My First Trip Report Begins- USA & Canada

[irv]

Our hotel has happy hour Monday to Thursday, both food and drink, so we decide to have a look. Food first night, so-so, but wine and beer for two hours, why not.
Next morning we are booked on a circle tour of Manhattan what a great way to view the city. Walking only a bit less than 14 klm today,

We repeat a large portion of the SIF but then head upstream, great view of the city from a different perspective.

From memory we pass under approximately 20 bridges, I can understand why people love this city, I am one of these. Sadly the better half is not a city person, strange we are both Sydney bred. Her time will come good as we move forward.

 

[irv]

After our cruise around Manhattan we head for the highline, had heard so many good reports about this way of getting around the city, and it did not disappoint. We then made our way to the Chelsea markets, so crowded was almost impossible to find a seat. Tomorrow was Ellis Island in the morning with a hard hat tour, followed by the statue with Crown tickets.

A few photos.

 

[TomVexille]

Keep up the good work irv!

 

[irv]

On this day we are on our way to visit a couple of landmark attractions of New York, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. We hopped on the New Jersey Hudson to Bergen light rail for our journey to Liberty Park, much more civilised than the other side of the river. Wandered up to the ticket office, only behind one couple, compared to Battery Park this, excuse the pun, is a walk in the park.

First stop Ellis Island, booked the Hard Hat tour months before. An issue when we go inside, my better half has walking sandals on, they do not comply with the requirements of the tour. The operators offered us a replacement time to come back later that week, however she declined and said she would explore the other parts of the island and for me to toddle off, you can really appreciate your other half.

An interesting tour, Ellis Island was slammed during cyclone Sandy, immense damage to a structure that relies on tourism to fund the restorations.

In August 2014 a French artist known as JR (not of Dallas fame) was invited to re tell the stories of the abandoned parts of the immigration station. He did so by trawling the photographic records of immigrants and displaying them throughout those structures. I called them the ghost pictures, highly effective.

The tour visits the hospital, mortuary, crematorium and contagious disease wards, takes approximately 90 minutes, well worth a look. A few more photos than normal.

 

[irv]

Continued

 

[irv]

Hello Statue of Liberty, our first journey and I can confirm we are both impressed. We do the obligatory walk to the front to take photos, school holidays were over so why are all these people here .

We have crown tickets, booked as soon as they came on line. My better half has,amongst others, two hates, stairs and heights, so I get her to walk ahead of me. As anyone who has done this you would know one staircase up, one down so when the protest began it was keep walking darling. Around 300 steps later we are looking out at the shi**y views from the crown windows, however tick that off the bucket list.

Ferry ride back, light rail trip and complimentary shuttle back to the hotel, its happy hour, so a few free drinks.

A few photos, I apologise that the quality is not that flash.

 

[irv]

The rest of our journey in New York was the regular tourist traps, we actually found a coffee shop on our way to Times square that made REAL COFFEE, oh the bliss after a few weeks of drinking who knows what (yes I am a coffee snob) Loved Central Park, a breath of fresh air in a large city. We walked a 159 klm in New York alone, great for the waist, sore on the feet.

We departed out of Newark for Nova Scotia, our return to Canada had begun, I think we will probably return to NYC in the future.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

Great trip report so far and particularly Loved your commentary of NYC, as myself and Lady Cool Cat will in NYC on Thursday night for a two week trip.

Really pleased to hear that you visited the highline and the Meatpacking district...... I'm Really keen to see this new, cool, hip gentrification as well.

 

[irv]

We had a 9.00am flight out of Newark, hotel arranged an Uber hire to pick us up for our half hour trip, flying out on United to YHZ. Funny set up, hop on the people mover that travels about 100mtrs if that, obviously they don’t like walking .
Boarded and took off on time, flight time a bit over two hours, land and adjust time for another zone.

This is our second visit to Halifax, this time we intend to visit the Citadel, just couldn’t time it right on our last visit. Pick up the hire car from the Airport, need to adjust for sitting on the wrong side of the car and driving on the wrong side of the road, I find roundabouts the hardest thing to adjust to.

The first thing we notice is how much construction has gone on in the last 4 years and is still going on in Halifax, somehow the old and the new in downtown Halifax do not blend as they have in other cities we have visited. Arrive at our destination the Hollis Halifax (Hilton) relatively easy, lots of road work underway.

Check in, great view of the harbour from our room, then on our way to re orient ourselves with Halifax. Dinner that night at the Five Fishermen, I love the seafood from this part of the world, fresh and cheap.

 

[irv]

I was up bright and early the next morning to catch some early morning shots of the harbour, sunrise did not disappoint.
Last time we were here we frequented a business called The Second Cup for our caffeine hit, much to my disappointment it no longer existed. Was able to track down a coffee shop for our morning hit, nothing to write home about but better than what we had been putting up with in the USA.

Arrived back at the hotel, look across the road, a Café, didn’t notice that yesterday, at least somewhere else to try.

A few photos.

 

[irv]

A few more photos of Halifax NS

 

[amaroo]

Nice TR. Good to see all that planning paying off.

Really like NS... the Bay of Fundy tide is a sight to be seen.

 

[irv]

After coffee we walked up to the Citadel, Fort George is its official name. This is apparently the fourth and last version of various enforcements built on this site, the first was built some time in the 1700’s to protect Halifax.

Must have worked as it has never seen any military action in all that time.

Unusual star shaped design, it is open for tours everyday.

A few photos of the fort.

 

[irv]

Continued

 

[irv]

We had a particular destination after lunch, Ryers Lobster Pound, Indian Harbour, not far from Peggys Cove.

Certainly not 5 star, you choose and pay for your live lobster, we ordered 2 x one and a half pounders. They provide you with a plastic lobster picker each, a plastic bib and a roll of kitchen paper.

Sat outside in the sun at a wooden picnic table, lobster is delivered freshly cooked and cut open, with clarified butter, absolutely superb, at a massive $15.00 CAD per lobster.

I don’t normally take food photos, exception for this.



Tomorrow sees us leaving Halifax for Cape Breton Island.

 

[TomVexille]

Now I'm drooling

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

now i'm drooling

me too :d

 

[OATEK]

me too :d

+2 - Mrsoatek and myself!

 

[Julesmac]

What a great TR Irv, brinhs back so many memories of our trips to the US. I agree the Yanks do museums, memorials and monuments so well - just looking at your Washington snaps gave me goosebumps all over again. You certainly understand how powerful the nation is (though we all like to give em a bit of stick) but you can't fail to be impressed by DC. We spent over six hours in the Smithsonian Air & Space museum alone- amazing. Really looking forward to the next bit (my sister travelled there a few years ago and presented a talk to her U3A group on L M Montgomery which was really interesting) You will have to read the books when you get home.

 

[irv]

+2 - Mrsoatek and myself!

We came across this on our first Canadian trip, was a no brainer to go back. Interesting a couple of USA visitors approached us and asked how hard was it too eat lobster, so we had a bit of a discussion about how you approach such a problem. And you are all correct, sat there waiting with anticipation, didn't want to drool on a plastic bib.