Peggy's Point Lighthouse

Memories of Canada

As Canada celebrates their 150th anniversary, promoted by the Canadian government as Canada 150, we take a look back at some of our memorable moments from cruises and tours to Canada.

This would be an excellent time for you to visit Canada, as there will be year long celebrations throughout the land.

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Our next stop along our Canadian memory lane finds us in Nova Scotia ("New Scotland"), one of Canada's three Maritime provinces, and one of the four provinces which form Atlantic Canada. Halifax is the provincial capital of Nova Scotia. A major business center, it’s also known for its maritime history. The city’s dominated by the hilltop Citadel, a star-shaped fort completed in the 1850s. Waterfront warehouses known as the Historic Properties recall Halifax’s days as a trading hub for privateers, notably during the War of 1812.

click images to enlarge

Peggy's Cove

Peggy's Cove is a small rural community located on the eastern shore of St. Margarets Bay in Nova Scotia's Halifax Regional Municipality, which is famous for the Peggy's Point Lighthouse (established 1868). Peggy's Cove is 43 kilometers (26 miles) southwest of Downtown Halifax and comprises one of the numerous small fishing communities located around the perimeter of the Chebucto Peninsula.

Just last month, Peggy's Point Lighthouse - Peggy's Cove was named the 6th best attraction in Canada by USA Today. USA Today’s 10Best travel guide ranked the top 20 nominees, and the public decided the final 10. View the entire list here: the top ten attractions in Canada.

View the Entire Peggy's Cove Photo Album

We first visited Halifax and Peggy's Cove during the maiden voyage of Norwegian Sun in 2001. Our cruise began in Paris the day that the World Trade Center was attacked. This was a trans-Atlantic voyage which would stop in several locations, including two in Canada before sailing to New York. In Halifax we met people who had taken passengers from grounded airlines into their homes. On this cruise we primarily toured the fishing villages in the area. We will look at Halifax again in another post to revisit the maritime heritage of this area.

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Happy Canada Day 2015

Canada Day, frequently referred to as "Canada's birthday", commemorates the joining of the British North American colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada into a federation of four provinces (the Province of Canada being divided, in the process, into Ontario and Quebec) on July 1, 1867.

Canada Day is very similar to the  July 4th holiday in the United States.  Most communities across the country will host organized celebrations for Canada Day, usually outdoor public events, such as parades, carnivals, festivals, barbecues, air and maritime shows, fireworks, and free musical concerts.

Learn more:  Official Website for Canada Day

We have had the pleasure of visiting several Canadian cities during our cruise vacations.  These included ports of call on multiple Alaskan cruises,  Canada and New England cruises, and even Transatlantic cruises.  One of the highlights was when we extended our Alaskan cruise with a pre-cruise exploration of the Canadian Rockies.

Have you ever ridden on a glacier?  You can while visiting the Columbia Icefield Glacier in the Canadian Rockies. Specially designed vehicles, Massive Brewster Ice Explorers, take passengers on a remarkable excursion onto the surface of the Athabasca Glacier.

Have you smelled flowers or gotten up close to thousands of unique flowers in bloom?  You can at one of Canada's botanical gardens such as the fifty acre Butchart Gardens located near Victoria, British Columbia. You'll see stunning floral show gardens and a National Historic Site of Canada.

British Columbia is known for floral gardens.  Minter Gardens, which has since closed, thrilled us with thousands of flowers and gardens.

Would you like to visit a fishing village, have some fresh lobster, or visit a lighthouse?  Nova Scotia has much to offer including the Bay of Fundy and many beaches where you can build sandcastles, fly kites, take a surf lesson, or just walk barefoot in the sand.

For the maritime lover, visit the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, where you can visit the Titanic ~ The Unsinkable Ship and Halifax, Nova Scotia exhibit and learn about the role the people of Halifax played that fateful day.

Would you like to walk where birds fly and squirrels hang out?  You can in Vancouver, Canada, at Capilano Suspension Bridge and Treetops Adventure.  I'm afraid of bridges, but I had a great time crossing a series of elevated suspension bridges, some reaching as high as 100 feet (30m) above the forest floor.

