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My trip to Atlantic Canada March 2024 together with Alfons

Pictures are clickable

Last summer I happened to mention to Alfons that  a post I had on my bucket list before the final curtain was to visit New Brunswick and Atlantic Canada where my maternal grandmother had grown up before emigrating to Saskatchwan in 1913.

For my birthday in August, Alfons and Amanda presented me with the promise of a trip to the maritime provinces this March ... along with Alfons.
 

 

 

One of the  first things was to get our passports ready ... I had my Canadian passport but Alfons Canadian passport had expired (he ususally travels with his Swedish passport!!!)

Mireille dropped us off at the Gothenburg airport early in the morning and we started our journey  ... First to Brussels  .. then to Montreal and then the final fllight to Fredericton the capital city of  New Brunswick.

This was breakfast first morning at our little hotel on the edge of Fredericton.

The first days were very cold and stormy .. It shows on our rented car!! A nice little Honda Civic with Ontario licence plates.

The first project of our trip to explore my grandmas roots was to locate place where she must have studied to get her teachers certificate  Apparently spot in Fredericton this is not the same building as it was burned down in a fire but this is the same location where it was rebuilt .. and is still involved with the provinces higher education.

Same building from a differnt perspective. Grandma must have left her home in Hopewell as a teenager to move here to study to be a teacher.

This is a little historical village museum called the 'Kings Landing' that was built to portray life in New Brunswick about the same time as grandma grew up just before she left for Saskatchwan.  It was closed for the season but we stopped anyways and saw what we could see.


 

 This picture is clickable to enlarge enough to read it.

The weather these first few days!!!! Leaving for the Hartland bridge.


 

Stopped to see this tourist attraction in Hartland-- The  worlds longest covered bridge!!  391 meters long over the St John river- .

Apparently bridges like this were built with walls and a roof to protect the wooden construction they were built on from the weather. 

We had an invitation to visit these folks in Woodstock .. but they had to leave for New Zealand before we arrived. So we didn't get to see them ... but drove by for a picture of the place anyways. Sorry to miss them.

Next day we drove from New Brunswick to the province of  Prince Edward Island .. over the quite famous Confederation Bridge.  Apparently the longest bridge (13 km) in the world that is built to withstand frozen/iced water.

We can't think of PEI without thinking of the Anne books .. I have got a couple of books in a version for young folks to give to our grandchildren.  We went straight  off from the bridge to Avonlea just to be able to say that we had been there.

I of course wanted to see the birthplace of Canada. Canada separated from British rule here in Charlottetown PEI in1867.  Seeing that it was off season, we had this guide all to ourselves .. and it was very very interesting.

After several hundreds of years of gruesome wars, battles and constant displacement in these part of the world ... (world powers flexing their muscles to dominate everyone in their path)  ... the French ... the British --and the Americans.  Then when Canada was formed by peaceful negotiation -- there have been no armed internal conflicts since ....Something to be proud of!!

This is the original building where Canada was born ... it is being renovated so the confederation museum is temporarily in a building beside it.

From PEI we drove to Halifax Nova Scotia ...Lots of history here as well. This picture was from our hotel window looking out over Signal Hill .. an enormous fortress dug deep into the  hill that is all that can be seen from the harbour.

At exactly 12 noon every day since 1800 (except Christmas day) they have  fired one of these enormous canons from Signal Hill fortress in Halifax. 
 

Alfons and I visited the fortress and waited to hear and see the event .. (which was 10 minutes late the day we were there because they had trouble getting the gunpowder to ignite!!)  An enormous bang!!

One can't come to Nova Scotia without visiting the famous Peggys Cove.  It is just an hours drive south east of Halifax.

The area and coast is very much like the coast near us here in Sweden.

We stopped to see my sister Joans granddaughter Anna that lives and works here in Halifax.  Had a lovely little  coffee and visit in a coffee shop called the 'Mellow Mug'.

Just across the border into New Brunswick again we stopped at a very historic spot just outside Sackville ... An Acadian defence fort called Fort Beausejour (later renamed by the British to Fort Cumberland) -- the site of historical trauma that we have a picture  of my grandmother visiting approx 1912.

Found this pix amongst my moms pictures ... and it fortunatly had a description written on the picture itself. One of my goals in this trip was to try and find the  location as closely as I could and get a picture of myself there.

Interesting the thoughts that go through your head -- when you try to imagine the thoughts going through grandmas head 112 years earlier.  Little did she know the beauty and struggle of the life she had before her.

This is  supposed to be largest lobster in the world!! In a little historic Acadian town on the sea just outside Moncton called Shediac.  Apparently this village helped build Fort Beausejour nearly 275 years ago.

