Halifax at last...

So here we are, at the MicMac hotel in Dartmouth (just over the bay from Halifax and $40 per night cheaper) - it's 9:30pm, Thomas may (or may not) be asleep, at least he's quite at the moment, whatever he is doing, he is preventing Ellie from sleeping. We have the unexpected bonus of broadband wireless in the hotel so the blog is getting hammered tonight.

We left Moncton around 9am this morning for the last 300km stretch to Halifax and drove without delay (as is the norm in these parts) for three hours averaging the speed limit of 100kmph to complete our journey. We even took the "scenic" route so as to avoid the toll road from Oxford to Truro (yes Oxford to Truro). "Scenic" in this case actually meant lots of trees and a lake. Now, this would actually seem to me like every other road in Canada, I'm not complaining by any means, it was beautiful and I love it, but classing the old main road as scenic seems a bit strong, I'd just spent over 800km seeing trees and lake! We did get to see all the gas stations, motels and restaurants rendered obsolete and closed by the new road which took all the traffic and custom away from the area. It did however take us very close to the little known town of Pugwash, much excitement for me there - I must visit one day!

Not wishing to harp on about trees, but there are so many of them here. Along with the complimentary industries, papermills (which stink) and timber yards etc. At a first glance I thought what ugly monstrosities, but on reflection they show a country which has kept its industry unlike the one I left behind. Trucks of timber and logs are everywhere yet I have not seen any evidence of a felled forest or even a felled tree, well looked after and renewed obviously.

First impressions of Halifax are that it is a quiet, clean, friendly, green and sleepy little city where we will be very happy. It has the ocean (most important), restaurants (quite important), an international airport, the ocean (worth mentioning twice) and what else? Not sure yet, we'll be finding out in the coming weeks.

A few pictures now... A boat - could my stuff be in one of those containers?


Some birds on a rock...


The view from our hotel - the MicMac, strange name I know - I was told it was very close to the MicMac Mall, Atlantic Canada's largest shopping mall. Fortunately, this is not it (as I rather idiotically thought briefly).