Truro - Pictou

I took advantage of the fact that I was able to sleep in today. And since my stages are getting shorter now, there are no long drives and I can enjoy my first official breakfast here at the hotel in Truro. What enjoying means, because it's already bizarre. Ellie, who is from Truro but wasn't employed here before COVID - so she doesn't know the difference - offers the guest individually packaged items. Fruit, a sweet pastry, a muffin with bacon & egg, everything is individually wrapped and handed over only by her. I call it a service buffet. The muffin tastes unusually good, the sweet apple pastry not so much, and I can barely cut the apple with the plastic knife. I regret not bringing my camping utensils from home. After emptying the lousy coffee and the artificial grape juice, I set off towards the coast to the north, towards the Sunrise Trail.

The trail is called that because you can see the sun rise in different places there if you are there early enough. Which I am not. Nevertheless, it is a beautiful experience - with a bad start. In Wallace, I slip on the slippery mud at the harbor and fall on the part that can suffer the least damage: my head. I could have used a broken arm. I vow to be more cautious and lament the loss of a pair of jeans and a T-shirt to the god of mud. Well, I wanted to go wash anyway.

The fall must have made me hungry, and after a short chat with the interestingly tattooed boxer owner Chantal, who took Otis for a walk, she recommends a restaurant a few meters away. McMahons, Home of the Lobster Burger. And that's what I order. Just my luck, there's no lobster available right now. Obviously disappointed, I ask about the 2nd choice, and get Fish & Chips as an answer. Well. I don't expect much, but the young lady looks nice and you're supposed to take advice. What luck. Because the typically English dish tastes better than in most shops in the motherland. Simply great. Thin batter, really crispy, juicy fish and the fries are homemade. And the place to eat it is also 'to die for'! Who needs lobster anyway?

The coast up here on the Northumberland Strait is truly stunning. Long, deserted sandy beaches alternate with picturesque lakes and wonderfully landscaped provincial parks. This is how you can spend a sunny day and time flies by. When I arrive relatively late at my hotel in Pictou, the smallest room so far awaits me. Standard in Germany (and the bed is still bigger) - here, it's a broom closet (compared to motels). Single rooms are very rare and due to the age of the house (80 years).

Today, I want to go to bed early, this town is really beautiful and I want to take a walk early. I can now lock my room door, after a 10-minute explanation from my landlady. I must have missed right at the beginning that she meant the inside knob and not the outside one. Not very clever. There's a couple from Königswinter in the hotel with me. 2 times German in 24 hours - it's getting threateningly big.