Our day in Halifax on Serenade 9/17 cruise = rental car

We walked off the ship and straight across the street to Alamo rental Car. It was in the rail station building that is connected to the Westin Hotel. Our party of 6 was able to rent a minivan for a total of $109. We headed straight for Peggy's Cove at 9:30 am, it was about a 45 minute beautiful, scenic drive. There were only a handful of people when we arrived, but the buses started rolling in soon and by the time we left I couldn't count the number of tour buses there :eek:. We took some photos and went through the gift shop and shopped our way back to the car. It was a wonderful little village.

We drove back to Halifax and visited the Fairview Lawn Cemetery.

We then drove to the Citadel, but made a quick stop at King of Donair. (It was fabulous by the way!)

We drove around the nearby streets to sight see before heading down to Lower Water Street. We parked and I visited the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic to see the Titanic exhibit while the others shopped and grabbed a couple of beaver tails to snack on. We then headed to the Tim Hortons by the pier, stopped to fill the van up with gas, and returned it to Alamo. We walked through the Farmer's Market at the pier and then got back on board.

I would definitely recommend getting a car here. It was close and super easy. There was a Thrifty and Dollar inside the Westin and an Alamo and Enterprise inside the rail station. It was easy to drive around and we missed big buses of people at all our stops.

I had to look up beaver tails. They look yummy! I guess I know what will look for for dessert after Donair ;) Do you remember the name of the shop?

Unfortunately I can't see your pictures. Photobucket doesn't share anymore on this site it seems.

Sorry, I just can't get a photo to work with photobucket, flickr, or shutterfly. I'm sure i'm doing something wrong!

The address was 1549 Lower Water Street. It's a little red building called Beaver Tails.

Let me try this again.

Let me try this again.

Yum! The pictures I saw were more of a fried flat bread with the cross hatch markings of the beaver tail and had options for sugar/syrup toppings. Yours looks extra fancy:p

Thanks for this great report. You can find the BeaverTails hut right on the waterfront boardwalk. They come with various toppings.

thanks for the pics. now i'm not so scared. its basically just a gyro :)

thanks for the pics. now i'm not so scared. its basically just a gyro :)

Yep. And they put the sauce in a separate container so you can add however little or much as you want.

well at least i have lunch worked out for one day. i like trying local stuff.

thanks for the pics. now i'm not so scared. its basically just a gyro :)

A very sweet gyro. It looked good to me too until I googled the ingredients. Believe I'll stick to fish and chips.

A very sweet gyro. It looked good to me too until I googled the ingredients. Believe I'll stick to fish and chips.

Sometimes it's better not knowing.. willful ignorance is bliss sometimes.. :cool: They are pretty good, even if it's only to say you've tried one..

A very sweet gyro. It looked good to me too until I googled the ingredients. Believe I'll stick to fish and chips.

i just read a halifax article and found nothing crazy like polar bear eyeballs.. what is so bad in them?

A very sweet gyro. It looked good to me too until I googled the ingredients. Believe I'll stick to fish and chips.

i just read a halifax article and found nothing crazy like polar bear eyeballs.. what is so bad in them?

I think it is the sweetness to the sauce that was turning FredZiffle off (please correct me if I'm wrong). Most recipes I found called for evaporated milk and sugar (or sweetened condensed milk), vinegar, and garlic powder. A friend that used to live in Canada said it is similar to a sweet Miracle Whip with garlic.

I make a dressing for cucumbers and onions that is milk, vinegar, sugar, salt, and Miracle Whip so I think it will be similar except more of a garlic taste. I also do a simple pork marinade of sugar, oil, vinegar, and water for pork that we find enhances the pork without being too sweet. I'm hoping for something like that but garlicy and thicker.

I'm pretty sure the references above to being like a 'very sweet gyro' are to the Beaver Tail not the Donair (which is simply the standard Canadian spelling of Doner - the big 'elephant leg' of lamb, beef or a combo thereof that has slices cut off as it rotates before being placed in a pita with whatever salad & sauce combos you request). While 'Halifax Donair Sauce' is a bit different than the more common tzatziki elsewhere, I wouldn't call it particularly sweet (although after my first experience with it, thanks to a Haligonian buddy who lamented the 'wrong sauce' applied in all Toronto kebab shops and wistfully went on at length about how good it was, having had it once I felt no need to do so again, much preferring a simple yoghurt-based one).

Personally I prefer the garlic butter & cheese topped Beaver Tail - which might sound odd on what's basically a float-fried donut but contrasts wonderfully with the relatively sweet dough. I've only ever seen it at the original Ottawa store though, never the small huts elsewhere which have fewer topping options. Cinnamon Sugar and Maple Butter are probably the simplest and most Canadian toppings respectively... the one above looks like a total monstrosity;-)

I figured Beaver Tail was meant to be a dessert. When I googled it it showed an oval shaped fried dough with cross hatches to look like a beaver tail and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. It reminds me of what they sell as "peasant bread" at a Renaissance Faire we used to visit, usually with sugar or syrup topping. Definitely equally good with savory toppings too.

sweet is good. when i made home made iced tea i put half cup sugar in half gallon :)