Map of the Atlantic Provinces
Click here for a calendar view of my trip itinerary.
Click here for a calendar view of my trip itinerary.
2026 Sept 21:
Today is a travel day, as I have to head back to Halifax and return the rental car before noon.
It was a cool sunny start for the 278 km drive from Moncton to Halifax.
The picture is my last look at downtown Moncton as I left town, with my lobster buddy on the dashboard.
However, it ended up being a rainy drive for the last 200 km.
As the weather was a bit crappy, I just took it easy today, hanging out at the hostel
and having three awesome donairs from Kit Kat Pizza (special price for 3) for dinner.
2026 Sept 20:
It was a relatively cold morning and a cloudy day, and it didn't really get warmer than 15°C in the daytime,
so I was wearing long pants the whole day. Today, I'm doing a day trip to Fredericton,
the provincial capital of New Brunswick.
The 176 km drive to Fredericton was uneventful (as was the drive back to Moncton). Using GPS made things really easy,
though I feel somewhat disoriented as I don't know what direction I'm travelling many times.
I was at the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, but it was closed.
I visited the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. Surprisingly, it actually has pretty good collection of art.
The premier piece in it's collection is the large (4 meters tall) painting "Santiago el Grande", by Salvador Dali.
This painting didn't have too many surreal qualities to it, but the style was still that of Dali.
The museum featured many of the known Canadian artists such as Emily Carr.
I had planned on visiting the Fredericton Region Museum, but it appeared to be closed.
I was looking forward to seeing the premier piece of the museum,
the legendary 42 lb taxidermied "Coleman Frog".
2026 Sept 19:
It was a sunny, but noticeably cooler day today.
I visited the Marché Moncton Market in the morning.
It was busy and housed food vendors, farm produce, and local artisans.
I then headed over to see the Resurgo Museum.
This museum has two main sections: artefacts & photographs documenting Moncton's past,
and a transportation section documenting shipbuilding, railway and aviation in Moncton.
The reason the museum is called "Resurgo" is because it is the first motto for the city of Moncton,
and means "I rise again" in Latin.
Next, I visited the Musée acadien de l'Université de Moncton,
a museum that preserves and showcases the history, culture, and material heritage of the Acadian people.
Inspired by my visit to the Musée acadien, for lunch I had poutine râpée,
a dumpling made of potato on the outside with salted pork on the inside.
For dinner, I had chicken fricot, a hearty chicken and potato stew with a dough dumpling in it.
These are classic Acadian dishes.
In the late afternoon, I watched the tidal bore wave come up the Petitcodiac River.
2026 Sept 18:
It was another travel day, as I had only stayed one night in Cavendish.
My next destination was Moncton, New Brunswick.
It was a rainy windy morning for the drive across the Confederation Bridge.
The sun came out in the afternoon, so I visited the Magnetic Hill Zoo.
The zoo had a modest collection of animals, and is the largest in Atlantic Canada.
Something I had not seen before is the Watusi, a breed of cattle with really long horns;
this caught my eye at the zoo.
Magnetic Hill is an optical illusion where what appears to be hill,
but when you stop your car at the bottom of the "hill" and put the car in neutral,
the car rolls up the hill instead.
It doesn't look like much of a hill, but my car did roll "uphill".
This is a bit of a silly tourist trap.
2026 Sept 17:
It's a travel day. Today, I drove from Charlottetown to the town of Cavendish.
On the way there, I checked out the Covehead Lighthouse, located on the north shore of PEI.
I visited the Green Gables Heritage Place, which preserves the home that served
as inpiration for the home in the book "Anne of Green Gables" (AoGG).
This was a very popular spot for tourists, and a pilgrimmage destination for fans of AoGG.
This place and area had everything you wanted to know about AoGG,
including the location of the home the author L.M. Montgomery grew up in,
the trails around Green Gables, and the location of her grave in the Cavendish Cemetary.
I had a COWS ice cream at the location of the very first COWS Creamery location (in Cavendish).
COWS is the beloved PEI ice cream shop, famous for its world-class premium ice cream,
served in handmade waffle cones.
I got a 2 scoop Cowconut Cream Pie ice cream. Delicious!
2026 Sept 16:
Being the cultured person that I am, in the evening, I went to see the musical "Come From Away"
at the Confederation Centre for the Arts.
