Into Canada

Up at 4.30 a.m. local time - 5.30 a.m. Atlantic time - to write the blog post on last night's laundry and meal. Unfortunately the slow connection at the hotel meant I was not able to update my flickr account with yesterday's photos, nor catch-up with e-mail, but at least the blog got done, if somewhat slowly!

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We left the hotel at 6.15 (7.15), bought some petrol (which is much cheaper in the US than in Canada) and got to the border post, which is on the Canadian side, at 7.25.Our route today was simple and took us through New Brunswick and on to Prince Edward Island.
The border guard took a little while to go and find a stamp, I don't think he has had many non-US or Canadian visitors. He found his stamp asked if we had any alcohol or personal protection (I assumed he meant a gun rather than the type of personal protection my barber used to offer me!) - we didn't! So he stamped our passports and at 7.32 we were on our way, changing our watches and iPad clocks as we went.

We stopped for Breakfast at the first exit after the border, near a place called Woodstock, New Brunswick, at a Tim Hortons. Tim Hortons is a Canadian coffee shop chain. Drew had a hot breakfast roll with omelette, sausage and cheese in a 'biscuit' and I had an onion bagel which was very onioney - we both had coffee which was coffee tasting, unlike some US cafe coffee which is lacking in much taste.

We went back onto the NB2 and drove along some beautiful Canadian countryside. The roads are much better tarmacked than most the US roads and the junctions (interchanges) are laid out in a style similar to the UK not like the US.
We keep saying to ourselves how lovely the roads and their surrounds are, I hope it is all like this.
Noticeably in Canada there are a lot fewer exits and more occasions when the highway goes above (or under) local roads rather that providing a route off for them. Sometimes in is 50 miles or more between exits.
We continued to drive through the NB2 for quite some time. We then went onto the NB15, which after a short distance turned into a two way road rather than a dual carriageway. This meant we saw more of the local towns, and when the pictures are up on flickr you will see plenty of the local housing :-)
We stopped for lunch at Cape Jourimain the last point before the huge bridge between New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. We had soup and a sandwich which came as a meal deal with a cup of tea or coffee. The soup was Chicken and Vegetable and the sandwich (a full round) was either chicken, which I had, or tuna, which Drew selected. The wholewheat bread and the chicken were a great combination, but the thing I raved about most was the chicken soup, like last night's soup it was filled with chicken and veg. The veg included carrots, potatoes, parsnip, swede, celery and pearl barley, it was only a small cup but it was delicious.

We then crossed the Confederation Bridge and in less than an hour (at 2.30) were arriving at the Best Western Charlottetown. The earliest arrival of the holiday to date, this was planned that way as Charlottetown, the Capital of the Prince Edward Island province, is said to be very pretty so we wanted to spend the afternoon there to get to see the sites and visit the museums. The hotel is only three blocks away from the centre of the town and, in another direction, from the sea.