Lunenburg, hvor vi bor for tiden, er en rigtig hyggelig lille by med mange meget farverige træhuse, hvoraf en del har ‘The Lunenburg bump’ – en karnap på første sal, som hænger ud over huset. Byen har – som mange andre nordamerikanske byer – sine gader i et fint gittermønster – og gaderne er endnu stejlere end i San Francisco! Byen er oprindeligt grundlagt af acadierne (franske katolikker), men da Storbritannien inviterede bl.a. tyske protestanter til at slå sig ned her, fik den navnet Lunenburg. I dag er den på UNESCO’s verdensarvsliste.
Vi brugte formiddagen på at udforske byen til fods op og ned af bakkerne. Der var byfest, bl.a. med loppemarked og musik i gaderne. Efter en hurtig ostemad til frokost hentede vi bilen og kørte ud til det lille fiskerleje, Blue Rocks, længere ude på den tange, som Lunenburg ligger på. Her var kun få turister og meget fredeligt og stille. Hvor vejen ender, ligger der en lillebitte cafebutik, hvor vi køber souvenir, is og kaffe, som vi indtog med udsigt over vandet. Vi fortsatte ad en anden vej så langt, vi kunne komme til Stonehurst lejet, som også var meget malerisk. Landskabet her mindede en hel del om den svenske skærgård komplet med malede træhuse.
Tilbage i Lunenburg gik vi på indkøb i det lokale supermarked (og sukker lidt over den manglende nordamerikanske brødkultur – man kan få blødt brød – eller blødt brød med nogle symbolske kerner), parkerer bilen og spadserer ned til det lokale curlingcenter, hvor der er food truck festival på parkeringspladsen. Der er selvfølgelig boder med de sædvanlige burgere og hotdogs samt med den canadiske specialitet, ‘poutine’, som er pommesfritter med ost og tyk brun sovs (og nej, dem har vi ikke vovet os ud i endnu), men vi vælger en portion koreanske marinerede okseribben skåret i små skiver og serveret med ris og dumplings. Meget lækkert! Til dessert deler vi en ‘beaver tail’ – endnu en lokal specialitet, en slags pandekage, som er friturestegt og drysset med sukker og kanel.
English version:
At the moment we’re staying in Lunenburg, which is a really nice little town with many very colourful houses. Some of them have the ‘Lunenburg bump’ – a bay window on the first floor of the house. The town is laid out in a grid like many other north American towns and cities, and the streets are even steeper than in San Francisco! The town was founded by Acadians (French Catholics), but when the British took over the town they invited German Protestants to settle here and named it Lunenburg. Today it’s on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
We spent the morning exploring the town by foot up and down the hills. There was some kind of festival going on with flea market and music in the streets. After a quick sandwich for lunch we drove out to the small fishing village, Blue Rocks, further out on the peninsula where Lunenburg is situated. It was very nice and quiet here and only a few tourists. Where the road ended there was a tiny general store where we bought souvenirs, ice cream and coffee which we drank in front of the store with a view over the tiny harbour. We continued along another road, as far as we could, to the Stonehurst fishing village which is also very idyllic. The landscape here reminded us a lot of the Swedish coast with lots of rocks and painted wooden houses.
Back in Lunenburg we went shopping in the local supermarket (and complained a little about the North American lack of bread culture – you can have soft white bread or soft brown bread or soft bread with a symbolic sprinkling of whole grains), parked our car and walked to the local curling centre where there was a food truck festival in the parking lot. There were trucks with the usual fare of burgers and hotdogs, with Canadian specialties such as ‘poutine’ – french fries with cheese and thick gravy (and no, we haven’t worked up the courage to try that yet), but we ended up choosing some Korean marinated beef ribs with rice and dumplings, which were really good. For dessert we had a ‘beaver tail’ – another local specialty – a sort of deep fried pancake with cinnamon and sugar. Not bad at all!