Tab 8: Annapolis Royal

“Go go go! You have places to go and people to see!”
-The innkeeper, as we rush out of the King George Inn

Breakfast at the MacKinnon-Cann Inn did not disappoint. Fresh fruit, delicious home-baked muffins, omelets made to order, coffee, juice, good conversation with Neil and his partner and co-innkeeper Michael before setting off for Annapolis Royal along the Evangeline trail.

As usual, things were scenic.

We also passed excellent roads.

The area we were passing through is a very proudly Acadian area of Nova Scotia. We saw lots of churches,

Acadian flags and lots of zippy signs about just how great babies are. Just in case the message wasn’t 100% clear, the headstone-like sign in front of the big church really clarified things for us:

Annapolis Royal is very picturesque and is arguably Nova Scotia’s most historic town – it even bills itself, with some justification, as “Canada’s birthplace.” Canada’s first permanent settlement was established at Port Royal in 1605 by a group of settlers that included Samuel de Champlain, just across the river from present-day Annapolis Royal.

This is an inn down the street from us.

This inn was too expensive for us. We’re at the King George Inn, which is also quite nice.

Our inn was originally built as a sea captain’s mansion in 1868 and served a stint as a rectory before becoming an inn. Our room is very roomy although the bathroom is pretty small… and it has no heated floor or jacuzzi tub. At least “has internet” means “has wireless access that, while sporadic, is basically accessible”. Neil and the 1910 room, where art thous(s)?

The first place we went was the Historic Gardens Café, part of the Historic Gardens, where we had lunch under this giant tree among the flowers.

The 10 acre Historic Gardens are quite beautiful, with a mix of formal and informal gardens dating from varied epochs. Set on a gentle hill, the plantings overlook a nifty salt marsh (now dyked and farmed). The gardens include a geometric Victorian garden, a knot garden, a rock garden, and a colourful perennial border garden. The rose garden has over 2000 rose bushes.

Around about the Victorian garden, we went back to the Café and enjoyed some German plumcake (from the German bakery) and coffee before pressing on.

Next stop was the (giant waste of time) Annapolis Tidal Generating station. Apparently, the station takes advantage of the highest tides in the world to generate 30-35 GWH per year. We saw a ridiculous video, made in the 70’s, about how the giant 153 ft. turbine was transported from the Scarborough Bluffs to Annapolis on a giant flatbed truck. There was lots of talk in the video about how this was a grand experiment and soon the Bay of Fundy would be filled with similar generators!

So, that was in the 70’s and still, it’s just the one turbine.

Here I am in front of one of the many dull turbine displays.

Following the Turbine Disaster (which I note was not scheduled in the Tabs of Fun) we went to the Port Royal National Historic Site. As mentioned above, this was Canada’s first permanent settlement. Apparently, living conditions here were pretty good. The French-style farmhouse buildings were initially designed by Champlain to recreate the “good life” in France. This 1939 recreation of the 1604 settlement is quite convincing.

Then Camera died. RIP. No great loss as the next stop was Fort Anne National Historic Site. The French built the first fort here in 1643. Since then, dozens of buildings and fortifications have occupied the site. Since there are no pictures, I’ll describe it: Picture your lawn. Now picture it having a hill. Now’s you’ve been to Fort Anne, too!

After a brief rest at King George, it was off for dinner at the Garrison House. The Garrison House is part of the group of inns to which MacKinnon-Cann belongs. The food was very good, although I have to say the decor was not as nice. However, Marco's "East Coast jambalaya" and my lobster risotto with shittake mushrooms were both delicious.

Following dinner, we went on the Annapolis Royal graveyard tour, which was right across the street. The tour is led by a costumed guide (ours happened to be President of the Annapolis Royal Historical Society). Everyone gets a lantern and you traipse around the graveyard for about an hour.

Ordinarily, these sorts of things could go very, very badly. I'm thinking the Alexander Keith's brewery tour, here. However, the tour was absolutely excellent. Extremely informative, interesting, and funny (at the right parts), our guide gave us a superb overview of the city and the personal stories of a number of the people buried in the cemetery. Interestingly, we met his twin brother today at Port Royal and the brother actually gave us a brief introduction to that historical site. (We just thought everyone in Annapolis Royal looked and talked the same. Our bad.)

Apparently, the Annapolis Royal Historical Society is quite active, and it shows. He told us that recently, the Society made a famous local recipe, Moose Muff Soup (made from moose nose) and ate it in the same house in which the lady who invented it lived, with the same spoons that her family had owned.

That's dedication.

See you tomorrow in Pictou, after the whale watch.