After our discovery on the very first evening in Saint John (Nova Scotia) that a pannier bracket was broken, we spent almost the entire first half day searching for a comparable replacement part.
Unfortunately in vain. In all of Canada, unfortunately, there was no suitable replacement piece. We have our motorcycle cases from Heavy Duties already a few years and they have also really served us very well and still waterproof. Therefore, we did not want to part with them already at the beginning of our ibahabs world tour, because except for this part they were completely fine. After contacting Heavy Duties we got the information that shipping to Canada was not possible, but they could quickly send us the spare parts to Austria. We took advantage of this and then faced the next challenge. How do we get the parts to Canada? But until we found an answer to this question, some time passed.
In the meantime we had no other choice than to fix Kerstin's suitcase at least in a way that it couldn't fall down while driving. We decided to go to a hardware store in town and see what materials were in stock, because we already had some ideas for fixing the suitcase. To take advantage of the nice weather on this day before the announced rainy days came, we drove to the city of Saint John without luggage for a change. From the various guidebooks and the tips of our hosts, we had once again a lot in mind. Our first stop was at the "Reversing Falls". Here there is the Saint-John-River, which flows into the sea. A special feature, however, is that here on this coast the tidal range is very high (in some places on the coast the tidal range reaches six to seven meters!). As long as the tide is low, the Saint-John-River can flow down into the sea unhindered. However, when the tide comes in, the sea level reaches a greater height than the river. And at this point, the "reversing falls" begin: the river water must flow back upstream!
In this river, depending on the tide, you can also sail a sailboat. However, it can become dangerous very quickly, because when the tide comes in, boats have repeatedly been wrecked on the rocks in the river in the past. Also the bridge construction over the Saint-John-River has needed a lot of attempts and time for this reason.
Arrived in the city, we found very quickly a parking lot directly near the port, where everything interesting was within walking distance. At the parking lot we still "fought" with the parking ticket machine, because we had no coins and he did not accept our credit cards. At some point we finally realized that he apparently did not like debit cards and prepaid cards - but then accepted a normal credit card without any problems. With a proud two parking tickets for a parking space (here the license plate numbers have to be entered for the tickets) we could then finally set off to explore the city.
In the various travel guides and online sites, we had really found a lot of interesting things. However, we had to realize that we were about the only tourists at that time in the city. Well, we knew that with mid / end of April not necessarily the main season for tourism on the coast had begun. But that so little would be going on, we had not expected. On top of that, the lockdowns had hit a lot of stores and restaurants and many of them had gone bankrupt. From our hosts we then heard that normally in the port not only container ships arrived, but also cruise ships. Only with May 2022, a ship with tourists should be allowed to dock in Saint John for the first time again and that the city was preparing for it.
We did not let it take us, however, despite everything to make a city walk. After all, we had to take advantage of the sunny weather a bit.
Through the old town leads partly a kind of indoor walk through the old buildings. Here you can find all kinds of stores and small businesses. Over a bridge with colored glasses (suddenly everything is blue!) it goes then e.g. once further into a new house. Again and again stairs, escalators, different floors (also half floors) - so you lose quickly the overview, whether you are now actually already in another building or not.
Eventually we found the famous market hall of Saint John. The first thing you notice is that the hall is not straight. Because the individual paths between the stalls lead uphill! You can find here mainly food of all kinds and art. Now and then a few stalls where there were souvenirs or something to eat and drink. Again, at the time of our visit, many of the stalls were closed and the opening hours were very shortened. But we were definitely the only tourists in this hall.
From the market hall through a large gate, we arrived at a small park with a large pavilion in the middle. In this pavilion there are always live concerts and performances in the summer. We could well imagine that it must be really nice then.
As we were enjoying the sun on a park bench, we heard various bird calls at regular intervals for a while. However, we could not see any such birds. Except for pigeons and seagulls, there were no other birds to be seen far and wide. When we then observed a little bit the traffic all around, we realized that here at the green phases of the pedestrian lights bird voices were to be heard instead of the for us known beeping or knocking!
From the park we strolled back towards the harbor, after all this was our first time at the Atlantic on this trip (flying just doesn't count). We found a small deserted spot with large rocks at low tide, where we had a good view of a lighthouse in the distance. A bit of rock climbing, trying not to get wet and slip but still getting fun and beautiful photos - that's how you can spend some time!
After the container port we reached unfortunately no promenade, but a huge construction site! So that Saint John can reach larger container ships, the harbor is dredged and the material in the harbor is piled up. According to the plans that can be seen there, a huge area is to be built on the shore, which will be used as a promenade on the one hand and will be made available for events on the other hand. Already in the past there were big events and music festivals there. In the future, there will be even more space for them. As the end of the construction time was indicated approx. 2026. Another visit to this city when everything is finished sounds tempting in any case!
After our laboriously obtained parking ticket then eventually lost its validity, we found no more excuses to avoid the planned "shopping". First stop: hardware store! (For those who know us: first suggestion from Andreas: "Kerstin - do you want to wait outside?!" - Of course not!)
