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Many visitors to New Brunswick take the time to stop for a few bars of Bach at the New Brunswick Botanical Gardens at St. Jacques, make a step-back-in-time detour through the longest covered bridge in the world at Hartland, or pose for pictures at the lighthouse at Cape Jourimain Nature Centre. Most of the places that visitors have been enjoying for decades, such as Saint John’s Reversing Falls, upper Fundy’s Hopewell Rocks, and Shediac’s giant lobster, can easily be seen even on a quick tour of the province. But with a bit more time, seeing other tourism attractions will add to the New Brunswick experience.

Having taken the Princess of Acadia from Digby, NS, your visit to New Brunswick begins in Saint John. Carleton Martello Tower has caught visitors’ attention since 1815, when the circular fortress with 8-foot-thick walls was built atop Tower Hill to defend the city against attack from the American navy. No shot was ever fired, but the fort remained an important defense post until the end of World War II. Today, it’s a National Historic site, and its uniformed guides share its storied history. A newly opened display area adjacent to the tower augments the guides’ stories. From the parapets, you will see not-to-be-missed Saint John attractions, such as the Harbour Passage walk from the Reversing Falls to the city centre’s Barbour’s General Store, dating from the 1860s. The downtown heritage district’s architectural diversity includes such structures as the 1817 Loyalist House, built by wealthy merchant David Daniel Merritt. There are quiet outdoor retreats like the flower-studded King’s Square and the adjacent Old Burial Grounds, where quarried stone pathways wind among the graves of the city’s founders.

West of the city, via Route 1, consider hiking the Irving Nature Park or the longest stretch of sand on the Bay of Fundy, at New River Beach (see page 50 for more on the Bay of Fundy). A detour via Route 127 to St. Andrews will be rewarded with a visit to the palatial Fairmont Algonquin Hotel. Visitors can play a round of golf on its championship course or relax at the nearby award-winning Kingsbrae Gardens. Twenty minutes away, St. Stephen is Canada’s Chocolate town, where Ganong Bros. has been in business for 130 years. Sweet stories and sweeter samples are available at the Chocolate Museum on Milltown Blvd.

Leaving Route 1, No. 3 leads to No. 2 and Kings Landing, where the early days of English New Brunswick come alive through costumed interpreters in 70 or so 19th century working homes and buildings. Downriver, on a generous green overlooking the wide St. John River, the provincial capital of Fredericton has a cupola-topped legislature building and an elm-surrounded cathedral that have long charmed visitors. The traditional changing of the guard and presentations of the city’s history by actors known as Calithumpians will add to the pleasure of any visit. Active tourists will want to take advantage of the best system of walking-cycling trails in the province, which wend their way along the St. John and Nashwaaskis rivers.

Turning northeast, the twisting Highway 8 eventually straightens out to run parallel to the glittering, famed salmon river of the province, the Miramichi, and eventually to the City of Miramichi itself. About halfway along the two-hour drive is the Central New Brunswick Woodmen’s Museum at Boiestown, an attraction that tells the stories of the days of lumbering before mechanization. A covered bridge and a suspension walking bridge in the area are worth traveling over. The Atlantic Salmon Museum at Doaktown recounts the story of the king of fish and how it has attracted fishing enthusiasts from the US and around the globe for more than two centuries.

A new attraction just outside the City of Miramichi is the Metepenagiag Heritage Park. Interpreters of the native culture illuminate another facet of New Brunswick history in what archeologists say is the province’s oldest village.

People in Miramichi are proud of their Irish culture.  A visit to Middle Island, where famine victims of 1847 were quarantined, or to St. Michael’s Basilica and its archives, is the next best thing to being in the lively town during the mid-July Irish Festival. Also not to be missed is the surprisingly riveting story of the Headless Nun at French Fort Cove. Most summer nights, costumed guides play out the story of Sister Marie Inconnue, who tried to protect the few treasures that Acadian settlers had buried for safekeeeping. The nun lost her life — and head — and her ghost is said to haunt the area.

Beyond Miramichi, east on Route 11 to Caraquet is Acadian country, easily discerned by the proliferation of red, white and blue painted on homes, boats, cottages. The symbolism shows the pride of these people, who were driven from the province in 1755 but returned and made a dramatic impact on the economy of the region. Their story is best told at Village Historique Acadien near Caraquet, where a 1923 Model-T shuttles guests to the Hôtel Château Albert, where they can enjoy Acadian food and entertainment.

The east shore of the province leading to Moncton has many beautiful beaches at such places as Île Lamèque, Val Comeau, Kouchibouguac (kooch-ee-boo-quack). Though these are warm-water beaches, they still yield good harvests of lobster, which prefer cold water. In fact, Shediac, at the south terminus of hwy 11, is known as the lobster capital of the world. The 35-foot-long, 55-ton concrete-and-steel lobster on the town’s outskirts has become an obligatory stop for visitors and locals alike. Shediac has a well laid-out trail system that provides access to its famous Parlee Beach. Often called New Brunswick’s ultimate beach, it also offers picnic grounds, restaurants and playgrounds.

From Shediac, Moncton is reached in 15 minutes via highway 15. Two old attractions remain its top draws: the Petitcodiac’s much-diminished Tidal Bore downtown, and the powerful-as-ever Magnetic Hill on Route 2. Initially, car drivers flocked to Magnetic Hill to experience the illusion that a car in neutral at the foot of the hill seemed to coast uphill with no source of power. Other attactions include a zoo, a water-slide park, and a wharfside shopping complex reached through one of the province’s 64 remaining covered bridges.

Though it is the long way round to Saint John, the only way to see the Bay of Fundy with the tides playing about the flowerpots at Hopewell Rocks is to take Route 114 out of Moncton. This road also passes through the hikers’ paradise of Fundy National Park before exiting at Sussex, the covered-bridge capital of Atlantic Canada.

The four-lane Hwy 1 leading back to Saint John offers a scenic overview of the Kennebecasis River valley. A detour into the towns of Hampton, Quispamsis and Rothesay is worthwhile; you’ll get a closer look at the silvery river from the hilltops. The principal highway of the province takes visitors to the end of their tour of New Brunswick.