August 24, 2023 Halifax, Nova Scotia

     A sunny morning with a light north west wind of 5 km/hr and 12° C temperature. At 7 a.m. Zuiderdam was still in the Atlantic but close to the mouth of Halifax harbour. She was moored at its Halifax berth just after 8 a.m.  There were an assortment of excursions this morning starting at 8:30 a.m. ranging from two hours to seven hours. Zuiderdam is moored until 10:30 p.m. this evening. The excursions were going out of town to Peggy’s Cove, the Bay of Fundy or Lunenburg or city tours to see the Public Gardens, Maritime Museum and the Citadel. There was a wine tour and after dinner a haunted tour of the Citadel. Besides our first visit to Halifax in the late 1980s when we flew in, since retiring we have visited Halifax on three different cruise lines, Celebrity (coming from Sydney, Nova Scotia), Royal Caribbean (coming from Ponta Delgada, the Azores) and Holland America (coming from St. John’s Newfoundland).

    We climbed up to Lido Market on Deck 9 for breakfast. There were lots of people milling around. Coming down the stairs to Deck 2, people were anxiously awaiting word that the gangways were in place. All the tours were meeting on the pier. When we returned to our stateroom, the towel elephant had been replaced by a towel monkey. Our stateroom was dark since the ship is moored on the port side and the terminal building was blocking the sun for the whole day.

    We gathered the computers to go to the terminal to find their Wi-Fi which at 9 a.m. was reasonably quick uploading the text and photos. Larry returned the computers to the stateroom. We decided to wait outside Pier 21 for Elaine and Peter. As we exited the building they were waiting for us 10 minutes ahead of time. There is construction on a major thoroughfare and they wanted to be on time. They drove us to their condo in Bedford which had great views of Bedford Basin. Then we went for a scenic 3 kilometre walk on the Bedford Harbour walk before going to lunch.

     Elaine and Peter chose a cozy Thai restaurant, called The Blue Elephant, that had great food. They described their spring vacation next year that starts with a repositioning cruise out of Tampa Bay to Barcelona stopping at Bermuda, the Azores and Gibraltar. 

    We were dropped off at the terminal entrance then walked along the Halifax Boardwalk over two kilometres to the casino and back. We stopped for ice cream at Cows at Cable Wharf. Nearby was a large bronze cylinder sculpture, with maps of the underwater cables between North America and Europe engraved in it. By the ship we could clearly see Georges Island less than a kilometer away. Last fall when we were here, it could not be seen due to the fog. We were back to the ship by 4 p.m.



    We joined Cee Kay and Brad for dinner in the dining room. In the World Stage this evening is a repeat of the BBC Earth Presents: Planet Earth 2 in Concert.

    Steps 18,512


on the Bedford Harbour walk

the Yacht Club at the top of Bedford Basin

lunch at The Blue Elephant Thai restaurant


Georges Island

Naval ship coming in to port

stopped for ice cream at Cows at Cable Wharf

large bronze cylinder sculpture, with maps of the underwater cables between North America and Europe engraved in it




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