  Nova Scotia
On the Saturday after Labor Day in 2000 we flew from Los Angeles to Boston and then on to Halifax, Nova Scotia. We caught a hotel bus for the short trip to the Inn on the Lake. We got settled and then went to the hotel restaurant. From there on, eating well was part of this trip. The charm of the hotel and their fish chowder definitely marked the Inn as the place to stay if you don't have time to go into the City of Halifax. Sunday we take the hotel shuttle back to the airport. We have made arrangements with Vermont Bicycle Tours to be picked up “outside baggage claim.” While waiting for the van, we meet Jean and Kathy, two other members of our tour. A few minutes later we see a person with a cardboard sign with “VBT” on it. Our driver takes us to her van, we load our bags and are off for the hour drive west along the southern coast of Nova Scotia to the starting point of our trip in Lunenburg. Along the way we pass Peggy’s Cove, which our driver reminds us, was made famous September 2, 1998, when Swiss Air flight 111 crashed off shore. Most of the way is freeway. At the exit for Mahone Bay we move from four lane divided highway to two-lane country road. We have turned from the fast paced modern to the relaxed pace of fishing villages, farms and quiet countryside. At the Boscawen Inn, the leaders from VBT, Donna and Chris, welcome us, got us settled in our room and introduce us to the bicycles that will be our “trusted steeds” for the week. I carry my own bicycle pedals with Shimano clips. Chris helps me install the pedals and I start to install my bicycle computer (speed, distance, time and altitude). At that point I discover I am missing a piece; Chris assures me there was a bike shop on tomorrow's ride. Two more vans arrive with the remaining members of our group, 16 total plus our two leaders.
Each day will begin with breakfast at 8:00 am followed by a route talk -- what we will do and see and any special information -- and stretching exercises. Then we are on our bikes. Lunch each day will either be on our own or VBT will provide a picnic at a designated location. Dinner is at 7:00 pm. On the days we move, VBT will transport our luggage in the van. We each introduce ourselves briefly -- no “what do you do” or other business talk on this trip. This is clearly a diverse group in terms of age and experience. Most people have been on one to four bicycle tours before, but there are four people for whom this is their first. Kristina and Nikki are employees of VBT and are with us so they will be able to talk with people who call in and ask about this and other tours. Adelaide doesn't bicycle but her husband Don does. She is planning to join us for breakfast and dinner and spend the day shopping and getting ideas for quilts while Don rides. There are four couples, seven single women and one single man. Dinner this evening is in a separate dining room. There are several choices including lamb and lobster. Dinner every night except one is included in the cost of the tour. Wine and other alcoholic beverages are extra. Breakfast the next morning is in the main dining room. A specialty of the Inn is blueberry pancakes -- the small, wild type of blueberries that are common in this area and are in season. Today's ride provides an introduction to the hills of Nova Scotia. Our ride takes us up and down along narrow country roads with very little traffic. Throughout our trip, Pat and I find the Canadian drivers are more than courteous -- sometimes they followed us slowly up a hill if there is a double yellow line rather than pose a risk to us or them. We retrace the end of yesterday's route back into Mahone Bay. This town
and all of the others along the south coast fit our pictures of small New
England fishing villages. But we aren't totally off the beaten path. A
new banner over one restaurant proudly proclaims that you could now buy
“nachos” in Mahone Bay. We bicycle through town and then around the end
of the small bay and back along the far shore where we got a great view
of the city and its three classic, wooden churches side-by-side. Our route takes us along the coast past small farms and inlets with a boat or two tied up or at anchor. The gardens around the homes have beautiful, bright flowers and the lawns are carefully mowed. We began to slow down and take in the beauty and serenity. The route takes us back away from the shore. In the country, people have mailboxes at the side of the road. The names on the mailboxes suggest short stories. Many of the mailboxes have the names of a man and a woman with different last names. We never got around to asking but we suspect that some of the women just keep their last name. Occasionally a mailbox has the name of one person painted out -- they have moved on to another place or another world. Wonderful stuff to occupy your mind while cycling. Much better than issues at work or personal to-do lists or all of that “important stuff” that is part of our normal life. Mailboxes provide appropriate stuff to wonder about when you are on vacation. We circle around back into Mahone Bay and stop for lunch. There are local shops with some beautiful wooden furniture, local photographs, hand made quilts and clothing, and restaurants with a variety of food including, of course, nachos. This afternoon, the ride takes us back to the Inn. There is an option
