17 Apr 09

To New York

We woke a 6 to get catch the 8am Lucky Star Bus to NYC when we got there an hour early (ala Greyhound, to ensure your seat) they said that we could catch the 7am so we opted for that and had two seats each so managed to get some sleep on the 4 hour trip. We arrived into the heart of Chinatown at about 11am and called a taxi to get to the Millennium Hilton, immediately next to Ground Zero, in fact our hotel room looked right over the entire site which is quite a moving sight when you get the sense of scale. Of course at the moment it is one massive building site for the construction of the 5 new buildings.
We then headed Uptown to Zabars Deli again to get a few things to take home, mainly some more smoked mozzarella and 1lb of Pastrami! We then headed down to S's favourite comic book stand and again headed back to finish the packing and have a last iced green tea with lemonade. For dinner we opted for a hamburger joint, which the book said was one of the best. The menu includes over 60 burgers (but no fries). We shared a starter of Cajun chicken skewers. S had a main of a burger with American (cheese), Ham, BBQ sauce, M had the Hippo Burger, guacamole, sauteed onions, Swiss, bacon and curried sour cream. We also shared a jacket potato.

We then headed to the Rockefeller Centre to catch sunset at the Top of the Rock which was breathtaking. I would be controversial and say that the view is a bit better from the Rock, there is an amazing view of Central Park but also a very impressive view of the Empire State Building. Having said that, I would still strongly recommend the atmosphere of going up the Empire State. We then were beginning to feel the 6am start and also remembered that we had to be up at 4am in the morning so had to head back to the Hotel.

16 Apr 09

Today we had a burrito breakfast at the posh shopping mall attached to our hotel and decided to go for a land and water tour of Boston to find that the cost was about $15 more than the book said so we decided against it. Instead we decided to head to Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Socks. Of all the places we visited, all with several different sports teams I was suprised that very few people wear clothing to show their affiliation as much as they do here, until Boston that is, hundreds of people have the red socks emblem on jackets, jumpers, t-shirts and mostly, baseball hats. The tour was the first thing we have been on that was busy and it was actually completly full!! The stadium had a fab atmosphere even tho it was empty, helped a lot by a fab 76 year old tour guide who had even worse jokes than S (no joke, it turns out it is possible!).
After that we popped a couple blocks down to the Isabella Garner Stuart Museum. This is the sole collection of Isabella and housed in a purpose built gallery. Unfortunately you cannot take any pictures in the museum which is a HUGE shame because the biggest feature of the gallery is an amazing three storey courtyard in the middle of the building which houses some of the collection (mostly Roman, including a mosaic) and stunning plants and flowers. The gallery is very interesting and user friendly as she designed each room so that the look of the different pieces go together rather than going by style, period or artist. Very little is labelled so it is all about just getting the general feel, therefore it doesn't really matter that the most famous pieces were all stolen in the 1990's.
We also stopped in at the museum cafe for some afternoon tea, S was English Breakfast and a Chocolate Gateaux Tort, for M, Earl Grey and Apple Crisp (i.e. Crumble) with Burnt Sugar Ice Cream both of which were delicious.

We then headed back to base for a quick recoup before heading for a seafood resturant called The Barking Crab. We started off a little astray by choosing the wrong bridge but when we found it, it turned out to be a very busy marque with loads of people chatting and laughing and a live music act. We opted for sharing a bucket of crab claws, then for mains S had a crab burger and M the fisherman platter (prawns, scallops, clams and haddock).
We had also ordered a pitcher of the local seasonal beer which we finished at the bar watching the Bruins beat Montreal again.

We then wandered home through the heart of the financial district.

15 Apr 09

20:56 EST

Tax day, all tax returns have to be filled today and therefore all the press seems to be dominated by it, and there are also deals in loads of shops which creates an interesting atmosphere. We were watching CNN and there was a reporter at a TEA party (based on the famous event here in Boston and also stands for Taxed Enough Already) who almost had a full blown fight with a number of protesters which was strange viewing. This also queued a very funny report about 'teabagging action' all over the and comparing the number of protesters to a number of people who turned out to such events as a Motley Crew reunion, Pet Festivals etc and great quotes such as “people were stopped from trying to teabag the treasury department without a permit” and “teabagging on the White House lawn”. The joys of very biased news presenting.

Anyway, enough of the current news and back to our holiday, today was car return day so we set off from the Super 8 and headed to the (bloody windy) beach to see if we could see home (we couldn't) and then headed North off of Cape Cod and towards Boston. Thanks to some brilliant navigation from S and the big dig tunnels which go under the entire city and harbour it was a lot easier than M expected it to be to get to the other side of Boston to drop the car off at the airport.

