A Week in Nova Scotia - Part 7 - Exploring Downtown Halifax

Of our 7 full days in Nova Scotia we spent 5 of them exploring around the city of Halifax.  I've posted separately about the Citadel, the Maritime Museum, and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, as well as some shots in the introductory post from our favorite Irish pub.  We also visited the Halifax Public Gardens, the Natural History Museum, the new Halifax Central Library, took part in a "ghost tour", and often just went out walking around town, stopping in to check out whatever looked interesting.

The Halifax Public Garden was formally established in 1867, and is considered to be one of the finest surviving examples of a Victorian Garden in North America.  We were there a bit early in the season, so there were still a few bare spots, but even with that it was quite a nice place to spend some time in the sun.

Not too far from the Public Garden is the new Halifax Central Library, which just opened to the public on December 13, 2014.  The five-story skylighted interior atrium is criss-crossed with stairways connecting the floors.  Not everyone may think of a library as a tourist destination, but this certainly is worth a stop.

There is a cafe on the ground floor, as well as one on the top floor, which includes a roof-top deck.  The Pavia Gallery Espresso Bar not only has great espresso and cappuccino, but we also had a couple of very good grilled sandwiches and dessert at the top floor location.  The view  from the rooftop deck was kind of dull, being mid-day, so I got a shot of the architecture instead.

Later, I even found a tiger, in the form of a stained glass window in an old building that is now a combination coffee bar and bookstore, the Trident Booksellers and Cafe on Hollis Street.  Very good espresso, by the way.

St. Paul's Anglican Church, established in 1749, is the first Anglican cathedral built outside of England, and is the oldest building in Halifax.

When the Halifax Explosion took place in 1917 just about every window in Halifax was shattered.  The pane of glass in the upper right quadrant of the window below has been the subject of local legend ever since.  After the explosion the hole in this particular pane of glass was thought to resemble the silhouette of a man.  There are a few different stories as to why, and as to who it might be, ranging from a church deacon from 1750 to an organist in the church at the time of the explosion or even a sailor on one of the ships involved (in the case of the last two, the story is that the force of the explosion sent that person's head flying through the window).  Whatever it is, the "ghost window" has supposedly been replaced several times since then, and the silhouette always seems to come back.  We could see it clearly both from inside and outside the church.  

Lots of things to see along the waterfront walkway.

Lots of interesting old buildings to see around town.  Many of them have interesting stories, some of which are probably true.

One evening we did a "Ghost Walk" walking tour of downtown with Andy Smith of Tattle Tours.  It was very entertaining, and Andy did a great job of keeping everyone's attention.

It was raining pretty hard on Friday so we decided to find something indoors to do, and came upon the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History.  Heather took the opportunity to design a dinosaur.

We spent some time one rainy morning in Point Pleasant Park.

This tower was completed in 1799.

All this sightseeing made us hungry.

After eating the risotto at the Bicycle Thief, I got up to wash the smell of crab legs off my fingers, and when I came back to the table Heather mentioned something about "leaving her unsupervised with the dessert menu".

Click here to see more images from around downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia during our week there in May of 2015.

If you're reading this Part 7 post first, continue scrolling down the page and then use the Older Posts button towards the bottom right side to see rest of the story of our trip to Nova Scotia. If you're here at the end, thanks for looking.