to go beyond the Inn to an area We pedal back toward town and stop by the bicycle shop that Chris told us about. The owner takes care of some of VBT’s bikes in the winter. He is away leading a VBT tour on Prince Edward Island so the shop isn't open until 3:00 pm when his son gets home from school. I show him what I need. He takes a cardboard box labeled “computer stuff” from a shelf, paws around and comes up with three used parts -- my choice for $2.00. The weather on this first day has been perfect for bicycling: cool in the morning and pleasant in the afternoon. On the way into town we pass an ice cream store -- every bike ride deserves either a Starbucks stop in the morning or an ice cream cone in the afternoon. This store has homemade ice cream that is delicious. Across the street is a man with an interesting dog so we strike up a conversation. He is renovating a small hotel and gives us a rundown on real estate prices: up two and a half times for property overlooking the harbor in the last 15 months. We eventually find an opportunity to excuse ourselves. These people love to find someone new to talk with and they always have more time to do it than we do. A hot shower, a change of clothes and our group begins to assemble for a drink and then off to dinner. Tonight VBT takes us to a local fish restaurant. (There were options other than fish, but fish is the specialty.) A good nights sleep and then up early enough to get our bags in the trailer by 7:45 and breakfast at 8:00. Today's ride is 121 kilometers (about 73 miles). There is a picnic about one third of the way. There is a good rest stop at the two thirds point. Our leaders recommend riding at least the last third. They recommend riding the first and last thirds for those who are up to it, and they offer the possibility of riding the entire trip. Pat and I chose the first third and keep our options open -- we would like to ride all the way. The distance isn't that bad, but there are those hills. We make it to lunch. Chris offers the option of riding the middle third and 15 of us chose the van. Mike says he will ride. At the top of the first hill we know we have made the right decision and we become more certain at every subsequent hill. By the time we get to the two thirds point, good intentions to ride have overcome our desire for creature comfort and we get back on our bikes. Periodically, Chris rides by and offers support if we need it and news on Mike's progress. We arrive in Wolfville and cycle to the Tattingstone Inn. At dinner this evening, Mike's prowess is recognized with the designation as “Iron Man Mike.” Tonight we have a four-poster bed that is high enough that there is a set of steps. Dinner tonight is in the Inn. This is the best meal of the trip. Great selection excellently prepared and artistically presented. The vegetables with all of our meals are special. They actually have flavor. I'm not a big fan of vegetables, but I eat all of them I can get. If you like seafood, this is a terrific trip: lobster, haddock, scallops, etc. Lamb is common and there are always other choices. We are now on the north side of Nova Scotia, on the Minas Basin at the end of the Bay of Fundy. Near here are the highest tides anywhere on earth. Watching tides is a bit like watching the hour hand on your watch. You won't see anything happening unless you note a position and then note it again some time later. This morning the tide is high, tucked into the shoreline and high up under the bridges. Later in the day we see that these same places have turned into mud flats. We are seeing history all round us. This is an old part of the New World. The area was settled by the French in 1680 and became known as Arcadia. The people were known as Arcadians. The land has been built up by silt washed in by the high tides. The topsoil is measured in meters and there are no rocks and no natural trees. Perfect for farming except at the winter high tides when the land is covered with salt water. The settlers constructed a series of earthen dikes to block the winter tides. They used hollowed out wooden pipes through the dikes to let the fresh water run out. The fresh rainwater flushed out the salt and made the land ready for crops. On the sea end of each pipe the put a wooden gate or door that floated open to let the fresh water out at low tide but closed tight to hold out the sea as the tide rose. This area changed hands between the French and British seven times. The defining moment in the area's history occurred when the British demand an oath of loyalty from the French Acadians. The story is that they had no problem swearing loyalty to the British but refused to take arms against their fellow Frenchmen. The British decided to break them up into small groups and disperse them among the 13 colonies. A few of the colonies refused to accept them and they were taken to France. The King of Spain offered them land in Louisiana. There the name Arcadian was corrupted to Cajun. The story is immortalized in Longfellow’s poem Evangeline. We tour the grounds and visit a blacksmith shop -- more accurately a farrier -- where there is a rack to hold oxen while they are fitted with metal shoes. The shoes had two parts, one for each side of their split hoof, and had cleats at each end