Roadtrip to Peggy's Cove

The first days of my time in Halifax I spent at the hostel. There I met Kati (I used to be really good at remembering names :D), also German and on a trip to Canada for a few months. She asked me if I wanted to join her on a two-day road trip to Peggy's Cove, and after a short period of consideration (a question of money), I agreed, as it was also on my list of destinations, but for later.

So one morning in early June, we set off towards Peggy's Cove. Or at least that was the plan. We stood at the Hertz car rental station at ten o'clock and waited. And waited ... and waited. Since Kati rented the car and didn't have a Canadian number or a smartphone, we were unreachable. Calling the number posted at the station only got us into a central waiting loop. After half an hour, she went with her tablet to a nearby building with Wi-Fi and checked her emails. Lo and behold, Hertz had sent an email saying that the station was unfortunately not staffed today, and should they send us a car that would take us to the nearest station? Seriously, if I know an appointment is scheduled and the customers don't respond to such an email, I assume they're waiting there and send a car right at the agreed time!!! But no, not here. Kati replied to the email, but when no car had arrived by almost eleven, we sent another email, stating that we had to go back to the hostel and they should send the car there. We had to leave the hostel at eleven o'clock, so we had no choice but to go back there. But even there, no car arrived, so at half past eleven, we headed to the other rental station. When we arrived there, we found out that the lady there was working alone today because her colleague had called in sick. So the question of whether she should send us a car was pure fantasy, because she could never leave the station alone, there was too much going on. So instead of leaving Halifax at ten, we didn't leave until just after half past twelve. In retrospect, however, this turned out to be lucky for us, as the car is always rented out on a 24-hour basis.

Our plan was actually to drive to Peggy's Cove first. But since the weather was unfortunately very rainy that day, we decided to save this destination for the return trip and go to Lunenburg first. As the name suggests, Lunenburg has a German history. The small town is Canada's oldest German settlement and has a long tradition of fishing and shipbuilding. The town center with its idyllic colorful wooden houses has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995. The town center is really pretty, but since the wind was blowing the rain around, our city walk was rather short. However, we stopped at a cute little café where there was even a wide selection of cakes. It should be mentioned that unlike in Germany, cafes in Canada hardly ever offer cakes. Usually, there are cookies or small dry pastries, sometimes brownies, but savory things are the most common. Sweet cakes and pastries are very rare here.

From Lunenburg, we drove back to a small village called 'Mahone Bay'. We had already passed through here on the way, and it looked very cute. So since the rain had subsided a bit, we decided to make another stop here. Mahone Bay is actually really beautiful and could be a nice tourist attraction with its many wooden houses, but unfortunately, the place is dead. Most of the shops in the 'downtown' were empty and the houses were falling into disrepair. Very sad!

For the night, we booked an Airbnb. During my year here, I have experienced very different Airbnbs. In some houses, all the rooms are rented out by real estate agents, in some, you live in the guest room and share the house with the residents. But there is always a certain professional distance in terms of hospitality. The hostess of this Airbnb saw it differently. Since breakfast was included, she asked us on the first evening when we wanted to have breakfast, and we said around nine o'clock. The next morning at half past eight, she knocked on our door shouting 'wake up, breakfast is ready'. And then she stuck her head in the door and said 'now I'm like your mother waking you up'. It's nice and all if she wakes up her own children like that, but we paid good money for the room and our privacy, that's just not acceptable. I already hated it when my mother woke me up!

After breakfast, we headed to Kejimkujik National Park (I still can't pronounce it to this day). The sun still wasn't shining, but at least it had stopped raining. The national park is located by the water, so after half an hour, we arrived at the beach. There was a trail along the coast, so we could take a walk by the sea. Unfortunately, the seals that often hang out at this beach were only briefly seen in the water due to the weather. In the evening, we went to eat and to the cinema in the nearby town.

The next morning, we had to get up early because we had to return the car to Halifax by half past twelve and wanted to visit Peggy's Cove beforehand. On the way, we stopped just before Peggy's Cove at a memorial site for the crash of the Swissair plane in 1998. From there, you could already see the lighthouse.
The lighthouse of Peggy's Cove is one of the most photographed motifs in Nova Scotia. And the weather was good to us again on this day, the sun was shining from the sky. Taking a photo just of the lighthouse is unfortunately impossible, as there are simply too many tourists there. But Peggy's Cove is still worth a visit, the collection of colorful fishing huts is really cute and reminded me of Scandinavia.

The journey back to the rental station took longer than expected due to a traffic jam in Downtown Halifax (it's often completely congested due to container traffic) and so we were back later than planned. But the woman remembered us, so we didn't have to pay any additional fees :)