Yesterday I spent the day trying to catch up on my blogs on blogspot. It just seems to take ages. After a day at sea it was good to put foot on land once again. It was a nice sunny and warm day when the Maasdam docked in at pretty Charlottetown. As usual, there was a mass exodus as guests headed off the ship to go on tours or to explore the town.
My assigned tour group (Prince Edward Coast, Lighthouse & Cellar) was soon on the bus which followed the coastline in a south easterly direction to our first stop, Point Prim Lighthouse. It is the first and oldest lighthouse on the island and is circular in shape, made with bricks. It one of two or three built in such a way in Canada. Today the lighthouse has wooden cladding on it to protect the soft porous brickwork. It was a sweet lighthouse, not the tallest I’ve seen or been in. The tower consists of 5 levels, including the ground floor and the lantern deck. Wooden steps take guests up to each landing/floor. Space is very limited inside and the wooden stairs are almost like ladders – but not quite as steep. Having a large group of guests proved problematic with most guests wanting to go right to the top of the lighthouse. I waited a bit, taking photographs from the outside, before going in. There were still queues of people wanting to go up/go down the narrow stairs. Near the top of the lighthouse I heard a few people shouting in frustration at their fellow guests that they had been waiting for nearly 5 minutes to get down the stairs/up the stairs. I kept my mouth shut and waited patiently, managing to finally reach the top, take a few photographs and head back down just in time before the bus departed.
We headed along the coast to the next lighthouse – Wood Islands Lighthouse. Along the way we saw the famed maiden statue as we passed through Belle River. The statue is of a naked woman carved in sandstone, and stands in its owner’s garden near the roadside. It has caused a few car accidents, so much so that the villagers wanted it taken down/taken away. The owner won the court battle on the grounds that the carving is ‘art’. So it remains in its place to this day.
Wood Islands Lighthouse is the second oldest lighthouse on Prince Edward Island, a well preserved wooden structure consisting of 3 floors and a lantern deck, with an adjoining keeper's residence. It was a lovely little lighthouse. Fortunately access was a lot easier apart from the steps to the lantern deck which were very steep and narrow. From the top one could see a bald eagle’s nest. Unfortunately eagles had been building their nests on electric wire poles and caused outages so man-made platforms have been built so that the bald eagles can put their nests on. There was an eagle sitting with her chick. What lovely views for the family to grow up with, looking at the lighthouse and out to sea.
Last ‘call’ of the day was at the Rossignol Estate Winery for wine tasting along with Prince Edward Island cheeses. After tasting wines and making purchases, guests could wander around the vineyards and also have a tour of the small distillery. Apart from some very nice looking wines and tasting them including rhubarb/strawberry wine, blackberry mead, cranberry wine and something else, I spied some maple wine and got a bottle of it (sorry Paul!). Yum.
It started to rain on our way back to port, with nature giving a bit of a lightning show in the distance. The ‘performance’ stopped by the time we arrived back at the terminal. We made it in good time for departure, much to the determination of our guide. We had a good 10 minutes to spare before the ‘all aboard time’ so I noticed some guests rushing around the terminal, making last minute purchases or attempting to connect to free WiFi.
We were invited to the Hotel Manager’s office, along with the Captain and 2 or 3 other officers. His office is big enough, with a conference table for meetings. The table was set for us and dining room staff brought us our meal – bread, fish, chips and platefuls of mussels cooked with garlic, carrot, onion and leek. It was a delicious meal along with a bit of wine to compliment the seafood.
When we got upstairs the sun was setting – it was spectacular, so much so that I dashed to the cabin to fetch the camera. Paul, the Captain and his wife, and I went onto the bridge (a very rare treat) to watch the sun going down behind the horizon. I gave the camera to Paul to take some pictures – I felt I didn’t have a steady enough hand. The sight was beautiful, giving us some nice pictures.
Yawn… I’m tired. Time for bed!
You can see my photographs on facebook via this link: Excursion: P.E.I. Coast, Lighthouse & Cellar
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| Heading towards our next destination: Sydney, Nova Scotia |
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