Capilano Suspension Bridge is one of Vancouver, British Columbia's most popular tourist attractions.  Odds are that unless you extended your cruise vacation in Vancouver, you probably didn't visit this attraction during your cruise vacation.

There is so much to see and do in Canada, I hope that you'll plan a visit in the near future and get to know more about this North American country.   We have only scratched the surface in this article.   There are other Canadian destinations featured in past blog posts and also on our Facebook Fan Page.

To all our Canadian friends .... Happy Canada Day 2015.

100th Anniversary of Titanic Sinking

RMS Titanic Remembered

Events Around the World

Events across the world are marking the Centenary of the Titanic Sinking in the Atlantic.  The RMS Titanic was a British steamliner built by the White Star Line. For her time, she was the largest passenger steamship in the world. It employed the latest technology available at the time, and was thought to have been "unsinkable". Unfortunately, as you know, that wasn't the case.

The Titanic left Southampton, UK on April 10, 1912, with 2,200 passengers and crew onboard. This was the maiden voyage of this amazing new steamship. Four days after leaving Southampton, the Titanic collided with an iceberg and sank. Over 1500 people perished making it one of the most deadly peacetime disasters in history. The high casualty rate was later believed to be due to the insufficient number of lifeboats onboard, something that has been corrected in modern day cruise liners.

Belfast

Titanic Belfast - Opened March 31, 2012

Just in time for the Centenary of the Titanic sinking,  a large interactive exhibit, Titanic Belfast®, has opened in Northern Ireland.  It extends over nine galleries, complete with special effects, dark rides, full-scale reconstructions, and other interactive features for the visitor to explore everything about the Titanic.

Your visit starts with the conception in Belfast in the early 1900s, through her construction and launch, to her infamous maiden voyage and catastrophic demise.

The journey goes beyond the aftermath of the sinking, to the discovery of the wreck and continues into the present day with a live undersea exploration centre.  This will surely be a must-see attraction for years to come.

Harland and Wolff Shipyard - builder of the Titanic

For most of the century following the Titanic disaster, it was a taboo to mention the "T-word" in Belfast, Northern Ireland, site of the shipyard that built that ship and her two sister ships, Olympia and Britannic.  It was a reminder of the industrial failure that followed the disaster.

The cranes are silent now in the shipyard, as their focus shifted to servicing ships and marine infrastructure.  They are staying out of the spotlight on the anniversary of the Titanic.  The only involvement is sponsoring a requiem mass.  Some 16,000 people packed the Belfast slipways where the Titanic was built for a free, open-air concert Friday ahead of the 100th anniversary of the luxury liner’s sinking.

Observances in Belfast include a choral requiem at the Anglican St. Anne's Cathedral and a nationally televised concert at the city's Waterfront Hall on Saturday, where  thousands were expected to attend.

Southampton

Southampton, England was the departure port for the ill-fated Titanic.   The anniversary is being marked by an orchestra which will play composer Gavin Bryars' work "The Sinking of the Titanic".

About 600 of the Titanic's approximately 900 workers hailed from Southampton, a port city in England. More than 500 from the city died.

Maritime Museum, Southampton

The Maritime Museum, Southampton hosts a permanent exhibition featuring the story of Titanic’s crew.  Visitors can find out about the Titanic crew roles onboard and personal stories.  The Museum has collections of audio of crew member’s memories of the night Titanic struck the iceberg and the consequences for them and their families.  

At Sea in Atlantic

The MS Balmoral and Azamara Journey are enroute to the spot where Titanic sank (41°43'57"N, 49°56'49"W) where a memorial service will be held some 400 miles (640 kilometers) off the coast of Newfoundland.   Miles Morgan Travel offered two cruises, Anniversary Cruise from New York on the Journey, and  Memorial Cruise from Southampton on the Balmoral.

According to details released by Miles Morgan, at 2:20 a.m. ship's time on Sunday — 0547 GMT or 12:47 a.m. EDT — a minister will lead prayers, floral wreaths will be thrown into the sea and a shipboard band, which has been entertaining guests in the evenings during the cruise, will play "Nearer My God To Thee," the tune the Titanic's band kept up as the vessel went down.

In 1912 "ship's time" was determined by predicting when the sun would be at its highest point and making that moment midday. On some vessels the clocks were constantly updated.

