Here & There in PEI: Charlottetown, Greenwich, East Point

Charlottetown

Prince Edward Island is small -- in fact, it's the smallest Canadian province at just about 140 miles long and anywhere between 4 and 40 miles wide. Fewer than 150,000 people call it home. And it's a true island: the only ways to get there via the mainland are by ferry or an 8-mile bridge. (We chose the latter.)

Its size makes Prince Edward Island easy to get around. The roads are well-marked, and with a good map in hand, we were able to put away the GPS the entire three days we were there. And we saw a good bit of the central and eastern parts of the island, as well.

Charlottetown

On our first full day in PEI, we went to Charlottetown. We had tickets to see the "Anne of Green Gables" musical that night, but I also wanted to walk around the town that was *the* big city in the "Anne" books. It's still PEI's biggest city, with 64,000 people.

The city attracts cruise ships and seemingly plenty of tourists (for PEI, that is). There wasn't much to do, and only a little more to see, but the visit made for a pleasant afternoon. We browsed the shops along Peake's Wharf at the waterfront and marina and finally ordered cones from one of the island's well-regarded Cows ice cream shops and meandered along Confederation Landing.

Of course, we visited the Anne of Green Gables shop and the short pedestrian-only block of Richmond Street called Victoria Row. We also walked to the edge of Victoria Park and sat on a waterfront bench before heading back to the center of the city for supper and the show.

Sign at Victoria Row

View from edge of Victoria Park

Greenwich

Paul wanted to walk some trails while we were at Prince Edward Island, and our bed and breakfast had an immediate suggestion: visit Greenwich Provincial Park.

The 90-minute Greenwich Dunes trail takes you over a floating boardwalk and sand dunes to a  beach with only a handful of others who had made the hike. No one was swimming, but it was quiet and peaceful. And Paul got to show off his stone-skipping skills once more.

The floating boardwalk

East Point

From Greenwich, we drove to East Point, the northeastern-most tip of the island. We ate lunch at the small cafe there, but mostly we just took in the views. It felt like we were at the end of the world.