Day 46 - North Sydney, Nova Scotia

It is a beautiful Sunday, July l5th.  The sun is shining and we have a free day to do what we want.  Just around the corner from the campground is St. Joseph's Church so Bruce and I went to mass.  The church was lovely and the people very friendly.  One of the Usher's asked us to take the gifts up to the alter during Mass so that was special for us.  We ended up talking to the Priest afterwards and some of the parishioners.

The church was bright and very colorful.  They used a lot of tapestries vs statues.  The metal work was all designed and forged in stainless steel.

We drove into Sydney, the third largest city in Nova Scotia.  It's known as Spanish Bay - not exactly why as it is mostly Scottish settlers that arrived in the early l800's and with the opening of the coal mines and a steel plant at the turn of the 20th century, a large number of Eastern European settlers arrived. 

There are huge Aderondike chairs everywhere - even in our Campground so I thought I would see how comfortable it actually was.  I can tell you, it was pretty nice; however, I had a hard time getting out of it.  We drove around the Harbour and here stands the "Big Ceilidh Fiddle" or Largest Fiddle in Canada - probably the world.
The fiddle is to recognize the pre-eminence of fiddle music and the fiddlers, past and present, who have contributed so much to the musical heritage of Cape Breton Island.  Fiddle music was first brought here by Scottish immigrants more than 200 years ago and has since been shaped by Acadian, Irish and Mi'kmaq musicians.  The fiddle stands 57' tall, is made from painted steel, weighs eight tons, and was fabricated over an 8 month period by a Sydney artist and welder.

From Table Head on the outskirts of Glace Bay, Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi sent the first west to east trans-Atlantic wireless message to Cornwall England in l902.  Marconi conducted many radio experiments at his transoceanic wireless station at Table Head, the first on the North American continent.  On this headland stood four giant wooden towers supporting a massive web of copper wire.  A transmitter connected to this aerial was housed in a building near the exhibit center we were visiting.  A steam-driven alternator powered the apparatus.  The gentlemen in the picture operates a local amateur radio station and transmits to people all over the world. He was a lot of fun to talk to.

The Staff arranged a lobster and steak dinner for us.  You can see Patty's ready to dig in and Bruce can't wait to start.  Fran is holding it to show me how big it is.  Me, I'm not really interested as I had a very good dinner of steak and potatoes.  We had a group playing music and entertaining us after dinner.  They played and sang some fun hand clapping local music.  I had to take a picture of this little puppy.  Is he not just the cutest?

Picture of the Day!!!

Hope the sunset where you are, was as beautiful as this!