My trip down Smokey Mountain involved a ferry ride at
Englishtown across St. Ann Bay. It cost
$7.00 each way, but cut mileage off the drive.
It took me 2 ½ hrs to drive 63 miles.
The speed limit on the mountain is 20 mph.
My first stop was in Sydney at the Saint Patrick’s
Museum. St. Patrick’s is the oldest
Roman Catholic church on Cape Breton island.
Sydney was settled by colonists from New York and New
Hampshire and became Nova Scotia’s third largest city in 1785; it was known as
Spanish Bay until renamed in honor of Lord Sydney.
And then I drove to the Fortress of Louisbourg. FYI: The fortifications of a fortress
enclose a town, while those of a fort do not - they only house military.
This fortress is a partial reconstruction of the original; the
largest historical reconstruction in North America. The reconstruction began in the 1960s,
rebuilding one quarter of the original French town and fortifications. Louisbourg was named for Louis XIV. I paid for a tour and found the history very
interesting.
Besides the buildings (and furnishings, which have been
restored to as close as the original as possible … even getting the materials
from the same regions as the original), they have period dressed volunteers to
talk to you and answer questions. There
is a schedule of activities, including (but not limited to) “Fire a Cannon,”
Military Pageantry, Life of a Soldier, learning the dances of the day/classes,
the rum of the fortress, and a “Public Punishment.”
The public punishment activity was entertaining. In one of the discussions with the costumed
volunteers in one of the buildings, she was showing us how to make lace and the
latch work embroidery of the day, and explaining that according to French law,
a widow(er) inherits the spouse’s property (unlike English law of the day), and
there were many plants in the area that were poisonous …. Hint, hint. Anyway, the woman in the neck collar in the
public punishment was accused of stealing a bottle of wine. When questioned as to why, she explained that
she was celebrating the death of her husband; he died of “mysterious
circumstances.” He was her third husband
to pass away; he did not work – a very poor musician, etc. ….. it was all very
entertaining. The punishment decided by
the crowd was that she read stories to the children.
You can definitely spend the entire day, but I needed to
move on. I had planned to hit a couple
more places before they closed (I wish museums stayed opened later!), but I was
too late for the Alexander Bell Museum (another day).
Interesting note – the solid white flag was a show that
there was royalty or a monarch present; after the surrender of France to
England at Louisbourg, it became known as the flag of surrender. The English
have a wicked sense of humor.
I had a “Mountie” behind me on the way to the Fortress. Unfortunately, he was driving a white Crown
Vic, not riding a horse and wearing a broad-rim brown hat and red coat. They are the police force for most of Quebec,
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The
ranger said they have their own metro police department in Glace Bay, but call
in the Mounties for any serious crime.
I did visit the Marconi National Historic Site in Glace Bay,
but missed the Miner’s Museum.
I had a nice talk with the ranger at the Marconi Museum. I was joking about how bad the Canadian
drivers are and some of the things I had seen them do, and that now I know
where all the bad drivers in the states come from …. He laughed and agreed that
they are really bad and they joke about it themselves. In fact, there is a TV show here showing
Canada’s worst drivers and his friend was on a segment.
On his recommendation, I had a nice Southwestern Wrap at local restaurant for dinner. They have
been featured on “Where to Eat in Canada” and the food was good. They are known for their carrot cake, but
didn’t have any left for me to sample.
They sell out early every day.
No comments:
Post a Comment