in the oldest part of the city along the harbor dates back only to 1918 or later due to an unimaginable disaster that occurred on December 6, 1917. On that date a French ship, fully loaded with ammunition and destined for the war in Europe, collided with another ship in the harbor and exploded with a force estimated at 2.9 kilotons of TNT, one-seventh that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. Almost 1800 people were killed, most instantly, and another 9000 injured, and almost every building within a half mile of the explosion was leveled.

There’s no bright side to a tragedy like that, but Halifax has done a nice job of rebuilding, and the boardwalk is now a magnet for visitors and locals alike. With no excursion to dictate our schedule we strolled up and down its length, (mostly) window shopping, examining the sculptures and monuments, and enjoying a leisurely lunch at one of the eateries. The sculptures and monuments are particularly poignant, as many of them are dedicated to the sacrifices made in the defense of freedom during the two world wars and the role of Halifax as a destination for immigrants who fled the resulting devastation in Europe.

The weather certainly cooperated, with partly sunny skies, a nice breeze, and temperatures in the low 70s, and when we returned to the ship about an hour before the all aboard time of 5:30, I was tired but well pleased with our low key day strolling the boardwalk. Happily tomorrow is a sea day, giving me a chance to rest up before we arrive in New York on Tuesday. That’s not the end of the cruise, as we still have a couple more ports of call before we finish in Miami on the tenth, so keep watching for my final few reports. Back with those soon.

There are a lot of monuments on the Halifax boardwalk. This one honors the Portuguese, who in 1520 were the first Europeans to explore Nova Scotia.

Nova Scotia is proud of its role in welcoming immigrants to its shores. This monument recognizes immigrants who left everyone and everything behind to start over in Canada.

The one notable exception to that welcoming of immigrants took place in 1939, when Canada turned away the M.S. St. Louis, a ship carrying more than 900 Jewish refugees who were fleeing Nazism in Germany. The ship had earlier been denied landing in Cuba and the US., and was forced to return to Europe, where more than a quarter of the passengers ultimately perished in the Holocaust. Halifax remembers, and this monument names the 900 passengers of the M.S. St. Louis.

There are lots of sculptures along the boardwalk too. This one includes a sign pointing the way to a restaurant called the Bicycle Thief.

We tried here, but the wait for a table was more than an hour.

Another fun sculpture along the boardwalk. As you might imagine, seafood is big here.

Chairs like this were located in several locations along the boardwalk.

I guess I should show you the actual boardwalk. It has a lot of ins and outs where there are places for boats to dock.

Pretty flowers were on display all along the boardwalk.

And colorfully painted buildings.

This monument honors Canadian sailors who lost their lives during World War II.

This is the only surviving Corvette of 269 built during World War II, many of them built in Halifax. It was later a research vessel for a time, explaining the current color scheme. It is docked outside Halifax’s well regarded Maritime Museum.