I dag kørte vi et stykke af the Lighthouse Route langs Nova Scotias sydkyst. Der har tidligere været en masse små fyrtårn langs kysten, men desværre er der ikke ret mange af dem tilbage, og det lykkedes os kun at finde nogle få stykker. Men det var en køn tur langs vandet, og turen bød også på færgesejllads, små spøjse museer og store kanelsnegle!
Undervejs lagde vi mærke til flere huse, som havde en slags platform med rækværk øverst på taget. “Det er vel bare en tagterrasse”, sagde Ole, men så kom jeg i tanke om, at jeg havde læst i Bill Brysons bog, ‘At Home’, at det hedder en ‘widow’s walk’ og er beregnet til, at bekymrede koner til søfolk kan gå derop og spejde efter skibe. De skulle iflg. Bryson være ret almindelige i New England. Hvis I zoomer ind på billedet af det blå hus, kan I se en ‘widow’s walk.
Ved La Have opdagede vi en lille kabelfærge og snuppede den tværs over fjorden. Ved Crescent Beach tog vi til gengæld en afstikker over dæmningen ud til de små La Have Islands og Bush Island. Som Iran se på billederne, var der en del havgus, og vandet var bestemt ikke varmt, så vi skulle ikke lige have en dukkert.
I stedet kiggede vi på et spøjst lille lokalt museum i en gammel tidligere kirke på Bush Island. Der blev også tid til et besøg med vinsmagning på en vingård (der er ret mange her på egnen), og så lykkedes det os endeligt at finde et fyrtårn, som vi kunne kravle op i.
Det fejrede vi så med kaffe og kanelsnegle i Liverpool, hvor vi også så endnu et lille sjovt lokalt museum i et hus, som havde tilhørt en ‘privateer’ (en pirat, som havde fået tilladelse til at bedrive pirateri mod fjendtlige skibe). På vejen hjem kørte vi forbi Vile Carding Mill, en gammel vandmølle, som drev et karteri (eller hvad sådan noget nu hedder på dansk), og Ole fik lov at forsøge sig med at karte (med håndkarter ganske vist). Når man som jeg er vokset op på tekstilegnen Herning, har han prøvet at karte maaange gange 😉
English version:
Today we drove part of the Lighthouse Route along Nova Scotia’s south shore. Earlier there were many small lighthouses along the coast, but unfortunately not very many of them have survived, and we only managed to find a few. But it was a pretty drive along the ocean, and the trip also included a ferry ride, little quaint museums and large cinnamon buns!
While we were driving we noticed several houses that had a sort of platform with a wooden railing at the top of the roof. ‘I guess it’s some sort of balcony’, said Ole, but then I realised that I had read about it in Bill Bryson’s book ‘At Home’: it’s called a ’widow’s walk’ and can be found on old houses that belonged to a captain or sailor. The worried wife of the sailor could use it to keep lookout for the return of her husband’s ship. According to Bryson they should be quite common in New England. If you zoom in on the picture of the blue house, you can see one.
At La Have we discovered a small cable ferry and took that across the fjord. At Crescent Beach we then took a detour across the causeway to the small La Have Islands and Bush Islands. As you can see in the pictures there was some sea fog, and the water was freezing, so we didn’t go for a swim.
Instead we visited a quaint little local museum in a former church on Bush Island. We also had time for a visit to a winery – there are quite a few here – and we finally succeeded in finding a lighthouse we could climb.
We celebrated that with coffee and cinnamon buns in Liverpool, where we also looked at another little quaint local museum in a house that had belonged to a privateer (which we agreed was a government approved pirate). On our way home we stopped at Vile Carding Mill, a water powered carding mill, where a friendly lady showed us the old machinery and let Ole try his hand at hand carding. I grew up in an area with old textile traditions and have tried that endless times 😉