It is an outdated practice but to ensure that the memorial is held at exactly the right time, the Balmoral's clocks have been put back to four hours and 27 minutes before BST. That means the ship is now effectively on Titanic time.

Halifax

Halifax, Nova Scotia, has a grim connection with the Titanic disaster.  The White Star Line chartered several ships to assist in recovery efforts following the sinking of the Titanic. Two Halifax-based ships, the MacKay-Bennett and the Minia, were part of that recovery fleet. The ships' crews recovered 328 bodies, with 209 being returned to Halifax. The badly damaged or deteriorated bodies were buried at sea. Of the 119 buried at sea, 60 were unidentified at the time and 49 remain unidentified today.

The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic has an extensive exhibit, Titanic: The Unsinkable Ship and Halifax, which was recently updated. The exhibit, recognized as the world's finest collection of wooden artifacts from the vessel, has 20 artifacts and dozens of photographs, including many that had never been published or displayed before. Two well known articles in the exhibit are the only intact Titanic deck chair and the shoes of the Titanic unknown child. Consult the museum's Research Page for more Titanic information.

Besides the exhibit at the museum, visitors to Halifax can also visit the graves of the Titanic victims buried there. 

• On April 14th, watch live webcast of
  Titanic Eve Night of the Bells
  from 9:30pm to 12:30am AST.
• On April 15, watch live webcast of
  Titanic Spiritual Ceremony
  from 3:00pm to 4:30pm AST.
• On April 14th, experience Titanic wireless messages in real time on Twitter
• Titanic events in Nova Scotia

Related Blog Articles:

Titanic's Unknown Child Identified 

Titanic: The Unsinkable Ship and Halifax

Retracing Titanic Cruise

Note:  Updated links on April 14, 2020 - some original links have been removed - since they were active only for the anniversary.  Click on the links to learn more about the Titanic.

Happy Canada Day

Canada Day, frequently referred to as "Canada's birthday", commemorates the joining of the British North American colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada into a federation of four provinces (the Province of Canada being divided, in the process, into Ontario and Quebec) on July 1, 1867.

Canada Day is very similar to the  July 4th holiday in the United States.  Most communities across the country will host organized celebrations for Canada Day, usually outdoor public events, such as parades, carnivals, festivals, barbecues, air and maritime shows, fireworks, and free musical concerts.

Learn more:  Official Website for Canada Day

We have had the pleasure of visiting several Canadian cities during our cruise vacations.  These included ports of call on multiple Alaskan cruises,  Canada and New England cruises, and even Transatlantic cruises.  One of the highlights was when we extended our Alaskan cruise with a pre-cruise exploration of the Canadian Rockies.

Have you ever ridden on a glacier?  You can while visiting the Columbia Icefield Glacier in the Canadian Rockies. Specially designed vehicles, Massive Brewster Ice Explorers, take passengers on a remarkable excursion onto the surface of the Athabasca Glacier.

Have you smelled flowers or gotten up close to thousands of unique flowers in bloom?  You can at one of Canada's botanical gardens such as the fifty acre Butchart Gardens located near Victoria, British Columbia. You'll see stunning floral show gardens and a National Historic Site of Canada.

British Columbia is known for floral gardens.  Minter Gardens ever evolving landscape will thrill you in spring, summer or fall with thousands of flowers and gardens.

Would you like to visit a fishing village, have some fresh lobster, or visit a lighthouse?  Nova Scotia has much to offer including the Bay of Fundy and many beaches where you can build sandcastles, fly kites, take a surf lesson, or just walk barefoot in the sand.

For the maritime lover, visit the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, where you can visit the Titanic ~ The Unsinkable Ship and Halifax, Nova Scotia exhibit and learn about the role the people of Halifax played that fateful day.

Would you like to walk where birds fly and squirrels hang out?  You can in Vancouver, Canada, at Capilano Suspension Bridge and Treetops Adventure.  I'm afraid of bridges, but I had a great time crossing a series of elevated suspension bridges, some reaching as high as 100 feet (30m) above the forest floor.

Capilano Suspension Bridge is one of Vancouver, British Columbia's most popular tourist attractions.  Odds are that unless you extended your cruise vacation in Vancouver, you probably didn't visit this attraction during your cruise vacation.

