THURSDAY, MAY 30th:

After an excellent night's sleep, during which we moved from Eastern Time to Atlantic Time and thus are only now four hours behind the time in  Britain, we woke up in New Brunswick near Campbellton. I had breakfast with Peter our tour leader and heard something of his interesting life story. Our route took us across the eastern part of the province through Bathurst, Miramichi, Rogersville, Moncton, Sackville, crossing into Nova Scotia a little after 2.00pm at Amherst. On then to Truro and finally Halifax about half an hour late at 5.50pm. Our lateness was exacerbated when the engines could not make manage to pull the Tain up a hill and lost traction. They had then to back back and then try it again with greater speed. I chatted en route with a 26 year old man from Jordan, Ontario, whose grandfather lives in Skipton, Yorkshire. Earlier in the month he had travelled outside Ontario for the first time, other than a trip to England. His train from Vancouver arrived in Toronto twelve hours late!

     After pulling into Halifax Station and having picked up our luggage, our minibus to the hotel was a stretched limousine. We all sat in Katherine round inside rather than in bus seats set out in rows. Our hotel was not very far away: the Four Points By Sheraton. Having settled in the room, we chatted on Skype with Robert's sister Betty and granddaughter Kiana in San Jose.

     Afterwards we walked down to the harbour side walkboard and found a place to eat at the Waterfront seafood restaurant. Also there was Ian from our group and we took his recommendation of seafood thermidor. It brought together shrimp, mussels, scallops, haddock, salmon  in a rich creamy sauce, all on a bed of pasta. It is very seldom that I can't manage to finish what is put before me, but this was one such occasion! It was excellent, but on the end over facing in quantity and richness! Our waiter was interesting. He is reading political science at St Mary's University here in Halifax, and has travelled quite widely playing the double bass in bands on cruise ships!

     And so we walked across the road and up the hill back to the hotel after another day of seeing beautiful scenery on our travels.