Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
Lunenburg is a great little town. Yesterday, we arrived with overcast skies but we could still tell how charming and original the town is. Unlike Monterey Bay, Lunenburg combines the cleaned up, prosperity without the tacky touristy crap. Lunenburg looks like and I think is a true fishing village and doubles as a tourist destination in the summer.
Central main street is lined with stores (yes, touristy junk) and restaurants that mix a few high end with every day fried seafood and a couple of middle of the road. This is not a town for the deep pocketed. The lodging seems to be mostly bed and breakfast, although where we are staying is a hotel even though it’s divided up among several buildings along the main street.
Up from the harbor a few more streets is another downtown area that is geared, it seems, more for the locals but includes a nice coffee shop with a great selection of baked goods (including really good, rich key lime pie—even though they died it a seriously intense green color). There is also this funny store called, “Loonies and Toonies” which is a Canadian dollar store. I didn’t want to buy anything there but I loved walking around those stores. Two pharmacies and several other local restaurants line the street.
Today, it was raining but there was some kind of festival going on and underneath some tents on a side street bands were playing great country and folk music all day. Despite the rain, tourists hustled along the street, shopping and eating. Across the street is a quaint ice cream shop that carries a mix of homemade ice cream and some Canadian brand. We sampled their homemade pistachio and peanut butter eureka and their Canadian brand moon mist which, we were told, is a mix of banana, grape and bubblegum (that was Kesh’s pick). We really enjoyed ours but event hough Asha and I shared a cone we couldn’t finish it all. It was just too rich.
Parking in the town is metered and even the local lot costs $3. The hotel has no parking, so you either park in meters and move your car, use the lot or you park on the edges of the downtown. No part of the town felt unsafe or unsavory and on the one edge is a pretty comprehensive grocery store where we got milk etc.
Down at the street that runs along the waterfront (which is behind Main st.) is a memorial to all the men who have died at sea who are from Lunenburg. There are lots of them. And some of the names are the same as the storefronts so their families must still live here (the memorial goes back to the 1890’s or so). Many of the old buildings in the town are dated and indicate who they were built for: for example, one says, 1864, ship’s carpenter with someone’s name.
The waterfront has lots of smaller and middle size fishing vessels and one large sail ship that people can take tours and day cruises on. The waterfront has the usual offerings like whale watching. I didn’t see any kayak rental or bikes. There is also supposed to be a few hikes in the area but the rain made much outdoor exploration impossible.