There is so much to see and do in Canada, I hope that you'll plan a visit in the near future and get to know more about this North American country.   We have only scratched the surface in this article.   There are other Canadian destinations featured in past blog posts and also on our Facebook Fan Page.

To all our Canadian friends .... Happy Canada Day 2011.

Air Canada Strike

Airline Strike:  Air Canada

Air Canada is very disappointed that an agreement with the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) leadership has not been reached, leading Air Canada's Call Centre, Airport Check-In and Gate agents at nine Canadian airports (Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto Pearson, Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax and St. John's NL) to take strike action.

UPDATE - Friday, June 17th: Air Canada and CAW Reach Tentative Agreement on New Contract

Air Canada's full schedule will remain in operation and check-in/airport services provided at international and United States airports are not impacted. All of Air Canada's regional airlines, including Jazz, and the airport check-in services they provide are also fully operational.

Starting Tuesday, June 14, 2011, Air Canada has implemented its contingency service plan at airports and Call Centres to minimize impact on customers. In anticipation of longer than usual lines at airport kiosks with limited available personnel:

• customers must check-in online or with their mobile device, prior to arriving at the airport.
• if possible, customers should avoid checking baggage in order to expedite airport processes.
• customers will have access to over 500 self service kiosks for check-in and baggage tagging in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto Pearson, Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax and St.John's NL).
• same day flight changes will be accommodated free of charge, subject to availability, when requested via online check-in or kiosk.

 You may also visit AirCanada.com for more updates.  

Air Canada to Continue to Operate During Strike by Airport and Call Centre Agents in Canada.
Learn more

With the busy Alaska cruise season in progress, this could impact your travel plans, so be sure to monitor this situation closely and allow additional time at the airport. 

 

Titanic's Unknown Child Identified

Shoes of Unknown Child from Titanic

Shoes Keep Mystery Alive

The RMS Titanic,a British steamliner built by the White Star Line, left Southampton, UK on April 10, 1912, with 2,200 passengers and crew onboard. This maiden voyage would be her last voyage, as it sunk in the wee hours of April 15th after hitting an iceberg.   The lives of 1,497 of the 2,209 onbaord perished making it one of the most deadly peacetime disasters in history.

Two Halifax-based ships, the MacKay-Bennett and the Minia, were part of a recovery fleet. The ships' crews recovered 328 bodies, with 209 being returned to Halifax. The badly damaged or deteriorated bodies were buried at sea. Of the 119 buried at sea, 60 were unidentified at the time and 49 remain unidentified today. 

A child, believed to have been around 2 years old at the time, was recovered by the MacKay-Bennett.   The unidentified child was buried in a Halifax cemetery where the crew of the Mackay-Bennett had a headstone dedicated to the "unknown child" placed over his grave.

An article describing the genetic analysis, that led to the final identification of the unknown child's remains, is scheduled to be published in the June 2011 issue of the journal Forensic Science International: Genetics and is already available online. 
 
According to that article, researchers say the unknown child was 19-month-old Sidney Leslie Goodwin, from England who was traveling with his parents, Frederick and Augusta, and five siblings on the ill-fated Titanic.

The shoes above, which can be seen in the Halifax Maritime Museum of the Atlantic's extensive exhibit Titanic: The Unsinkable Ship and Halifax,   played a role in keeping the quest for the child's identity alive.  Those shoes caused the researchers to question the previous identification.  The unknown child was incorrectly identified twice before, but researchers believe they have now conclusively determined the child was Goodwin

Thanks to DNA evidence, researchers are confident that they have finally identified the unknown child.   

Read the entire story on Live Science website:
Titanic's Unknown Child Given New, Final Identity

If you are interested in the history of the Titanic, be sure to visit the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic when you visit Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.   Next year marks the centennial of the sinking of the Titanic.   I'd suspect that there will be special attention called to the historic event, so be sure to stay tuned as we bring you updates.

Titanic: The Unsinkable Ship and Halifax

TITANIC - Halifax Connection

The RMS Titanic was a British steamliner built by the White Star Line. For her time, she was the largest passenger steamship in the world. It employed the latest technology available at the time and was thought to have been "unsinkable". Unfortunately, as you know, that wasn't the case.

