From the Pacific to the Atlantic - Crossing Canada by Train
2 October - 5 November 2024

Canada 2024
25 October 2024: Day 24

Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Introduction

Breakfast at The Cambridge Suites was in small room off their restaurant, the usual buffet of cereals, a poor choice of hot food (always including sauted - "breakfast" - potatoes) and indifferent coffee. It was a grey cold day, remaining at about 8C all day. We walked down to the waterfront but most attractions were closed - didn't blame them in this weather. The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic was open so we warmed up in there. They have excellent exhibits of Halifax shipping and of two disasters that involved Halifax - the Titanic in 1912 and the French ammunition ship explosion in 1917. Ater the Titanic sank, the survivors were taken to New York, but the bodies were taken to Halifax. Many bodies were buried at sea but some were taken into Halifax and are buried there in 3 cemeteries. The explosion in 1917 involved two ships, the Norwegian ship Imo and the French munition ship the Mont Blanc. The two collided in the Narrows, the upper part of Halifax harbour, and the French ship caught on fire. The crew abandoned the ship and it continued to burn. Many residents came down to the harbour edge to watch, but the fire burned into the holds, full of TNT, gun cotton and Picric Acid, which exploded with the equivalent of 3 kilotonnes of TNT, the largest ever man-made explosion. It devastated Halifax and killed over 1700 people. Fragments of the ship were found several km away, embedded into houses. We then boarded the local Hop On bus for a tour of the city. We were keen to visit the cemetery where many of the Titanic victims were buried. We hopped off, looked at the graves and then waited for the bus to take us back to town. Unfortunately there were 3 cruise ships in town that day, so the HOHO buses were a bit crowded. We waited nearly an hour in the cold for a bus to return us to town. We dined that night at Gio Restaurant and it lived up to its excellent reputation.

Fairview Cemetery, Halifax

View from our hotel room

The pink HOHO bus

Fairview Cemetery

Halifax and the RMS Titanic

Titanic graves this way

The graves are laid out in the shape of a ship's prow

The unknown child...

except he became known

St Mary's Church and Halifax

We finally found a seat on a HOHO bus and this took us back into Halifax. We decided to hop off outside St Mary's Cathedral and walk back to the hotel.