Colour is the first thing that hits you in Lunenburg: wooden houses in mustard, barn red, teal and white, climbing the slope from the harbour in tidy rows. The town sits on Nova Scotia's South Shore, on a peninsula facing the Atlantic, and it is one of the best-preserved examples of a planned British colonial town in North America. It was founded in 1753, and the grid of streets laid out then is still the grid you walk now. The first settlers were largely Protestants from German-speaking lands, along with some Swiss and French, which is why you still hear names like Zwicker and Rhuland.
The harbour made the place. Lunenburg lived off the Grand Banks fishery, and its schooners and shipyards were famous. The most famous of all was the Bluenose, a racing and fishing schooner launched here in 1921, which won the international fishermen's trophy through the 1920s and 1930s and ended up on the Canadian dime. The Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic stands on the waterfront and tells that story, with vessels you can step aboard. Look up at the roofs too, because many of the houses have the so-called Lunenburg bump, a little dormer-like extension over the front door.
Getting here is a pleasure. The Lighthouse Route, Route 3, follows the coast through fishing coves and small harbours, with the sea on one side and spruce on the other, while Highway 103 is faster and quieter. Corners are gentle and roads are generally in decent shape, though frost heaves can bite in spring. Fog rolls in off the cold water, especially in early summer, and it can drop the temperature sharply, so carry a layer. September and early October are lovely, with warm days and cool nights, and the crowds thin out.
Lunenburg itself, with about 2,000 people, has cafés, pubs and small restaurants, and the steep streets are best walked rather than ridden. For fuel and a bigger supermarket, Bridgewater, about 17 km north, is the town to use. Seafood is the obvious thing to eat, from chowder to fresh scallops and lobster in season, and there is a smoked-fish and Solomon Gundy tradition in the area for the adventurous. Park near the waterfront and take an hour to wander uphill to the church on the hill, whose steeple stands out above the colourful roofs.