The Titanic left Southampton, UK on April 10, 1912, with 2,200 passengers and crew onboard. This was the maiden voyage of this amazing new steamship. Four days after leaving Southampton, the Titanic collided with an iceberg and sank. Over 1500 people perished making it one of the most deadly peacetime disasters in history. The high casualty rate was later believed to be due to the insufficient number of lifeboats onboard, something that has been corrected in modern day cruise liners.

The White Star Line chartered several ships to assist in recovery efforts following the sinking of the Titanic. Two Halifax-based ships, the MacKay-Bennett and the Minia, were part of that recovery fleet. The ships' crews recovered 328 bodies, with 209 being returned to Halifax. The badly damaged or deteriorated bodies were buried at sea. Of the 119 buried at sea, 60 were unidentified at the time and 49 remain unidentified today. The last survivor of the Titanic sinking, Millvina Dean, died on May 31, 2009, at a nursing home near Southampton, England (not far from where her and her family boarded the ill-fated ship) at the age of 97.

The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic has an extensive exhibit, Titanic: The Unsinkable Ship and Halifax, which was recently updated. The exhibit has 20 artifacts and dozens of photographs, including many that had never been published or displayed before. Two well known articles in the exhibit are the only intact Titanic deck chair and the shoes of the Titanic unknown child. Consult the museum's Research Page for more Titanic information.

Besides the exhibit at the museum, visitors to Halifax can also visit the graves of the Titanic victims buried there. Read more

It is possible to walk to the Maritime Musuem from the pier. It is just along the boardwalk. There is a Visitor Information Centre right next door to the museum, where you can obtain maps and other information about local attractions. Watch our Cruise Vacations pages for more photos from our cruise.

Silva - Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Canadian Tall Ship - Silva

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

This was our second visit to Halifax, Nova Scotia. During our last visit, we visited Peggy's Cove Lighthouse. If this is your first visit to Halifax, I would highly recommend you tour the lighthouse. You can get a special cancellation from the post office there. Peggy's Cove Lighthouse is a bit weathered, but it will get a new paint job in 2009.

We decided to do something different this visit. Carnival offerred the Canadian Tall Ship Sailing Experience tour. We were able to experience the historic seaport from a unique perspective aboard the tall ship Silva for an approximate 1½ - hour sail. We were entertained by the Captain and crew as they shared some interesting anecdotes of Halifax Harbour. It was even possible for some hands on sailing experience.

The weather was overcast with some rain as we pulled out into the harbour. The Silva has a canopy that covers a large portion of the deck, so the rain didn't bother us. As we left the dock we were able to get pictures of our ship and also the Royal Caribbean ship that was docked in Halifax. We passed by the Canadian Naval yard where there were several ships docked. It is actually a NATO port, so you never know what ships might be in the harbour. The captain pointed out several sights along the boardwalk including Casino Nova Scotia.

There are other options to see Halifax from the Harbour. I know it sound strange going from one ship to another, but Halifax is best seen from the water. Following your harbour tour, you can then move inland to visit the various popular attractions. The boardwalk was our destination of choice as the rainy weather kept us from venturing too far from the ship. I'll talk about that more in another post.

Cruising Canada / New England

Cruises to Canada and New England are seasonal and ranges from short 5 Night Summer getaways to longer 10 night Foliage Cruises in the Fall. These cruises typically depart from New York or Boston and include visits to most of these ports depending upon the ship and sailing date: Bar Harbor, Maine, New Brunswick, St. Johns, Newfoundland, Montreal, Quebec, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

St. John's is the capital of the Canadian province of Newfoundland. It is the oldest city in North America. One of the tours possible in Newfoundland is "Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, Bird Island Adventure". It is a six hour tour that includes a lobster lunch with all the trimmings.

Halifax is the capital of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It is the largest city in Canada's Atlantic provinces. It was founded in 1749 by Honorable Edward Cornwallis. The city retains many historic buildings such as the Naval Dockyard and St. Paul's Church. One possible tour in Nova Scotia is "Peggy's Cove & Lobster Boil". It is a 5 1/2 hour tour that includes a lobster lunch with all the trimmings. You can definitely get your fill of lobster in this part of Canada.

Summer or Fall, Canada and New England is a pleasant alternative to cruising in the Caribbean.