One of the things Mireille wanted out of our trip to Canada was Maple Syrap! --- So we found a maple syrap distributer on the road between Moncton and Hopewell Hill where my relatives lived.  We got talking to this lady in their store ... and found out that she grew up in little village we were on our way to .... So she knew more about our relatives than we did!

We found this quaint little B&B spot just outside Hopewell Hill .. Interesting folks that had bought this old boat bilding building and now were renting out rooms to folks like us.

At least 10 km off the beaten track ... but thanks to our  GPS we found it.

This lovely mans mother was a sister to my grandmas father ... and he surely added alot to filling in blanks in our knowledge of grandmas life growing up here.  He had just gone through a box of pictures that was sharing with his children .... He knew we were coming and had saved 15 pictures for Alfons and I.  Amongst other pictures were some taken in my parents home when he had visited Saskatchewan a long while back.

This is an old picture  my mom had of the home that her mother had grown up in in Hopewell Hill New Brunswick Canada.  The house is gone now but its former location was pointed out to us .... and we noticed several very similar houses still standing from that time.

This is another picture mom had of the store in Hopewell Hill that her grandfather owned.  His name was George Newcombe -- and the store bore his name. 

This is the same building .. is a post office now. Apparently it has always been a post office ... but that is the only offical service it offers now.  Although we did notice a few shelves for exchange of used books!  It has obviously been, and still is a central aspect of the little community.

We stopped in at the post office fairly early in the morning to talk to the lady that runs the post office now ... Got a very warm welcome when we explained why we were their. The lady turned out to be a distant connection to my grandmother (by marriage).  Two older men came in for their mail while we were there and both of them were interested in the account I had written about my grandmother ... and both remembered grandmas father. The fellow on the left had done carpentry work in the Hopkins home when he was a little boy!!

We stopped in at this little fishing village a few km from Hopewell Hill ón our way to St John .  Notice that at low tide the boats were all sitting on the ocean floor without water!!

This lady that I had met 45 years ago in Sweden very kindly offered to be our guide of the wonderful city of St John .. She spent a big part of a day showing us around and explaining the amazing history and architecture of this beautiful and important city in the maritimes..

This is one of the outlook spots in St John to see the phenomon of the 'reversing falls'.  For us not as radical as it sounds ... but the river does change its direction with the tide and the rapids spill the  other way!!

Elva pointed out this house to us with the turet on the roof they call the 'widows watch'.  Captens wives waiting to see the return of her husbands ship!  Something like the 'Seamans wife' statute in the Gothenburg harbour.

Having a guide means everything looking at the city and its street means little without an explanation..  A million thanks to Elva .. our good friend and quide.

A view over the St John harbour from our hotel window.  On advantage of traveling during low season is that hotel room prices are much more reasonable.  The Hilton here gave us one of the best deals of our trip .. and upgraded us to the 10th floor  with a view over the harbour! We spent 2 nights here.

Great to get to know these folks that live just outside St John ... We had never met them before and old knew of them via my brother Ken. But we got a dinner invitation, and it turned out that Blair had worked in my home town in Kindersley at one time .. and even knew my folks. Very hospitable folks with a lovely and beautiful home right on the shore of the bay of Fundy.
Beautiful view of the Bay of Fundy from Blair and Janice livingroom


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From Blar and Janice Fries we continued up the coast to a lovely and historical town called St Andrews. (right on the border to Maine USA and fairly close to the border to Quebec) This is a picture from our hotel window at low tid.  If you look closely you can see folks out in the evening picking clams.

¨This is picture from the same hotel balcony taken the next morning at high tide. In the background you can see 'Minister Island'  that the next pictures are about.


This is a low tide picture of the road along the sea bottom to a historical island just outside the town of St Andrews.  Taken from our car part way over to the island. 2 pictures down is at high tide!


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A clickable picture expalaining  the location and tides of this street/road to  Minister Island.

This a picture of the same road to Minister Island the next morning at high tide ... with 5 meters of water over the road surface.

Blair and Janice joined us in St Andrews the  next day and gave us a wonderful guided tour of the area including a stop on a wharf in the harbour were we got talking to this lobster fisherman out checking his boat this morning.

Had a very interesting tour of an art museum in St Andrews - The museum was closed for the season but Janice and Blair somehow had contact with the owner and arranged a private guided tour.... Very interesting but cameras were not allowed inside!! Wonderful to have friends like this !!!

After a stop at a lovely fish restaurant on the way back, Blair and Janice took us to a national park area close to their home overlooking the bay.  Then we continued back to Frederickton for our trip home the next day.


 

After 10 wonderful days in Atlantic Canada we returned our rented car at the airport and started our flight home to Sweden.

Got back to Sweden just in time for Alfons 30th birthday ... and for the unveiling of the news of a new Massey on the way!
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