Well we are back from our research visit / holiday of New Brunswick.

We flew into Boston and hired a car from Avis for the whole of the three weeks. It was cheaper than flying to Halifax and doing the same.  We stayed overnight in Maine at a pretty  beach cottage. They didn't seem to mind renting out a beach cottage for a single saturday night at the height of the season. We drove up the next day through Maine in NB. The roads in NB were in a much better shape than Maine's!

Our first week was in Fredericton New Brunswick, the capital city of around 75,000 people. Fredericton is a beautiful city on the banks of the Saint John River with tall elm trees and free outdoor screenings of cinema classics.  We made friends with our Bed and Breakfast hosts (Chickadee Lodge) and we spent most of the week looking at real estate, I had several interviews with companies for information and some tourist bits.

Our second week was at Moncton, a vibrant city two hours drive away from Fredericton with a mixed English and French population.  Moncton was a busy city of nearly 100,000 close to the Northumberland Straits (warmest water north of Virginia). We spent a lovely day on the beautiful Parlee Beach in the warm waters. Again we spent most of our time looking at real estate, schools and more interviews. The french cultural influence in New Brunswick is beneficial in many areas, especially its food after the plain food in Maine.

At the end of the second week we drove around the coast heading south to Saint John the industrial town of over 120,000 people. We stayed at a B&B about 30 minutes outside the city. Once again we visited real estate areas and I had a couple of interviews and we tried out the amazing reversing falls. Saint John is a city that is similar to industrial cities in the UK where they are still trying to find their new future.

During the whole three weeks we had only travelled around the south of New Brunswick and driven on highways were we could only see a few cars infront of us and far behind even during the bank holiday while driving to the beach. Nothing like the UK!

We fell in love with Fredericton and its easy going people, beautiful Odell Park, clean streets, and friendly people.