The Confederation Bridge - named for the Confederation of Canada - is about an hour west of Charlottetown. I had heard about the bridge before I left home and was a bit fascinated by it, although I've been on plenty of bridges over water, including the two floating bridges in my backyard. But this bridge is eight miles long. I thought, "no big deal, eight miles isn't that long," but once I was about at mile 4 or 5, it dawned on me that I was only about halfway to the other end!
To get a good view of it, you have to do it from the Prince Edward Island side, before you get on the bridge. Oh, and it costs about $40 USD to take it from PEI to the mainland, which in this case, is New Brunswick. You only pay leaving the island, so my ferry trip from Nova Scotia to PEI was free, but I paid at the bridge to leave the island.
If you stop at the Church of Saint Peter in Borden-Carleton, you can get this view. There is an old graveyard right next to the church. This is the best place to get a shot of the length of the bridge, although you can't get a picture of all eight miles.
There was a big gathering at the stop just before you pay the toll to get on the bridge. It was the Christian Motorcyle Association having their Sunday service with music. It was pretty neat to see all that leather and bandana-wearing praising the Lord!
Of course I love the red dirt of the coastline and it was a bonus to have a lighthouse on the same grounds. This is one of the Borden-Carleton range lights, meaning it's designed to be used in the harbour.
After driving all over Prince Edward Island, I drove over the bridge to New Brunswick (for about an hour or less) and then back into Nova Scotia. So I guess you could say that I have now driven through the three Canadian Maritime provinces.
Once I arrived back in the Halifax area, it was too early to check in to my hotel, so I decided to drive another 30 miles south and pay a visit to the Halifax Citadel. I heard a woman on the same Cabot Trail tour as me say she really liked her visit to the Citadel so I thought, "why not?" It is a national park so I didn't have to pay to get in. I only had to pay $3 to park.
There have actually been four citadels, including the current one, on the hill. The first one was built in 1749,, the year Halifax was founded, and the third one was actually named Fort George. The Citadel is a fortified summit that was never attacked, but was long the keystone to the defense of the strategically important Halifax Harbour and its Royal Navy Dockyard.
I think I would have liked it better had I been able to walk around the top of the Citadel and not seen modern day Halifax. I wanted to see the open harbour and sailing vessels. Instead I saw high-rises, pleasure boats, and traffic. I did manage to see, beyond a building crane, to a little island in the harbour with a lighthouse on it.
The Citadel is in somewhat of a star shape that you can see real well from up above it. The parks department has done a real good job of having characters of that time dressed in full costume, as well as rooms full of guns and metal beds and other accessories that soldiers would have during their stay there.
The renowned 78th (Highlanders) Regiment of Foot were stationed at Halifax for almost three years (1869-1871). The regiment arrived in Halifax on the afternoon of May 14 aboard the troopship HMS Crocodile. A total of 765 men disembarked in full dress uniform. The Regiment was divided into two depots and eight service companies, consisting in all of 34 officers, 49 sergeants, 21 drummers, 6 pipers, and 600 rank and file.
One of the 78th Regiment of Highlanders (reenacting)
Inside the Citadel
Down to the garrison cells and gun rooms.
What's a Sally Port?
One of the educational displays was a room of Scottish cloth and clothing items and an old pedal sewing machine. These scissors are HUGE and were used in the cutting of the cloth.
About every 5 minutes I would hear bagpiping, so I finally came out to see what was going on. This Scottish bagpiper was stopping all around the star-shaped Citadel, on the wall, and playing different tunes on the pipes. It was pretty cool to look up and see a lone bagpiper, playing a mournful piece against a gray sky.
They had a whole trench built up so people could walk on it and get a feel for what it felt like to be in the trenches. What a scary part of war.
Just as I was getting ready to leave, the piper and a drummer were giving a concert.
I believe this used to be a moat around the Citadel.
I'm glad I visited it, and it wasn't very crowded at all.
Back to Halifax to check in and then go find a place to have dinner. I absolutely hated the restaurant food of the Quality Inn's restaurant, so I wanted to find some place else. I found the Inn on the Lake in Fall River and their restaurant, Encore. It was good but expensive. Everything up in Canada felt expensive to me. Anyway, early to bed as the next day was another traveling day, this time by airplane.
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