Day 40, August 5, 2007

Day 40, Sunday, August 5, 2007.
Everyone was up early and showered by 8:00 am. The campsite we are staying in, Point of View Suite and RV Park in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, has a $3.99 breakfast starting at 8:00 am. We were over there by 8:30 had our breakfast and were heading over to catch the bus to Fortress Louisbourg. The bus runs every 15 minutes from the visitor centre to the Fortress, starting at 9:00 am and we wanted to catch the first bus and we did. Just as a point of interest it is Fortress Louisbourg and not Fort Louisbourg. A Fort is strictly military where a Fortress is military and a town or city. The restoration of the Fortress began in the late 1930’s. A lot of the coal mines were being shut down and the miners out of jobs. So $35,000,000 grant was made for the restoration of Fortress Louisbourg. The miners were trained to do the work on the restoration in the skill that would have been used at the time the Fortress was built in the early 1700’s. When the restoration began there was nothing but rubble left. Most of the stone had been taken away to build churches and other buildings as far away as Halifax and I think they mentioned Montreal. We were in the Fortress by 9:30 am and explored until 11:00 am when the tour started. The tour guide we had was very knowledgeable in the life of the Fortress in the 1700’s and the history that went with the building. He knew the owner’s and little thing that went on in there lives at that time. We had lunch in the poor peoples restaurant. They have 3 classes of restaurants, low class where you are given a spoon and a pewter bowl, the second class where you have a fork and spoon and better dishes. Finally the upper class where you receive a spoon, fork, and a knife. We ate soup, bread and I had the fish of the day. But a very simple meal. A comment was asked why no knives and apparently in the 1700’s most of the low and second class people would have carried their own knives. One of the best Fortress displays we have seen. We enjoyed Fort Henry but it was military where with Louisbourg it also had the town life in it. We did a lot of walking during the day and then didn’t see all the buildings. All were well done and everyone was in period dress. This is another Parks Canada asset. We didn’t leave until almost 5:00 pm. The Fortress closes at 5:30. We spent almost 8 hours at the Fortress plus had to walk back to the motor home which was another 1/2 to 1 mile. We were tired. I bought a pair of Croc shoes and wore them all day and no sore feet or legs, I am quite impressed with them. About 12:00 midnight we had a good thunder storm and rain. Not a heavy rain but it went on for 30-60 minutes. Little bit of sprinkle in the morning. We used umbrellas to walk to the bus but didn’t need them the rest of the day. It cost us just over $40.00 dollars for the day plus our meal which was reasonably priced. We had supper at the campsite restaurant which was a Buffet for $19.00 each. They had mussels, halibut, fish chowder, and a light salad bar and desert which I didn’t think was too bad and only 200 feet from the campsite. Well that pretty well sums up the day. A good day but tiring. We will turn toward home tomorrow. We wanted to see more of Nova Scotia but just not enough time, so that will have to be another time plus we would like to see Newfoundland. We have a number of places to visit on the way home too, so it’s not like it is a mad dash but we are going to have to have longer days than when we started off. Well that’s it for today, good night all.