Nova Scotia - Halifax

Today is another rainy and drizzly day, so we decided to make it and easy day of exploration.

We are staying in an area that has a lot of historical significance so we decided to check out our neighbourhood today.

From the ashes of the catastrophic Halifax Explosion, which shattered the City’s North End on 6 December 1917, rose the Hydrostone District, a splendid example of an English-style garden suburb. Completed in 1920, this well-preserved neighbourhood was designed according to the most-up-to-date yet practical principles of town planning. The buildings, all variations on the same architectural theme and all constructed with “Hydro-Stone” concrete blocks, are aesthetically arranged along each side of wide treed courts. The houses and landscape contribute to a remarkable sense of time and place. The neighbourhood is an important achievement by the influential town planner Thomas Adams.
Most of the dwellings are

row-houses in groups of four and six, except for the large, two-storey single-family houses at the eastern end of each street. Some have been converted to sets of flats.

All of the streets in the Hydrostone are boulevards except Stanley Place. These boulevards have treed, grassy strips which serve as communal outdoor space for the neighbourhood. This is consistent with the Garden city movement by which Adams was influenced. All streets are also served by back lanes, a feature characteristic of Western Canadian cities, but not usually found in Eastern Canadian communities.

After a stroll around the Hydrostone we popped into a cafe for a coffee and some surprisingly delicious samosas and pakoras. It has a very Inglewood type of vibe to the community - just on a smaller scale.

In getting ready for another travel day tomorrow we headed out for some fuel and an oil change for the car. We have travelled over 7,000 km so far and definitely due for an oil change.

Halifax and Nova Scotia in general is such a fascinating place. Lots of small fishing villages and much larger island than PEI. You could spend weeks on Nova Scotia and never see it all. Tomorrow we head to Sydney, NS for the night to get ready for our trip over to NewFoundland.