Autumn
in Canada #9
Tuesday,
October 8, 2019
Sydney,
Nova Scotia, Canada
After
breakfast we took the gangway to the pier and onto the island. The weather was
61F, heavy drizzle and rained within the hour of us leave the ship, close to
gale force winds. Fortunately, we brought our slickers and didn’t have to worry
about the wind ruining our umbrella! As we walked off the pier there was an old
man playing shanty music on his fiddle and singing Irish tunes. As we continued
we heard bagpipe music, all Live!
We stopped
at St. George's the Anglican Church. It has quite a history. It was established by Royal Decree in 1785.
Rev. Ranna Cossit was the first non-military
pastor of the St. George's Church.
We walked
down Charlotte St. and stopped by Jost Heritage House (built 1784) and Cossit
House Museum (built 1787) for tours but they were full. So decided to go east
and walk towards downtown Sydney. As we walked we stopped at a few walking
tours to hear what they had to say about the city. It seems Sydney was a steel
mill town starting just before WWI and continued until recently.
It began to rain heavily so we ducked into the
Bank of Montreal Museum. We dried off, donated $2.00 and spent time reading
about old Sydney. Apparently, Sydney was very much a part of the WWI and WWII
efforts supplying men and material for the allies.
They also
had a story/song room. You chose between Mi'Kmaq (native American) Gaelic, or
Acadian French. We listened to songs sung in each language. Janet was surprised at how much she was able to understand, reading French!
We headed
back in cold windy weather, stopped by the large Fiddle Statue (in honor of the
Irish ancestry).
After
lunch everything hurt from the cold and rain. We headed to the indoor hot tub.
Oh, what a relief!! By the time we got back to the cabin and showered we passed out
cold. Thank goodness we had the where with all to make a wakeup call at 5:00pm.
We went to
the library to continue reading our books and have hot chocolate. We were going
to stop by the Queen’s Room to listen to the violin and piano duo for a little
before dinner music. However, the sunset was just beautiful and our view from
the library was breathtaking so we stayed in the comfortable reading chairs
with ottomans and relaxed.
Dinner was
in the main dining room. After dinner went to the showing of the movie BBC’s
PLANET EARTH II put to live music by the Veendam Musicians. It was
spectacular! Forty-five minutes of amazing nature footage from the entire
planet and the music was perfect for each scene.