Baddeck, NS

We spent three nights in Baddeck, NS. Our first evening we went to the nearby Gaelic College for a Ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee), which is a party or gathering where there is music and/or storytelling in the Scotish culture. The part of the program with a couple and three of their five girls singing, girls playing the fiddles, dad on the bagpipes and mom at the keyboard was OK for the first 1/2 hour, but then it became tiring (act not ready for prime time), and the next part was just ghastly - a guy playing out of tune small pipes. So we left. Fred said the last guy sounded like a sick cow.

Here are some photos I took:

Waiting for the swing bridge to close to get on Cape Breton Island



We drove the spectacular Cabot Trail. Here are some scenes.

View from Keltic Lodge


Keltic Lodge



East side of Cabot Trail overlooking the Atlantic Ocean





Deep ravine






The Bog - wonderful bog plants and taiga forest in the background. The taiga is stunted forest due to weather and altitude











On the west side, overlooking the Gulf of St Lawrence




We also toured the Alexander Graham Bell Museum. Bell and his wife lived in Baddeck during his experiments and his development of the first airplane in Canada and the development of a hydrofoil boat.

Scene from the museum looking over the gardens to the lighthouse on an island.


The Bell family still owns and uses the house built here and so it is not open for touring or even visible, but photos in the museum show it to be grand.

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