Our trusty steed

We then got on the T back to the middle of town and found our Marriott Hotel (thanks to priceline) and dropped off our stuff before heading for a wander around town in the beautiful sunshine and getting a Burrito to eat sat of a park bench watching the birds, ducks and squirrels, all of which are very friendly, in particular the mallard that tried to eat S's finger.

We then came back for a quick snooze before a planned evening out, with grand ideas of going to a couple of bars as we are able to have a lie in tomorrow for the last time this holiday. With this in mind we headed back to the same restaurant we went to last time. This time things were slightly different as there was a sports programme being filmed but we still had a very nice meal. Firstly we ordered a pitcher of Harpoon IPA and got ID'd, very flattering, then M had a boisin mushroom burger and S had a double bbq burger (that is 1lb of meat). All the food was very delicious but very filling (esp for S) so we decided to head back to base and have an early night as well as a lie in (mostly as it may be the most comfy bed i have ever been in).

The view from our hotel room of the Boston Skyline

14 Apr 09

Steve has been tasked with writing todays blog entry as he is well and truly in the doghouse, more details will follow...

Today officially started at about 01:20pm due to a rather awful start to the day. We woke up as normal at about 10am and packed up all our stuff and made our way to Mystic where we had planned to have brunch. Upon arrival, S got out of the car, patted his waist and realised that he was missing a rather vital piece of equipment. His money belt. This contained his passport, driving license, debit card and $200 and was still sitting underneath his pillow in the motel room in Hartford, about 1 hour 20mins away.

We jumped back in the car and immediately made out way back the way we came to the motel, where without even asking, the manager passed me the money belt (phew!) minus the $200 (doh!). Unfortunately as we had no way of proving that the money was ever in the belt we had no real case to take to the police, and all the other contents were intact. So a rather sheepish S and a rather angry M made our way (at 1:20pm), via a slightly faster route, back to Mystic with money belt firmly attached to S's waist.

When we finally arrived back at Mystic, we made our way to the the Pizzaria made famous by the film "Mystic Pizza" (well, S had heard of it anyway!), the movie that made Julia Roberts famous. It should be noted at this point that we are making a mental list of the best "meat feast" type pizzas we've had on our trip, hence the reason that we shared a "meatza pizza" (for comparison reasons :) ) and a moussaka pizza. Both of which were excellent, and definitely deserve the reputation gained since the film was released in the late eighties. For those interested in our top 5 meat pizzas, we will compile the list at the end of the holiday.

By the time we had eaten and made our way back to the car it was 4:30pm and so was time to move on to our resting place for the evening. It was a rather ambitious goal even before the mishap earlier in the day so we needed to push on. We took the coastal route into Rhode Island (the USA's smallest state) and took the scenic route through some islands in the bay below Providence RI over some breathtakingly large bridges and passed rather quickly out of Rhode Island and back into Massachusetts and onto the peninsula of Cape Cod. We had planned our route to stay in a motel of the same chain as last night, so we drove about half way along the peninsula to the very very touristy town of West Yarmouth and checked in.

After a short refreshment break we realised that it was rapidly approaching 8pm and so we set out walking along the main road (surrounded by motels and holiday resorts) and came across a rather nice looking restaurant that appeared to be one of the only ones open! S had a chicken soup followed by roast duck in an orange sauce, M had the same soup with a sea food pasta dish. Both were very nice, but the puddings took the biscuit!! S had a chocolate fudge brownie which was hot, very sticky and wonderfully chocolatey and M had a New York cheesecake with strawberries which was rich and delicious! Feeling rather full we embarked on the 30min walk back to the motel where we are sat blogging and reading.

13 Apr 09

22:57 EST

Not a particularly long post today as not really much was done! Most of the day was spent driving and so not very interesting to write about, even though it was a wonderful drive. So today we started with a coffee over the road from the Motel and headed back to the route 100 South towards Brattleboro right at the southern end of Vermont, we took a slightly unplanned route along the Interstate 91 which gave us the perfect opportunity to see the landscape begin to flatten. Along the way we passed about three different summer camps, mostly around lakes (still frozen!).

Brattleboro was a beautiful little town with several pretty churches and lots of posh gift shops. We had lunch at the Riverview Cafe, right next to the, well River, S had the burger and chips and M had the clam chowder, both of which were as good as the view.
We then headed back to the I91 and headed out of Vermont and into Massachusetts and then out again into Connecticut to the town of Hartford. We found a really good value out of town Motel (a chain called Super 8, recommended if you ever come) and then headed in towards town to go to Mark Twain's house, mostly as it was something to do but actually turned out to be quite interesting. The house itself is stunning and the tour was very informative.
We have now had an evening off, M didn't fancy driving into the middle of a city so we opted for take-out delivery and watched some films and played computer games (I like to excuse it as an evening trying to recreate a traditional evening in the lives of the locals)!!

