Queen Mary 2: Halifax Port

NYC/Queen Mary 2/Oxford/Paris 2015 Travel Highlight Blog
Queen Mary 2: Halifax Port
July 16, 2015

The Queen Mary 2 cruise only ports at one location on the journey from New York City to Southampton, England -- in sunny Halifax, Nova Scotia! This was quite perfect as I'd always wanted to go visit Halifax, and as a Canadian it's a bit odd I'd never been there before. This was a fun short visit to Halifax and we went "out and about" to go explore and stretch our legs :)

Another cruiseliner in the bay

Oh, Canada!

Arret!!

This random funny boat

Halifax downtown was surprisingly small -- I wasn't sure how much time we'd have to truly explore it all, but soon realize it was only a few short streets long. It was easy to see all of the downtown quickly and we took some photos and enjoyed the wandering. Tim Hortons was necessary, of course, but much funnier was how suuuper into the McLobster this place seemed to be -- we walked past a McDonald's and there were multiple advertisements for it. Lobster and seafood must be big here, but the McLobster!? That was surprising.

Thank goodness it's not Pacific Lobster?!

It's McLobster season!

Up the hill we went to the fancy public library, where we went up to the roof for a great view of the city and of our HUGE boat in the harbour.

Check out our Queen Mary 2 in the harbour!

We went to a nice park and sat on a good bench there, just enjoying the sunshine.

We went for a nice hike allll the way to the other side of downtown, checking out a street with some massive houses on it and a fun little park with a pond on the other end. Was nice to get lots of fresh air and a nice long walk in.

Now that's "Off-Colour" with a "u", please

We stopped at a coffee shop on the way back and were reading a local activity newspaper called "The Coast", looking for a special event. It turned out they had a special Halifax Food Truck Party run by the magazine -- it just so turned out that this Food Truck event was happening RIGHT in the afternoon on the only day we were in town. What a lucky break! We walked back to the other side of town to the Museum of Natural History parking lot and waited for the food truck area to open, and then managed to get a whole bunch of great local food. So amazing.

A little grassy area where we relaxed in the shade while waiting for the Food Truck Party to start

Got a pretty solid Fish Taco here

"Halifax Press" is a grilled cheese food truck, this was great. I got the "Classic Press": "A perfect blend of three Nova Scotia cheeses melted between two slices of garlic toasted sourdough from Julieo's Bakery. Comes with a zesty dill pickle." It was glorious!!! Also you had me at "three Nova Scotia cheeses".

This doughnut place was crazy, you get a few small doughnuts with crazy complicated toppings.

These doughnuts were very messy.

Here's my Halifax Press grilled cheese

Our final stop was Garrison Brewing, where we got to try some specials like the Raspberry Wheat and the Trop Yard Radler which was a perfect shandy-style beverage for a warm day.

We wandered by a wine shop and grabbed a few local things to take onto the boat to share over the next few days.

After lots of tasty local food, some Tim Hortons, and several hours of walking, we were tired and very much ready to board the boar again, toast our wine together, and head off towards England.

This was a great stop and also a fun way to experience Halifax in a concise and easy way. The food truck party was SUCH a win and prime local experience, I was so pleased we were able to go to that. And sitting in the park on such a nice warm day was awesome, too.

Next stop... many nights later in England! So we bid farewell to the land and the next time we'd see any land at all, it would be the coast of England!