Road Trip, Day 9: Lunenburg

DAY NINE: AT A GLANCE
Starting Point: Kemptville, Nova Scotia
End Point: Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
Starting mileage: 189,593
Ending mileage: 189, 715
Daily total (miles): 122
Trip total (miles): 1420

This morning would take us from from Trout Point Lodge in Kemptville to Lunenburg, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the cutest postcard-perfect towns we’ve visited thus far. Nova Scotia’s tourism site lists Lunenburg as one of the province’s top 25 attractions—and rightly so! Brightly colored homes and building from the 18th and 19th centuries line the streets and waterfront. Honestly, photos don’t do it justice—and trust me, I tried! I’ll leave those shots to the pros, for sure.

We arrived in Lunenburg shortly after noon/12:30, and, after circling the block a few times to find parking, we snagged a spot, pumped the meter, and made our way through the cute streets to our hotel, Smuggler’s Cove Inn right downtown. The rooms were located over the street-level shops of Montague Street, and we couldn’t have asked for a better and more convenient location (though everything in town is pretty convenient). Sidenote: One of the main reasons I chose this location was because it had a washer/dryer onsite, and I knew we’d need to do laundry nearing the halfway point of the trip. Unfortunately, the staff told us that someone had broken the washer, and while the dryer was working, we’d have no luck with a washer. UGH. So much for that plan…

G and I decided to grab a snack on the waterfront, at The Old Fish Factory, located within the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic. Over iced teas and the “lobster dip trio” (good, not great), we decided on a plan for the day: I would spend a few hours taking photos and touring the museum, which G didn’t really care much about seeing, and he would go to the laundromat to do laundry (yes, I know, I’m a very lucky girl!). I paid my admission fee ($11, with a AAA discount) and began. There were some incredible exhibits, including an aquarium on the first level, several artifacts from the town’s fishing history, and an entire exhibit on Bluenose, a celebrated racing schooner (and fishing ship) built in 1921 in Lunenburg. Fun fact: it’s featured on the Canadian dime and on the Nova Scotia license plate. Among the many Bluenose artifacts are its bell and several championship trophy cups. I didn’t really know anything about the schooner, so I found the exhibit (and the entire museum, really) very interesting—I even learned that “bluenose” was a nickname for Nova Scotians dating back to the late 18th century.

Also included in the price of admission is the opportunity to board and tour two vessels, Cape Sable and Theresa E. Connor. According to the museum, the Theresa E. Connor, built in Lunenburg and Canada’s oldest saltbank schooner is the “flagship” of the museum.

The Theresa E. Connor could sleep 28, but those must have been tight quarters, for sure!

Cape Sable (1962) is a steel-hulled side trawler built in Holland. According to the museum’s site:

Unlike fishing schooners, which could be away from home for a month or more at a time, an average trip aboard Cape Sable lasted eight to twelve days. Total fishing capacity in the hold was 300,000 pounds of fish.

Lunenburg is a historic seafaring town, and fishing towns usually have histories of great losses. In both the museum and in town, there are reminders of and tributes to the vessels and sailors lost at sea. More than 600 names are etched in those memorials, many of the last names repeated, and many lost during the August gales of 1926 and 1927. The names of the dead go back centuries—but also only a few years—sobering reminders of the dangers of lives spent on the sea.

By the time G finished laundry, I had finished in the museum and taking photographs around the waterfront and side streets. I browsed a few bookstores, enjoyed a coffee from the cool No. 9 coffee bar, and couldn’t resist buying a T-shirt that seemed a perfect fit for this road trip (yup, another pun. Totally intended). Soon, we were ready for dinner. We had scoped out places earlier in the day (and I had scoured Trip Advisor reviews in the car), and we decided on the Salt Shaker Deli—it was a great choice. We ordered the housemade dips and pita, two lobster rolls and potato wedges, and two root beers brewed by Halifax’s Propeller Brewing Co. Everything was delicious, and we’d highly recommend a stop if you’re ever in town!

The highlight of our visit was perhaps our evening activity: the Haunted Lunenburg Walking Tour. While it might sound super touristy, our server at the Old Fish Factory had mentioned it, and I had seen it on Trip Advisor—we took a chance, made reservations for that night’s tour ($25CAD/pp), and crossed our fingers that it would be a good choice. And it SO was!! Our tour guide, Liz, was fantastic, and our group—about 20 in all—was a good mix of folks from all over Canada (we were the only ones from the US). As we walked around Lunenburg as dusk fell, Liz regaled us with stories of Lunenburg’s spirits and lore. We stopped at various old homes, the town’s grandstand, and the town’s main cemetery. One highlight was visiting St. John’s Anglican Church, a national historic site and the second oldest Anglican church in Canada. On Halloween night 2001, fire ravaged the church, and it suffered devastating damage; four years and millions of dollars later, the church was restored. Fun fact: It was also the church featured in Simon Birch, the movie that was LOOSELY based on my all-time favorite book, A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.

St. John’s Anglican Church, the second oldest Anglican church in Canada and site of devastating 2001 fire.

Lunenburg is one of those historic towns that begs for the use of words like “cute,” “charming,” and “quaint,” and “picturesque”—and it lives up to each one. I’ll be honest: I saw the photos in guidebooks and online and wondered if the town would really look that way or if those images were just due to camera and editing skills. You know what? Lunenburg is the real deal—it’s a town that really is picture-perfect. But it’s also a town filled with rich culture and history…and even a few ghosts.