12 Apr 09

19:24 EST

Today, M discovered the cruise control!!

We started with a lazyish start, having both slept really well in the nicest bed and room we have seen for a while and headed into to town to find some breakfast. Lincoln is a one road town and all of the cafes and restaurants were closed (combination of off-season, Sunday and Easter Sunday) so we had to opt for MacDonald's for the first (and hopefully the last). We then headed on the scenic route towards Vermont which was indeed very pretty.

We passed a Wal-Mart Superstar and stopped into get some supplies and chocolates for respective works and a new suitcase after the damage caused during the flight here finally claimed the big case. The store was absolutely huge, as were most of the tellers and a lot of the products themselves including the vegetables.

We stopped for lunch in Montpelier (pronounced Mont Peel yer) which is actually the state capital, with a population the same as Bishops Waltham. It is very pretty with a wild westish feel. We stopped at a very busy dinner that was listed in the guidebook and both had the burger from the specials menu while chatting to a nice older couple who were at the same large table as us.

We then continued onto Waterbury Vermont, home of Ben and Jerry's and went on the factory tour. This started with a film on the founding of the company by Ben and Jerry off the back of a $5 dollar correspondence course and all because an ice cream machine was cheaper than a bagel maker!

The tour then went to the mezzanine above the factory floor, it wasn't actually in opporation today (again, Easter Sunday) but you could see how they make half a million pints a day. The tour then finished in the sample room where we had a (well two in S's case after much goading from the tour guide) of orange and cream which was really quite nice (swirls of orange sorbet and vanilla ice cream not available in the UK), we then hit the shop before heading out into the still falling snow.

We then headed down the very pretty Route 100, stopping once at a very idyllic (but blinking cold) pond to Rutland (not pretty but cheap Motels) and found that again the only available food is chain fastfood so we opted for Pizza Hut.

11 Apr 09

08:04 EDT 01:04 BST

Today's blog is going to be short and sweet I'm afraid. Due to the constraints of being in the back of beyond, we have no wifi and are having to post from a public computer (hence no photo's tonight!). Turns out we do have a little wifi so please find photo's added below.

We got up bright and early this morning and made our way to Logan International Airport to pick the car up. Upon arrival we went through the whole process of booking a car out (including the rather annoying $25 per day under 25 surcharge!) and were given a choice of three "economy" sized cars in the car park outside. We settled on the non-American car of the three, the Toyota Yaris. Now in Europe, you get a Yaris and it's a nice compact run about, which is probably how the Americans view their version except that it's twice as big. Literally!

And so we were on our way (after a small mishap getting out of the airport) with M slowly getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road and also driving an automatic. Initially we headed out to Salem, just up the coast North of Boston, made famous by the Witchtrials of 1612 . We stopped off for a coffee to calm M's nerves and took a wander around a wax-work museum which documented some of the tales of the infamous year.
After quite a short period of time we headed back out, this time inland towards the fabled town of Meredith (any guesses why this was on the list of places to go?) which was about 2-3 hours drive away. We stopped off for lunch half way there at Canterbury Shaker Village, very much off the beaten track, but actually rather touristy and we weren't the only ones who had made the trip. As it turned out the village is no longer inhabited by the Shaker movement, in fact there is only one site left where Shakers still live, but a museum has been made from the still standing buildings. Our first stop was the restaurant as we were fairly famished by this point.
We started with some Shaker style bread (tasted like croissant) and M had the Mac and Cheese and S had the beef pot pie, both billed as being Shaker staples and both delicious. We washed those down with a glass or two of traditional spiced grape juice which was lovely.

The museum itself normally runs tours around and inside the buildings but they don't start till May so we contented ourselves buy wandering among the closed buildings with a few sneaky peeks through the windows.

We then decided to get back on the road and opted for the scenic route (M feeling more confident) and went along the edge to the lake to Meredith, which turns out to be very pretty and upmarket, so we did a quick tour of main street and the shops before heading off to Plymouth in a fruitless search for accommodation for the night, so then we headed up the highway through the White Mountain area to Lincoln, a ski and summer resort with discounted rooms for the off-season. We have the only hotel room in a resort of condominiums for rent and had a really nice chat with the manageress who recommended the Gypsy Cafe in town as a locals favourite, she also recommended the Mezza platta for starter which was superb and S had the chili cheese burger and M the Philadelphia (steak and peppers) sandwich, washed down with a glass of the local IPA (S) and a Margarita (M). We are now going to do a double check to make sure it is open on Easter Sunday, but all being well tomorrow is through the White Mountains, to the Ben and Jerry's factory and along route 100 to Rutland.