In the van to Sydney

June 9, 2023

driving through the middle part of Cape Breton

Apparently the Cabot Trail around Cape Breton is extremely mountainous with poor shoulders and we were advised not to ride it. We did want to see Cape Breton, however, so we left bikes and bike gear locked in the trailer in the hotel parking lot in Baddeck. We will pick it up in three days starting today.

We started out visiting the Alexander Graham Bell museum in Baddeck. It is an excellent museum covering all the amazing work Alexander and his wife Mabel did over the years. While he is maybe most famous for his invention of the telephone, he did MANY other things throughout his life and the museum covers it all. If you find yourself on Cape Breton, you should not miss this fine museum.

Next we went to the Highland Village in Iona on Cape Breton. It highlights the establishment and development of the Gaelic community and culture in Nova Scotia. Through a walking tour of a village that is designed to show the development of the Gaelic culture through decades from the 1770 to the 1920s. It celebrates the language, economy, architecture, and other cultural elements throughout that time period. Its very well done.Here are a series of photos I took as we did our walking tour:

This stone house was a replica of the dwellings the early (1770s) people lived in in Scotland before sailing to Nova Scotia. They left for economic, political, and cultural reasons to find new homes in a new land.

It was a beautiful day for a walking tour.

This was the temporary shelter the newly arrived family would live in while building their permanent home.

This was the table in the next house where 12 to 16 women and girls washed and worked the wool woven with yarn they had just spun. They always sang as they worked!

In a turn of the century house Margaret found a pump organ which she was allowed to play!

The last building we entered was where the smithy did his work. He demonstrated his work and told us about the horseshoes that made up most of his business but also described the other implements he worked on throughout the day.

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	2
Comment on this entry	Comment	0