August 11, 2015, August 12, 2015: Travel day, we left on Air Canada late in the evening flying the red eye to Montreal. Everything was smooth with the flight, and it seemed to go by quickly thanks to a sleeping pill and a glass of wine. Once in Montreal customs proceeded as planned until the guy saw our next flight time and freaked out, grabbing our bags and telling us to run to security. We took the priority line and then all hell broke loose as the security guy denied us entry because the date on our ticket was the 11th and now it was the 12th. We ran back to the ticket counter, got new tickets (quick as a rabbit, Air Canada was speedy) and went back this time without much hassle through security. At the gate, they were still boarding, so no worries even though it was depart time as the plane plane didn’t have enough fuel and waited at the gate till full. Then we were off.
Arriving in Halifax, we found our bags quickly, as apparently last on is first off. We got to the car rental counter and then it all started to fall apart. The lady nicely informed us that we could not rent with them because we did not have a major Credit Card, as Debit cards are no good for car rentals in Canada. No Questions, no flexibility. We started asking around, not only did no other places take Debit Cards, but all were Sold Out. We asked again, the lady said that we should try Hertz, as an American Company, they may accept debit, and they did accept debit, thank god, except that they had no cars, and would not. The lady was actually very rude and told me that there were no cars to be had, and that was that.
We decided to take a cab to our hotel and try to regroup as we were not very useful exhausted and irritable. The cab cost us nearly $70 dollars, Halifax Airport is not close to downtown. The hotel was nice, and we got to the room and cooled off from the frustration by taking a walk through downtown and exchanging some money--good rate for US dollars. We decided first to try and see if Wells Fargo could help us out. We had asked the lady at the original car place to extend our reservation for 24 hours, as we did not want to lose that car as it appeared there were few to be found. Wells Fargo said they could expedite us our Credit Card (We don't use Credit Cards, but have an open one just in case). It was promised to arrive the next day. We took a nice walk around the waterfront, and had a beer at the microbrewery by the hotel, and another by our dinner restaurant. Dinner was at Salty’s on the waterfront. We shared lobster chowder, beet salad, and seafood plate of lobster, shrimp, salmon and scallops. The salmon was amazing and lobster is plentiful in these parts.
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| Heidi enjoying first lunch in Halifax at the Farmers Market. Very nice spot just across the street from our hotel. |
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| Halifax has lots of history, and wonderful buildings. My suggestion to the city planners is to try and underground all the electrical and communications lines, so the buildings can be more original. |
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| Garrison Brewing is right across from the hotel also, adjacent to the Farmers Market. The beer was good and refreshing, but no West Coast IPA here. |
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| Here is a view of the Port in Halifax, it was rainy and cool, foggy also. We went to dinner at Salty's just on the water, and then tried another brewery after, same result. I never knew how much variation in hops there is. Another thing is the cost, a beer in the restaurant here is nearly $7 each (say $6 US). In the government Liqueur Stores, they are a bit less expensive at $2 to $3 each, but we have it much better at home. |
