2015-07-10 - Nova Scotia Off The Beaten Path - 2/25
When we arrived in Halifax, the highlight upon arriving in Halifax and of our first day for sure was meeting my new 365project friend Nova @novab and having with her wonderful hours touring through the city, chatting and enjoying the company of each other. It was a wonderful experience to be so welcomed by this nice lady, with a great and warm heart. See pictures a pic of our meeting here: http://365project.org/mona65/2015-plan-b-alb/2015-07-11 Thank you Nova for this friendly welcome.
The second highlight was kind of unexpected and a lucky coincidence. My husband and I are not in cruise ships or in doing cruises. Especially for me it would be a horror to be imprisoned on a ship, and not being able to walk off for miles, when my feet want to migrate and my soul wants to be alone, or an even worse case would be exploring a foreign coast and being not able to stay because the vessel moves further.
But following of the celebrations commemorating the 175th anniversary of the first Cunard vessel transatlantic crossing on July 10, 2015, a special sendoff took place in Halifax harbour. The Queen Mary 2 departed the Halifax Seaport at 8:00 p.m with an escort company including Theodore Tugboat, Tugboat Atlantic Oak, and HMCS Montreal continuing for Boston. And we were there in the right place, at the right time, without knowing anything about it.
Wow, I must confess I was quite impressed by this 345 meter long and 72 meter high, 157000 hp vessel, and the 2500 passengers waving at us (and Thousands of other people in the harbour) and also to see a water cannon tugboat in action.
It was an excellent opportunity to see the Queen Mary 2 in all her glory as the vessel pays tribute to the historic connection between Cunard and Halifax.
Are you sure that they weren't all there to welcome you to Halifax?
I must say I share your sentiments on cruising entirely Mona. All these similarities are becoming quite scary :-)
@terryliv *Smile* No worries, Terry! It's not scary that we both like spiders, Bryson, Denver, Australia, and don't like cruises, there will be a lot of differences to be found. ;-)
I was intrigued by your story of meeting @novab in Halifax on 10 July 2015 so had a look to see what you posted that day. I was so thrilled to see this photo, my husband and I were on the ship! It was such a wonderful day and the sailaway from Halifax was amazing, we loved it.
I agree with your thoughts on cruises but this rare opportunity to sail from Liverpool to New York via Halifax was too good to miss. I'd always wanted to follow in the footsteps of my ancestors who emigrated to the USA in the early 1900s. When Cunard announced this special sailing from Liverpool for the 175 anniversary, I decided to book. We spend a lot of time in the outdoors and not having been on a cruise before I was very unsure about being stuck on a ship for 6 days with no sight of land...how wrong I was! To my surprise, it felt like quite an adventure to be out in the middle of the ocean without another ship in sight. It was amazing to be alone on the top deck of this huge ship, watching the sunset or looking at whales and dolphins swimming alongside the ship, it was magical. We took warm jackets with us so we were out all the time, even when it was stormy in the middle of the ocean.
I was probably waving to you that day - thanks for giving us such a great send-off and, by the way, that's a fab photo :-)
@inthecloud5 How very cool that you were on this boat for Mona to capture one year ago. I was not there when you left port, but did view your ship from the Dartmouth side of the harbour earlier in the day with Mona and her hubby. I hope you enjoyed your brief visit to my city Christine. :)
@inthecloud5 This is so nice, and makes me smile. A Swiss girl, the first day in Halifax giving you on this huge cruise ship, a send-off. Something I never did/saw before, and probably never will see in future. I'm very glad that you had such a great time on the cruise and it seems that it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for you. Wonderful. As we did not expect seeing the Queen Mary 2 leaving that night, I have not had the right lense with me, and no tripod. But still I have one or the other picture. They are all a bit noisy due the high iso and acutally still not processed, as I had a rough year and no time so far. If you would care I could look over them, do some minor processing and I could send them to you in a good resolution, so you have it as additional pictures from your special trip. Just tell me if you would like to have them.
And thank you very much Christine, for sharing this with me and Nova @novab.
@mona65@novab we had a great time in Halifax, we came off the ship and went exploring, not on a tour, we just took our time and walked around, saw all the places we were interested in. Halifax is beautiful and we had such a good day. Mona, I'd love to have the photos, that's such a kind offer and it would be a lovely addition to the collection, the only photos that are missing are ones of the ship from the shore! So thrilled to have 'met' you both and to have found this connection to our amazing trip last year! My email is teecloud@me.com. Please don't go to any trouble with them, I'd just love to see them. Thank you so much.
@inthecloud5 Dear Christine, it makes me really happy to do that for you. Just give me some time. My husband has even taken a few small film clips with the camera. I will also cut those together for you, it will be a little impression, how great the mood was in the harbour. I will get in touch with you asap. Good night.
@inthecloud5 Hi Christine, did you find the pictures? I'm not sure if you e-mail is correct, as it is different from your adress here. Would you please check, if you received my mail?
I must say I share your sentiments on cruising entirely Mona. All these similarities are becoming quite scary :-)
I agree with your thoughts on cruises but this rare opportunity to sail from Liverpool to New York via Halifax was too good to miss. I'd always wanted to follow in the footsteps of my ancestors who emigrated to the USA in the early 1900s. When Cunard announced this special sailing from Liverpool for the 175 anniversary, I decided to book. We spend a lot of time in the outdoors and not having been on a cruise before I was very unsure about being stuck on a ship for 6 days with no sight of land...how wrong I was! To my surprise, it felt like quite an adventure to be out in the middle of the ocean without another ship in sight. It was amazing to be alone on the top deck of this huge ship, watching the sunset or looking at whales and dolphins swimming alongside the ship, it was magical. We took warm jackets with us so we were out all the time, even when it was stormy in the middle of the ocean.
I was probably waving to you that day - thanks for giving us such a great send-off and, by the way, that's a fab photo :-)
And thank you very much Christine, for sharing this with me and Nova @novab.
Nicely captured.