Had only a very few rather busy days in Halifax so unable to do extensive sightseeing, but certainly have a long list of things to do if/when we get back there.

Want to report on two restaurants, one B&B, and two sights:

Restaurants: 1. Taj Mahal -- some of the best Indian food I've had anywhere. Not all of it heavy, not all of it fiery, all with fresh components (esp. seafood), and friendly service. It's at the end of South Park across from the Westin and diagonally from Pier 21. 2. Sweet Basil -- slightly upscale fusion/eclectic/designer. Very popular, with some serious hits and slight misses. Exquisite: the lobster; less so, some of the constructed towers of fish on top of other stuff with "moats," which turn out to be just flavored broth surrounding the fish-plus-starch (rice or..) island, which makes eating the whole thing a little messy. The fish is good, but "avocado quennelles" turned out to be blobs of smushed avocado that melted into the fruit broth around haddock. Kind of blurred all flavors. Desserts was hypersweet, which means the Sweet Toothed raved and others just quit half-way through.

B&B: The Garden Inn on South Park. Pretty Victorian house close to all Dalhousie hospitals and other buildings, less convenient to more active parts of the city. Breakfast is somewhat slim -- dry cereal with milk or sweet rolls or toast; no protein or fruit. Rooms are comfy though our beds were hard. Room-unit airconditioning came in very handy during an unusual warm spell. Free use of a computer with quick internet access was very useful. Quirky phone set-up somewhat less so - and the wake-up call never came. No one's around between 11 and 6 am, although you can ring a bell to fetch someone somewhere. Nicest view to one side is a cemetary; view elsewhere is just framehouse next door. But reasonably priced and quite comfortable overall.

Sights: 1. the Art Gallery -- worth a look to see some good Canadian artists, although the main exhibit while we were there was an American landscapist (April Gornick). 2. historic area and dock area -- a great wandering place, with wonderful collection of shops (books, antiques, designer clothes) and restaurants of all sorts. While we were there, a major festival was occupying a lot of the waterside area -- suspect a number of these go on during the summer.

Regrets: not being able to enjoy the Jazz Festival -- we heard one "Celtic Salsa" session that sounded great; not being able to go outside Halifax to see the rest of Nova Scotia; not having time to enjoy the public gardens or the historic Citadel.

Airport and taxi issues: The airport is at some distance from the city, and the fixed rate is supposedly $41. However, my return taxi insists that that's only FROM the airport, and that TO the airport it's supposed to be by the meter. The price of gas, etc. is really pinching the drivers, but so is an apparent abundance of cabs, so competition is a little fierce -- so some negotiation is possible for the return trip, and I heard prices from $34 to $45. quoted to colleagues.

Unfortunately, a lot of the flights connecting to US airports (Boston, NY, EWR) leave at 6 or so, and the airport doesn't open in theory until 4:45, altho' the airlines insist you're supposed to be there 2 hrs. early. The result: a degree of chaos until about 5 am, not something you welcome after rising at 4 to worry about whether the cab will in fact come get you.

There is one service for $12 that will shuttle you to certain hotels, but all reports are that this is a strange company that will make strange decisions along the way, so make sure you have some flexibility in time if you decide to use them. I don't think they work for the 6 am flights anyway.

One last airport issue: fog. The taxi driver told me (for what it's worth) that the airport was moved from a fog-plagued area to another that never had much fog, only to have the fog become a problem once the land was cleared. Whatever the reason, early morning flights can often be delayed considerably, so plan accordingly.