Wednesday, September 4, 2004, 9 whole miles: Today we packed up the car and the house and said goodbye to Parrsboro. We’d been told by multiple people that Halifax wasn’t to be missed, so we decided to go for a couple of days and head home from there.
The drive took us through Parrsboro once more, and then along the same route we bicycled on to Truro a little over a week ago. From Truro, it was all highways to the Urban Nest in Dartmouth NS where we had reservations. A short 7 km from Halifax, we opted for being a little out-of-town and while we did save some $, the Urban Nest was a bit sketchy at best. It was obviously an experiment in remote management, meaning no lobby, no check-in desk, just a link and a code on your phone, and a text number for emergencies. The room was around the back of what seemed to be the main building, and it took a few minutes to find it. The back looked out on an abandoned, much larger version of the motel we were in, complete with overgrown vegetation, boarded up windows, and general decay (pics below). Oh, well, another adventure. The WIFI didn’t work until the morning we left. Fortunately there was a Tim Horton’s a couple hundred yards away. Did I mention, the room itself was great — clean and well appointed and included a kitchenette? We survived just fine.
After settling in to the room, we headed off to Halifax via the Angus L. MacDonald bridge and a very good network of bike lanes, dedicated paths, and the bikes-only section of the MacDonald bridge. We headed to the harbour area with a tip that we should go to The Bicycle Thief restaurant. They had us at the name. We parked and locked the bikes and explored the wharves and other restaurants and came up on a live jazz concert in one of the many plazas along the harbour (short video after the picture gallery below).
Right outside The Bicycle Thief was a singer/impersonator who treated us with Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, and a number of other famous crooners. The restaurant was named after the Italian movie of the same name, and serves “North American Food — Italian Soul.” Mussels in tomato sauce with a Peroni! Yum. After some more exploring, we crossed back over the bridge for an evening view of the city and on to our “Urban Nest.”
Total miles on this trip so far for Paul is 538.9, and 573.9 for Dana.
From our table at The Bicycle Thief without the guy with a cat.
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