Tuesday, September 26, 2017

September 24th – On the Boardwalk in Charlottetown

Where Sydney yesterday was perhaps a little underwhelming, Charlottetown was impressive. They're both smallish waterside provincial towns of a similar size, but the quality of architecture, and the array of restaurants and museums here in Charlottetown mark this out as somewhere with a high quality of life. In fact, there's a really prosperous feel to the place – not surprising, when this is the provincial capital (of Prince Edward Island – Canada's smallest province), so there's lots of government offices and facilities here.

Even on a quiet Sunday, there was lots going on out there on Charlottetown's well preserved historic streets – lively alfresco cafes, craft markets and farmer's markets, plus the Cathedral was holding a street party too.  So, we had an enjoyable time exploring the town centre, picking up lots of history along the way from the well-presented information boards – most of them pointing to Charlottetown's most significant moment, when it hosted the conference that saw the formation of modern Canada. As the country is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, it was good to be where it all started.

But, my favourite part of Charlottetown is its lovely seaside boardwalk, full of people strolling or jogging. In fact, having walked the length of it with Tracy in the morning, I was inspired to go for a jog along it too. If I lived in Charlottetown I'd be as fit as a fiddle.