to improve traction. Back on the bike we ride along the top of the dikes. They are wide enough to drive a small truck along the top. This had to be a massive job in the days of picks and shovels. We ride into town and out the other side. Here we are in farmland with truck farms and apple orchards. The apples are being picked and the sweet aroma is everywhere. It was cloudy when we left the Inn this morning and the sky is beginning to darken ahead of us. It is getting darker and darker. A half hour before we get to the restaurant where we will have lunch it starts to rain. Fortunately it is warm. Unfortunately, it is wet. We make it to the restaurant and they have hot, homemade soup. Perfect. The next leg of our planned ride is up a steep hill to a view site that overlooks the entire valley -- and there is an ice cream store at the top. The hill is very steep and it is still raining so we all get in the van for the ride to the top. Low clouds obscure the view but the ice cream is worth the ride. Back to the restaurant in the van. Cilla and Bob ride their bikes back to town; the rest of us stay dry in the van. The rain has almost stopped so several of us go for a walk around town. Tonight, dinner is on our own so we look for restaurants. Tomorrow is a long ride for those of us who choose to ride all the way. Our leaders have suggested an early start so we also look for a place to have a light breakfast. Tim Horton’s is the only place to get coffee and something light before 8:00 a.m. -- they never close. This is a chain of donut/bagel/muffin and coffee shops -- Nova Scotia's answer to Starbucks -- well sort of. We chose Chez La Vigne for dinner. Adelaide and Don are already in the restaurant when we got there and assure us we have made a good choice. Wild hare is a specialty of the house so we have it. This was our second best dinner. Enjoying two great dinners in a row is part of the reward of pedaling all those miles. Thursday morning, several of us declare our intentions to ride all the way and get an early start. Pat and I don't get out quite as early as we had hoped, but we get coffee and muffins and cycle back past the Taddingstone Inn as those who are taking shorter options are sitting down for breakfast. This morning, like most mornings, is crisp. As we ride, the sun rises in the sky and the chill is soon gone. The ride today is west southwest. The Annapolis Valley runs parallel to the northern coast of Nova Scotia. To the north, the valley is defined by a row of low mountains. There is a freeway that goes along the flatland south of us in the center of the valley. Our route is along a country road that goes up-and-down through the foothills at the edge of the valley. On the crests we can see the valley below with its checkerboard of farms. 118 kilometers (about 71 miles) isn't too bad, but we have to do 94 k’s before lunch -- that's why we needed the early start. Pat and I are riding well, but it is looking less and less likely that we will be able to make the picnic site before 2:00. The van has taken the freeway and dropped off the members of our group who chose the shorter option and is now coming back along our route to see if we need anything. Chris suggests we let him give us a “bump,” (a short ride in the van to make up some time.) That gets us back on schedule and still leaves us with the opportunity to ride a metric century (100 k’s.) Among the last in for lunch, we are among the last back out on the road. We only have 26 k’s left and about four hours to ride them so we ride at a slower pace. We see a sign for ice cold, homemade cider. That sounds good so we stop at a roadside stand in front of a farmhouse. A sign says honk for service, but there are no horns on VBT bikes. I go around to the kitchen door and knock. The lady of the house takes one look at the way I am dressed and says, “Oh, I've been so busy I forgot that today is Thursday.” They usually sit out in the stand on Thursday afternoon because that's when the bicycles come by. We stop and chat for a while. She tells us her husband is a dentist and practices dentistry so he can afford to be a farmer. Apparently many of the small farms are now farmed part time. Up, down, up, down to Annapolis-Royal. Tonight, the group is split between two inns. We are staying at the Hillsdale House, part of our group is staying at Garrison House. Our innkeeper proudly tells us that Edward VII, when he was Prince of Wales, stayed here in 1860 and George V stayed here in 1884. We were honored to have the room where George slept. After dinner this evening, our itinerary
calls for a most unusual activity: a candle light tour of the Garrison
Graveyard. The tours are conducted on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday nights
by the president of the Historical Society of Annapolis-Royal. This morning there is a choice of eggs and bacon or sausage and toast made with homemade bread. On the table are dishes of home made jams that explode with the flavors of raspberries, strawberries, strawberry/rhubarb, apricot and several others. What a great way to start the day. Friday we
cycle around the area. First we peddle through town. We ride past the Annapolis-Royal
lighthouse which is typical of the small lighthouses we have seen along
the coast. (There is a more traditional lighthouse
