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Just to prove that I am not always in the woods (so to speak) every weekend, I do sometimes visit towns and cities and do urban walks.

I find it fascinating to walk around a city and really see what it has to offer. This week I will visit two urban areas, Saint John and Shediac. I know they cannot really be compared, and I am not trying to compare them: I am merely getting some exercise and taking in some of their finer features.

Starting in Saint John I decided to play Joe Tourist and visit some of the well-known tourist spots in the city.

I started off in the morning by parking in the underground parking facility next to the Hilton hotel on the waterfront.

There the car would stay for the rest of the day as I began by having breakfast at the Hilton, while waiting for the New Brunswick Museum to open at 9 a.m. I have been to the museum before but it has been a while, and it really is a great place to catch up on your knowledge of the shipbuilding industry in N.B., not to mention whales in the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick artists and artisans and their work, industries of N.B, especially forestry, and a room full of classic New Brunswick-made furniture. All of this is beautifully displayed over three separate floors or levels.

I took the tour of the whale exhibit and was pleased to confirm that everything we do in our short whale presentation at the Hopewell Rocks was in complete sync with what the interpreter in the tour was saying. Most of the commonly found whales in the bay (plus a few others) were cleverly hung from the ceiling, complete with informative panels telling their story and accompanied by the sounds of whale speak playing in the background.

After a morning in the museum, I strolled around Market Square looking for a place to get a haircut, and maybe a few tips on things to see.

I was looking for a barber shop to get the real goods on the city, but gave up because of hunger pains and ended up in a spa, where the young woman did a great job on what hair I have left, but did not provide me with any juicy gossip or insights into the city.

Next, looking for a good place to have lunch, I wended my way through the pedway system, which connects a lot of uptown Saint John.

I ended up on one of several waterfront patios in the warm (for Saint John) sunshine. It was an alehouse and they provided me with a succulent chicken wrap and salad, one of the best I have ever had.

After just enough lunch I proceeded up to the famous City Market to see what they had to offer. It is in a unique building and as you walk up the steeply slanted length of the market you notice that the roof is built like a ship's inverted hull.

It is Canada's oldest continuing farmer's market and has a special warm nurturing feeling even though it bustles with activity. It has wonderful and sometimes confusing smells and aromas.

After quite a stroll, I got to the historic Carleton Martello Tower which sits high up on a rocky hillside and provides great views of the city. It was a British fort built during the war of 1812 and is well worth a visit.

Stretching the walk quite a bit further, you can go on to the famous Reversing Falls. You can walk to the bridge to a viewing area then cross over the bridge to another deck on the roof of the main building. If you are hungry you can have a meal in one of two restaurants on the site, and then enjoy a film explaining the phenomenon of the falls.

After that you can descend to water level to get a different perspective and possibly go on a harbour cruise which leaves from this area.

If you are really adventurous you can go around to the river side of the bridge and take a wild ride on a jet boat.

The timing was wrong for me to partake this time, but I have observed it in the past, and I can tell you it was exciting just watching, and judging from the smiles on peoples' faces when disembarking, it is piles of fun.

I have by no means covered all there is to do in Saint John, but that is how I spent one very full day there recently. I should mention that in the past I have been there when there were cruise ships in port and that spending some time ogling cruise ship passengers from all over the world from the deck at Steamers Lobster Company restaurant on Water Street is a real blast.

About the only thing Shediac and Saint John have in common is that they are both by the sea, albeit near very different bodies of water.

You can start your Shediac stroll from the giant lobster and proceed over the Foch bridge and in to the downtown area past the beautiful Tait House built in 1911 and now an Inn and a fabulous restaurant. There are many other historic houses to see as well as shops and restaurants as you proceed through town.

When you get to Pascal Poirier Park near the end of the "downtown," you can walk through it and head past the old train station and into and through the parking lot of the large federal building to join up with the old railway line, which is now a walking and biking trail.

This trail will take you through to a junction where you will have to make a decision: go straight or turn right.

Turning right will extend the hike and will enable you to do a nice long loop and end up at the junction again. That is what I normally do and it takes you out near the entrance to Parlee Beach. You re enter a wooded area and follow along and come out in the beach parking lot. Go out on to the beach at the far end by the canteen and stroll back along the beach past the lifeguard station and on to the change house and volleyball courts. Here you cross a little wooden bridge and go right and follow along to a public road out to the Pointe-du-Chene road and down to the wharf.

If it is the summer, you can buy an ice cream, have a beer, eat dinner, go for a swim, buy fresh fish, go on a lobster interpreting cruise in the bay, dream of owning one of the yachts in the marina, or simply people watch.

When leaving the wharf, you must continue straight up the road and resist the urge to follow the Point road left. Instead, you must go straight on to another street and continue until the end.

There you will rejoin the old railway line that crosses a modern foot bridge over a lagoon to the left and an inlet from Shediac Bay to the right.

Before you know it, you will be back at the junction mentioned earlier and on your way back to downtown Shediac.

If you wish, you can come off the old railway line after it passes through the Par 3 golf course and go up on to the main drag. Doing this will not make the hike any longer, but will afford you the opportunity to see some lovely real estate and maybe visit Pascal Poirier House.

The house is Shediac's oldest and was the home of Pascal Poirier who was a great Acadian patriot. He was a lawyer and a writer and an advocate of Acadian causes. Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald appointed him the first senator from Acadian Canada. It is now a historical museum and is open to visitors.

Okay, back to the giant lobster and your vehicle. I have never measured the distance involved in this hike, but would estimate it to be 13 km or 8.2 miles.

You could shorten it by parking in the federal building parking lot. That would knock off a couple of K's.

The distance of the Saint John hike is hard to estimate as I did a lot of meandering, but it was all interesting and sometimes a little tricky getting to Martello Tower and the Reversing Falls.

One thing for sure it is a lot different than hiking where I normally hike, but a pleasant change nonetheless.

That sums up the urban hiking locations. I will be back next column with a delicious, colourful, cool, bug-free autumn hike for you to try.

n Paul Gaudet is the manager of interpretive services at the Hopewell Rocks Tidal Exploration Site at Hopewell Cape. He can be reached at pgaudet_abc@hotmail.com. His column appears every other week.