22 May 2022

Six Ways To Fundy

22 May 2022

May

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8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24

Sunday 22 May 2022--My one problem with Alma is the lack of a decent place for breakfast. At least, I haven't found one...I guess I haven't really looked too hard, either. Yesterday it was coffee and a packaged pastry from the Fundy General Store. Today I'm holding out for a bagel at the nearest Tim's, which is 45 minutes up the road. I pass through Fundy National Park on the way--the east entrance is just outside Alma. I've looked longingly at park literature, wishing I were fit enough to take advantage of some of the hiking opportunities.

Arrive at Tim's in Sussex, a town I've never visited before. Seems like a nice place. There's an interesting-looking brewpub that might make a good lunch stop on the way into Alma someday. Then I'm off down route 111 to St Martins, back on the coast. Along the way, I see field after field full of dandelions. In fact, I've seen quite a lot of dandelions on this trip, but it seems like there is a particular concentration along this road. In St Martins, I have another lobster roll, at the stand I visited in 2012. No Mentos this time.

Spend some time down on the beach, looking at the sea caves, and then stop in at the local information center, looking to offload my morning coffee. Fall into a lengthy blether with the nice gent there, a retired trucker who tells me he once dropped a load of rhododendrons in Springfield. I ask him about the bumper crop of dandelions, and he says many landowners and farmers in the Maritimes are observing No-Mow May, in support of bee populations. That seems a very good idea to me. I think the fellow would talk to me all day, if I were willing to hang out, and indeed I stay quite a bit longer than I thought I would when I entered. Nothing like a retired gent in an information booth for getting the local lowdown. Eventually, though, I have to get back on the road.

Make my way back up to the highway at Rothesay, then pass through Saint John, and in and out of fog, on my way to Saint Andrews. Check into my small hotel in town, then take a walk up to the Algonquin, the stately old resort hotel. I nearly stayed there--normally, it's well out of my price range, but when I plugged my dates into my preferred booking site, the price that came back was not too terribly much more than the places in town. What the heck, I thought, it'll be a nice splurge, and I booked it. Then it developed that there would be a 3% resort fee and a $15 a day destination fee (or maybe it was the other way around), plus ten dollars a day to park the car. Screw you, too, Algonquin. Really, just show me an honest price. What the hell are destination and resort fees, anyway? I canceled...it never ceases to amaze me how the most upscale hotels do their best to nickel-and-dime their clientele, who apparently are only too pleased to bend over for the privilege. Nonetheless, I am curious to see what Marriott has done with the place since it took over from Fairmont ten years ago (besides inventing fake fees). Renovation and improvement are readily apparent in the lobby and in the adjacent common areas. I poke my nose into Braxton's, the fairly upscale restaurant and bar on the main floor, and then go down to the Right Whale Pub for a pint and dinner. The bartender kindly tells me I can order from Braxton's menu if I want to, but I stick to the pub menu. Everything is very nice.

Strolling back into town, I think about what I've seen. The improvements to the Algonquin are evident in the areas I saw, and I'm sure the guest rooms have been greatly upgraded. But...it's just a Marriott. I don't really know enough to judge, I guess, but I feel like some of the soul of the place has been lost. I suppose that's just how it goes, and there's no use complaining about it--nobody wants to stay in an antiquated hotel. It occurs to me that it's much the way I feel about Halifax, the condo-infested former 19th-century navy town. It's not for me to say that these places should lag decades behind the times, just for my amusement. We've had this conversation before, haven't we, in the Scottish Highlands?

As much as I like Saint Andrews, its one fault, in my mind, is the lack of a decent pub. The Shiretown Pub in the Kennedy Inn isn't awful, I guess; the Red Herring is okay for a pint, but too young and loud for me. This is in fact the one place I booked on this trip that didn't have a brewpub. Didn't...passing by the old post office, I see what looks like a pub sign. A closer look shows that it reads "Saint Andrews Brewing Company". It's around back, but it's closed. I go into the Red Herring, where I find a tap from the brewery. The bartender tells me the brewpub opened just this weekend. Well, I have another night. I finish my pint and get out before the too-loud band finishes warming up.

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Alma To St Andrews