"Come From Away" tells the true story of 7,000 airline passengers grounded in the small town of Gander, Newfoundland,
following the September 11 attacks, and the extraordinary hospitality of the locals who welcomed them.
My seat was in the third row from the stage, near the middle, so I got a really close up view of the performers.
It was entertaining and the singing was really good. It's nice to see a Broadway musical set in Canada.
2026 Sept 16:
Today, I'll be spending time in Charlottetown, the capital of the province of Prince Edward Island.
I did a walk along the waterfront in the morning.
I then visited the Beaconsfield Historic House.
This house was built in 1877 for shipbuilder James Peake,
and is now a museum serving as a symbol of Victorian elegance.
There were a lot of rooms, and included accomodations for servants.
I visited the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in the afternoon.
For such a large building, the collection was relatively small
and was mostly "modern" in style.
2026 Sept 15:
It is a travel day, as I am moving from Halifax to Charlottetown PEI, using the rental car.
On the way, I made a stop at Burntcoat Head,
to walk the sea floor while the tide was low in the Bay of Fundy.
I then went to the Truro, to the Fundy Discovery Site, to watch the tidal bore wave arrive
and reverse the flow of the Salmon River. There was a good crowd there to watch the arrival of the wave.
It was actually somewhat interesting to see the wave arrive.
There was also a fellow in the river with a surfboard, attempting to surf the bore wave.
I was planning to take the ferry to Prince Edward Island, but because the tidal bore wave
arrived late in the afternoon, I would risk not getting to my Charlottetown accomodations in time
to check in if I took the ferry.
Thus, I drove over the Confederation Bridge instead to get on the island. It was a long bridge!
2026 Sept 14:
Today, I picked up a rental car for a one week rental (Hyundai Kona).
The public transport system in the Maritimes does not easily take one to many of the destinations,
so I decided that renting a car will make getting around easier.
The destinations today reflect that.
Right after picking up the car, I headed to Peggy's Cove.
There were a lot of tourists there, around the lighthouse and on the granite coastline.
However, there was a sense that there was something mystical about this place.
I then headed over to visit the fishing town of Lunenberg,
a UNESCO World Heritage Site of an example of a planned British colonial settlement in North America.
It is the home port of the Bluenose II.
I visited the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic.
It provided displays and information on Atlantic Canada's maritime heritage,
commercial fishing industry, and ocean ecology.
It also has a restaurant, at which I ate dinner at.
2026 Sept 13:
It was a slow start to the day, as I was still adjusting to the Atlantic time zone.
I visited the Halifax Citadel. It was somewhat interesting, as they had people dressed up
in the military garb of the day depicting daily life in the Citadel.
The firing of the noon cannon was loud!
Located near the Citadel was the Halifax Public Gardens.
After a short walk down the hill, I took a short break there among the flowers and trees.
Next was the tour of the Alexander Keith's brewery, located on the waterfront.
Established in 1820, it is one of the oldest operating breweries in North America.
It was an entertaining tour, as it included some live music and beer tasting.
As I'm not a regular consumer of alcoholic beverages, the 30 oz of beer samples
left me with a buzz.
To end the day, I stumbled over to the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21.
Documenting the arrival of immigrants between 1928 and 1970 during the time of ocean liners,
it was touching to read the stories and the risks the immigrants took to start a new life in Canada.
A rainstorm was on the way, so I got back to the hostel early and picked up a donair (for dinner)
from a place near the hostel called "Kit Kat Pizza".
The restaurant looked dodgy, but it was an awesome donair and decently priced.
2026 Sept 12:
Because of the lack of sleep during my travel day, I was pretty sleepy and got a pretty good nights sleep.
I think I've adjusted to the +4 hour time difference (Pacific to Atlantic time zone) already.
Today, I went to the Maritime Heritage Festival and checked out the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.
The replica of the schooner Bluenose, the Bluenose II, was docked and open for tours.
The weather was great, and the museum and ships on display (Bluenose II, CSS Acadia, and HMCS Sackville) were interesting.
It was a very good first day in Halifax for me..
2026 Sept 11:
It's been pretty sleepless so far. I got to YVR around 12:30 AM, hoping to get some sleep before
the 7:30 AM departure. I did not get any sleep in the terminal.
I was able to grab some naps on the YVR to YUL (Montreal) flight.
Aeroplan members get free WiFi on the flight, which was a nice bonus (I'm a member).
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