We found the "Home Depot" hardware store, which was very much like our orange hardware stores at home. In some cases, even the orders of materials in the rows were similar! The only difference: the salesmen here do not run away from you, but come towards you! After a bit of searching on our own, Andreas decided to tell a salesman what we wanted, and Kerstin just hung something back on the shelf. Suddenly both Andreas and the salesman had disappeared. Neither in the row before nor after they were to be found. A friendly saleswoman approached Kerstin and asked if she could help. Kerstin replied, "No, we'll be served- I just lost my husband here somewhere!" The saleswoman laughed and said, "Oh, that happens here all the time: the women know what they want, and the men just get lost! But don't worry - you can't get rid of them this way for long!"
A short time later Andreas showed up again and we also got the sought-after bendable "metal-hole band"! With this, Kerstin's pannier could be fixed again - only the short-term removal of the motorcycle case from the holder is a bit more complicated! But it holds!
The next day was - as announced - very rainy, so we spent the day indoors. We were able to catch up on some things, make new plans and think of new routes. We also spent many nice hours with our hosts, because Phil and Linda had not only touristic advice for us. Also the exchange about life in Canada and Europe and the different customs, politics and changes in the world were very exciting. Uno - the cute little dog - also provided real entertainment and so the time passed much too quickly.
When the weather fortunately improved (no rain, but still cold), we were able to start a trip to the Fundy National Park on the bikes. Of course it is much easier to ride without any luggage and we looked for the nice offroad routes described online. Well, as so often before: here, too, the season had not yet started and we could drive on the highway through the national park to the village of Alma. But left and right of the way everything was still closed. And we found ourselves again in partly wintry landscape.
Arrived in Alma, it looked unfortunately not much better: the season had also here definitely not yet begun. But what is special about this place - all year round - is the very high tidal range of several meters. In the harbor, we could therefore admire the ships and boats that had docked at the jetty in the dry in full size, because there was no more water in the harbor due to the low tide.
After a short refreshment and warming up in the only "bistro" that was open, we set out to fulfill the promise we had made to our hosts. Therefore we searched for a "Lobster-Shop" (sales store for lobster). Phil and Linda had talked us into taking three "one-pound" live lobsters for dinner. Lobsters are a specialty here on the coast and they wanted to teach us how this was prepared. Neither of us had ever eaten lobster, let alone prepared or cut it up. The only thing we knew were the stories they told each other about preparing and eating it. So it was with mixed feelings that we went in search of such a business. We already joked that surely no store would be open where you could buy live lobsters, since the season was not supposed to start until the following week. Well, far from it: only one store was open! Standing by our word, we entered this store, where right in the middle of the room was a huge tank, with little brown-green things cavorting around. These had indeed similarity with crabs or lobsters, but whether these were really lobsters, we were really not sure! Actually lobsters are red or? At least they always look like that in movies?
No! To our surprise, these are not red when they are alive! We could not think of any more excuses why we should not buy them now, after we were already standing in the store and the local fisherman was also looking at us so with an expectant look. Probably we were the first customers this year. We bought the three 1-pound lobsters and then faced a next challenge: how to transport them? Our salesman had the appropriate advice ready here as well: the little critters were tenderly placed in two plastic bags at once (no joke - he really lifted the little ones very gently!). You have to leave air at the top - in no case pack them airtight - after all they should live on. And they have to be transported upright. Well, we hadn't thought about that. To transport them on the motorcycle, we had actually taken a packing roll. However, this would be air- and waterproof if attached to the back. We had no choice but to completely unpack Andrea's backpack, repack this content into the pack roll and the little animals then found a place in the backpack. Here they had upright place and from above they also got fresh air.
Andreas had the honor to drive the next 1.5 hours with the little animals on his back back back to Saint John. They survived the trip very well and Phil and Linda were visibly pleased with our haul of the day.
While we were still changing to get out of our cold motorcycle clothes, they already started with the preparations in the kitchen. And this is where the lobsters turned red after all! The cooking itself took only a few minutes, then the lobsters were through. Then let cool for a few minutes. And then we were allowed to learn how to break open the shell and separate out the meat with special cutlery. We didn't do as badly at it as expected!
While the men then retired to the living room, Kerstin was allowed to learn the rest of the preparation. In Linda's home country, lobster is steamed in a pan with some whipped cream, salt, pepper and garlic. Here, too, a bit of the red dye is released from the meat, so that everything becomes slightly orange. The meat along with the sauce is then served with mashed potatoes and peas. It was really delicious!
While eating, we also learned that lobster used to be a "poor man's food". If you took a lobster sandwich to school as a kid, everyone knew right away that you came from a poorer family. Unbelievable today!
We ended this evening with nice conversations and a glass of Dominican rum.
Soon it went on for us again. We had decided to visit after we Saint John (Nova Scotia) also the other city St. Johns (Newfoundland). According to the weather forecast, it was supposed to get much warmer in the east and the rain clouds didn't look quite as unfriendly anymore.
After a surprising farewell breakfast from Phil and Linda we set off. From the Dominican rum we had even got something as an emergency on the way - so that it us even in this cold and often rainy weather at least in the evening once warm! So can also ibahabs times a rainy day on our world trip survive!
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