In which we arrive at Lunenburg

This one is the the last two days, busy as they have been! We regretfully departed from our cottage by the sea, and made our way through Liverpool, to Lunenburg.

As always, diversions must happen. First plan is to reach the Sandy Point lighthouse at low tide, because apparently you can walk across a shallow sand bar to reach it...and pull the foghorn! I mean, that's pretty appealing. However, the low wasn't low enough, so we had to content ourselves with photos of a lighthouse close but oh so far.

Liverpool is a wonderful little town, and we are more and more appreciative of the friendliness and just niceness of the locals. They have a fabulous museum here, all by donation. The museum is quite nautical of course, given the importance of the sea to the area. Attached to it is the Perkins house, the 1766 home of Samuel Perkins. He kept a diary that has centuries later proven to be a real window to the times he lived in, due to the rich details he carefully recorded.

On the way out of Liverpool is a fantastical realm of concrete sculptures set in a local garden centre. You wouldn't know it was there, unless you had researched it like Yvonne had, although the guide from the museum recommended it very highly when we told her off our plan to stop by there . She said all the locals knew it well!

Arriving eventually in Lunenburg, our spirits are a bit dampened by a hotel that didn't quite match the booking site, and by a foggy mist that had turned into definitely rain. But, our fortunes were about to take a solid upward turn. A walk down at the wharf reveals the unscheduled appearance of the Bluenose II, whose departure had been delayed by the weather.

Later, at the local pub, we arrive in a crush of people all with the same idea. We are relegated to a patio picnic table to wait in the cool outdoors. But, we've just seen musicians will be performing and that's a surprise treat worth the wait. No one has taken our names for a wait list, but we have been noted and remembered. We are soon called in, and guided to the best seat in the house, just as the music begins. The kind of whirling, lilting Irish type music that is uplifting and calming at the same time. Highlighted by the player of a sort of drum, whose energy, rythm, and clear absorption in the joy of the music brought us all along with him

A late night again has been followed by an early morning. The next day, today, is Peggys Cove day. It's so iconically beautiful, so many pictures have to be taken off probably the most photographed lighthouse in the country.

Lunch is at the nearby Swissair memorial, after paying our respects we find a nearby huge flat boulder to serve as our table, and watch sailboats and waves while we look back at Peggy's Cove. Hugging the shoreline on the way back, we stop as well at the second Swissair memorial site. The 2 sites form a triangle with the impact site of the crash, and are deliberately understated and modest.

A tour through the lovely Mahone Bay gets us home still in time for dinner, and a guided ghost tour afterwards through old Lunenburg. Mahone is so inviting, lots of intriguing little shops. We can't resist the pewter store where they manufacture on site and you can watch them pour the molten metal. Their pieces are gorgeous. Then the lighthouse store, where I see a map of the many, many lighthouses around Nova Scotia. It occurs to me to ask the proprietor if Peggys is really the most beautiful or just the most well known. It's a real insight to hear that locals are actually disgruntled by the whole concept, as there are so many wonderful lighthouses around the province, just as or more scenic, but without government support to maintain them. Insult to injury is what we noticed at Peggys Cove; that the gift shop carried many made in China items. In a national park, that's pretty disrespectful to local artists.Lue lisää