Our tale of the trail of the trials of the Acadians led us to Amherst (Greg’s suggestion). The only reference we could find about the Acadians though, was a note that Amherst was founded 2 years after the expulsion of the Acadians, 1747.
So we aren’t sure whether the Acadians made it here or not. We spent a good part of the morning walking around downtown Amherst looking at the old buildings. As we were lost in awe at the centuries old buildings, the bells in the Baptist church started ringing and chimed a familiar hymn. We had to stop and listen. It was a wonderful symphony as the bells echoed and reverberated off the walls of the old stone buildings that make up the old core of Amherst.
Greg had a great talk with “Dave”, a man he met on the corner. Dave was born and brought up in Amherst so he talked a great deal about the changes in the town. Dave talked about how as a kid, he could not walk down this very almost deserted street with out having to dodge busy people set about their daily routines. As a youngster, he always had 2 afterschool jobs because there was that much work to be had. This is the same story that we have repeatedly heard across the country. So many communities that were so vibrant and are now almost a ghostly vestige of there former selves.
I wandered into the Anglican church and had a lovely conversation with a man who talked about how he found his way back to church after living as a “terrible sinner”. The church was relocated to its present site in 1847, having been built in 1827. As a side note, I was looking at the war memorial and saw that a Kenneth Allen and William Allen died in the fist world war. Relatives? Descendants of the New England. Meanwhile Greg was exploring the marvelous stone Baptist that chimed the hymn we heard. We tore ourselves away from the old architecture and headed to PEI.
Our first stop was to the gouda cheese lady in New Glasgow. It turned out that the cheese lady has retired and sold her business so it is now the gouda cheese lady guy. All sorts of different kinds of gouda. So hard to decide on what to choose. Wish we had a fridge. We drove around looking at the fields all plowed and ready for the potatoes ? to grow. We found a lovely little cabin and settled in for a couple of days. In the evening we headed out to watch the sunset over the water in French River at the Cape Tyron lighthouse. Spectacular.
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I recognized so many places you have been to but you were a lot more thorough in exploring so thank you again. Do know this part of PEI as it is our favourite area.
Greg and I checked what it would cost to stay a month as we liked the area so much.