at Peggy’s Cove.) It is cloudy and ominous but that brings out the
white church across the bay. We stop at the North Hills Museum with an outstanding collection of Georgian antiques. Our next stop is the restored Habitation. It was established in 1605, two years before the first permanent English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia and fifteen years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts. From 1605 to 1613, it was the base of operations for the French fur trade in the New World. It has been cloudy all morning and the clouds are getting darker. We ride to Digby Gut along a route that generally follows the pony express trail. Not the one that won the U.S. west, but a pony express established by the Associated Press, a group of New York newspapers. Ships from Europe would stop in Halifax and then sail south and arrive in New York 36 hours later. The pony express picked up news dispatches in Halifax and two riders each using six horses carried them to the St. John's ferry. The ferry took from them from Digby Gut to St. John where they were telegraphed to the Associated Press newspapers in New York, hours ahead of the arriving ships. VBT has arranged for us to use a church social hall for our picnic lunch -- great planning. It started to rain just after most of us arrive and before all of us could get there. The church ladies had set out some nice handicrafts. A picnic with shopping. There is a small outhouse, but not adequate for a group our size. The Ellis’s who live just down the hill have agreed to make one of their bathrooms available for us. Mrs. Ellis meets us, points to the bathroom and tells us that the towel on the ring is for us. Most of us choose to ride back in the van. Iron Man Mike and Marilyn, Dick and, of course, Chris ride their bikes. Most of the way it rains; part of the way it buckets down. The rain had subsided to just off-and-on so Pat and I go for a walk around town. We stop at the Catfish Moon potter's studio when it starts to rain again. Then we walk out to the power plant, back to town and then back to the Hillsdale Inn. There is a BYOB pre dinner reception on the porch of the Inn this evening before dinner. Then dinner is in a nearby gazebo. Saturday is the last day of the tour. We have a long haul south and then east so we ride in the van part way. VBT has arranged for a second van so there is plenty of room for everyone. Several times we are glad we are warm and dry inside rather than wet and wind blown on our bikes. We reach the south shore and stop. So does the rain. Perfect timing. Today's ride is almost flat along the coast -- almost flat. It
feels great to get some speed and keep it longer than the few minutes it
takes to get to the bottom of the next hill. We stop in La Have at the
La Have bakery for lunch. Great home made bakery items and soups. We are
nearing the end of the trip and some of us are being a bit silly, including
Donna. We take a cable ferry -- it pulls itself
along on a cable that lies on the bottom of the bay. We take some parting
photos including one of Donna and Chris. We ride back through town with a quick stop for a home made ice cream
cone. There are vans waiting to take us to Halifax so we organize our luggage
and bike stuff, say our good-byes and the trip is over. We had a great
trip thanks to the people and countryside of Nova Scotia, the other members
of our tour, VBT and Chris and Donna.
Every trip leaves some special impressions:
A Note About the Photographs Most days the sky was sufficiently overcast that we didn't take many pictures. The small pictures in this article are ours and are linked to larger versions. We have found a number of great pictures on the Net and they are presented here via a link from their source site. We encourage you to click on the pictures and see what the other sites have to offer. The one exception is the map of our trip which was the map in the 2000 VBT catalog which we copied so it will show the route we took on this trip. A Note About Links
Lyon, Popanz & Forester home | LPF Adventure | Nova Scotia | Search First posted: October 6, 2000
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Donna
and Chris give us an orientation on the patio of the Inn overlooking the
harbor. Over the next six days we will stay two nights in each of three
cities -- Lunenburg, Wolfville and Annapolis-Royal. On the first day in
each city we will ride through the local area with time to sight see and
shop. On the second day, we will ride to the next city. One day Donna will
drive the van and provide water, snacks, moral support as needed and a
ride if the going gets too tough or too long. Chis will ride his bike and
provide personalized support to those that are bringing up the rear. The
next day, Chris will drive and Donna will ride with us. Every day we have
a basic ride and options to shorten the ride or make it longer.
He
is dressed in a gentleman's mourning attire of the 1800's. He estimates
the group at about 80 people this evening. Our host does an excellent job
of using tombstones as markers in time. He points out that our ideas about
death changed over time and so did the tombstones and their decorative
artwork. He uses tombstones to introduce characters from history that are
buried here including the mistress of the Duke of Wellington.
