From Ottawa to Saint John

Wednesday, 13.07.2022

Our next destination is the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia in eastern Canada, 1,060 km away. From Ottawa, there is only one sensible way to get there, which, however, leads mostly through the US states of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, covering 830 km. We have divided the route into three stages.

The first stage leads from Ottawa to Burlington. We drive a long stretch on the Trans-Canada Highway and then turn off to Cornwall. The town is located on the Saint Lawrence River, in the middle of the river is a large island, Cornwall Island. The second bridge, Seaway International Bridge, is impressively high, and the border to the USA runs underneath it. Then comes the US Customs and Border Protection. As we mentioned before, we have great respect for the border officers of the US agency. We wait patiently at the line until it's our turn. The officer asks us three questions: how are we, where are we from, and where are we going. Then he quickly operates the computer, returns our passports, and wishes us a nice day. The whole process takes 2 minutes, and we are back in the States and quite speechless.

We drive to Lake Champlain, the sixth largest lake in the United States with an area of 490 square miles, which is about 2.5 times the size of Lake Constance. The lake contains 80 islands, and the larger ones are connected by bridges. We have time, so we meander around the larger islands. We stop at a bay with a small harbor. We observe a man in his 40s with a tanned body, clearly someone who spends a lot of time at the gym, launching his motorboat. His car, an oversized SUV with a modified exhaust, is quite loud. After parking the car and trailer, he starts the boat. It doesn't start easily, it takes four tries, but then hell breaks loose, an 8-cylinder engine without any sound insulation. He races across the water until he is out of sight, but we can still hear him.

In the afternoon, we reach our hotel in Burlington. After checking in, we explore the city. The old town is very beautiful, and there is even a pedestrian zone. The harbor is always an interesting destination for us. Now we head back to the old town. We stop at a small restaurant and treat ourselves to a beer and some nachos. The waitress is very excited when she finds out that we are from Germany. She really wants to know where in Germany. Then she tells us that she studied for a semester in Göttingen. Isn't the world sometimes so small?

Thursday, 14.07.2022

Our drive today takes us on many small roads and partly through the White Mountain National Forest for over 350 km to Augusta, a small town with about 18,000 inhabitants in the state of Maine. The route is partly very boring, with small American towns that are threatened with extinction. The houses are abandoned and/or collapsed. Since there is a lot of agriculture here, there are also large farms, some of which look quite good. We make a short stop at the Androscoggin River. In the afternoon, we reach our hotel in Augusta. We just manage to unload the suitcases and check in before a massive thunderstorm with a lot of rain starts. Now it's time for a break with coffee and cookies. In the evening, we take a look at the city center. Augusta is the capital of the state of Maine and has a huge government building. The houses in the city are partly very old and beautifully restored. We take a walk through the Waterfront Park and then return to the hotel.

Friday, 15.07.2022

We are still on our way to Nova Scotia. Today we will cross the border into Canada again. Last night, we registered in the ArriveCan app. The first stage of our drive takes us on the highway, and we make good progress here, as we are allowed to drive up to 110 km/h. Then we turn off and drive on smaller roads until we reach St. Stephen, where we are registered for the border crossing into Canada. There is a small queue at the border. This time we are asked if we have any weapons or if we have goods that we want to sell in Canada. Then he wishes us a safe journey. Now it's only 100 km to our hotel in St. John. After checking in, we go to the ferry port and book a ticket for the crossing from St. John to Digby for the next day. The city center is quickly visited, and we want to stop at a shopping mall to have a coffee. However, there are hardly any shops or restaurants left in the mall, which is very sad. A huge building, still quite new, and not being used. So we head to the harbor. Here we stop at a beer garden. During our walk afterwards, we discover a small special feature. Since the harbor is a large construction site, there is a container village where many small shops are located. However, it is already after 6:00 pm and everything is closed. But still worth seeing.

Saint John is located on the Bay of Fundy, where the tidal range between low tide and high tide is 13 m at normal high water, the highest in the world. This pushes the Saint John River back from the sea at high tide. There is a waterfall at one point that reverses twice a day, the Reversing Falls, which we will visit on the way back to the hotel. Oh yes, one more small note from the editor. We now also have a favorite word, 'awsome' (fantastic), which we hear very often every day when we talk to people here.