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Romantic Getaways |
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FREDERICTON REALLY ROCKS NEW BRUNSWICK
By Richard N. Every
Imagine sitting at an
outdoor restaurant across from a National Historic Site, listening
to Harry Manx belt out some funky blues accompanied by his lap-slide
guitar, and checking your email at the same time. Welcome to
Fredericton, capitol of New Brunswick, the first city in Canada to
provide wireless Internet hotspots throughout downtown.
For 15 years, Fredericton has
hosted the Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival, renown internationally for
its talent, breadth of music, and hospitality. Each year it
showcases the hottest established talent and the most up and coming
artists from the US, Canada and abroad playing everything from
smooth jazz, Cajun, acoustic blues, jazz funk and electric blues.
Recent headliners included the blues-rock band, The Fabulous
Thunderbirds; blues acoustic duo, Kenny Neal and Billy Branch;
Atlanta's Original "P" with members of Parliament/Funkadelic; Cajun
band, La Bande Feufolle, and internationally renowned jazz ensemble,
The National Jazz Orchestra of France, from Paris.
Settled by the Loyalists in
October 1783, who’d fought for England in the War of Independence,
Fredericton’s done an amazing job of preserving an impressive array
of architectural treasures including simple Loyalist homes, Gothic
Revival churches, grandiose Victorian mansions and public buildings
like the restored 1828 mansion of the Lt. Governor. Free Heritage
Walking Tours are available at City Hall.
To understand life in Canada after
the American Revolution, step back in time at near-by Kings Landing
Historical Settlement, an outstanding interpretative living museum.
Here you meet role-playing costumed guides who demonstrate the
dynamics of sawmilling using hydro power to transport giant logs in
a real working sawmill, learn how to prepare authentic period meals
over an open fire, visit the flour mill and taste the results in the
dining room at the King’s Head Inn serving first-rate luncheons.
Enjoy a pint and a slice of divine Acadian sugar pie, brown custard
wrapped in pastry. Don’t be surprised if your busboy barely comes up
to table height, as staff is encouraged to bring their preschoolers,
also in period costume, to make the experience more authentic. Our
busy boy for the day was a charming three year-old.
Need more inducement? Tourists get
a free three-day parking permit. Apply at City Hall.
While you’re there, stop in at the
Beaverbrook Art Gallery for a stupendous experience. Thanks to the
patronage of Canadian-born newspaper baron Lord Beaverbrook,
Churchill’s Minister of Supply during WWII, the gallery actually
owns three Salvador Dali oils. Mounted in a room just behind the
entrance is Dali’s 1957 Santiago El Grande, a dream-like
interpretation of Christ’s Ascension in which the warrior apostle
Saint James of Compostella, patron saint of Spain, riding naked and
bareback, charges toward Heaven, holding a crucifix and guided by an
Angel. In the upper corner is the supplicant Christ, agonized hands
beseeching forgiveness for man’s sins. The gallery contains many
priceless works of art like the tapestry The Hunt of Maximilian,
July. One of just nine editions, three other sets are owned by
Bill Gates and another by the Louvre museum in Paris. Not bad for a
gallery in a city of just 50,000 inhabitants.
In 2007, the festival runs
September 11 to 16. For ticket and other information, visit
www.harvestjazzandblues.com .
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Richard N. Every is a professional
travel journalist and photographer, and member of the prestigious
North American Travel Journalists Association (NATJA).
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