Our Favorite Town – Lunenburg

We have been able to visit numerous places in the Maritimes this summer but this one stands out as one of the best. It does have a good number of tourists (including us), but that does not take away from this beautiful town with friendly folks.

A fishing town through and through, Lunenburg has been obsessed with preserving the historical buildings throughout the “Old Town.” Situated on the Atlantic Coast, the colorful residences and the magnificent churches are easy to explore on foot.

The Old Town of Lunenburg has been awarded UNESCO Heritage status and now there are many requirements for building standards. Lunenburg was established in 1753 and almost entirely consists of private ownership to this day. Residents have made the commitment to maintain their homes to the authentic standards of the town’s early years. Maintaining these buildings is not inexpensive so some homeowners have just painted the sections of their houses that face the street, presumably waiting until budgets allow for additional upkeep.

One common feature of the houses is what is locally called the Lunenburg “bump.” As seen in the photos, these houses have a central dormer over the front door.

The Victorian style buildings typically have steep gabled roofs and are painted bright colors. One of the locals told us that one woman painted her house pink, to the horror of some of the townsfolk, but later more and more homeowners started to paint their houses bright colors also.

UNESCO states that Lunenburg is “the best surviving example of a planned British colonial settlement in North America.” Street after street have these wonderful residences that the townsfolk are striving to maintain to keep the historic nature of the town.

Lunenburg is not just for looking at houses. We were able to take advantage of being at the ocean and having a great spot to take out the kayak. The coastal islands help with the currents and make for excellent paddling. With our friends, Paul and Vicki, we spent the afternoon exploring the area around Blue Rocks. The friendly folks at Pleasant Paddling let us use their dock to put in and gave us hints as to what to explore.

One of their suggestions was to go under the bridge at the red house which was featured in the “Jesse Stone” series starring Tom Sellick.

The outfitters were surprised that we made it out as far as the lighthouse. We did and we took a break on the island. It is more of a beacon as opposed to a traditional lighthouse.

We were also lucky that we were in Lunenburg on a Saturday for the Farmer’s Market. This also has been our favorite market. Not only did they have plenty of vegetables and other market goods, they had the best bakery. This bakery was so good, I have to admit, I got extras to put in the freezer. They baked a dark chocolate croissant, called a “pepita” that is utterly amazing.

Lunenburg is packed with historic ships, schools, churches, buildings and an amazing museum. There are so many things to share about this wonderful coastal town that no doubt it will take several posts just to cover some of the highlights.