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The USA
Clam Chowder, Churches and a Kaleidoscope of Colour by Richard Cutler
Ten thousand feet below, the long sweeping arc of Cape Cod reached out into the Atlantic Ocean. We were commencing our approach into Boston's Logan International Airport at the start of a three-week holiday to New England. Before travelling north to the mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont however, we had planned a couple of days in Boston itself. As the airport shuttle bus slowly made its way through the rush hour traffic I was glad that I had not picked up a hire car immediately on arrival, it would not have been a good idea after a long day travelling. Boston is an interesting city. It has a lot of history centred on the struggle for American Independence--the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill and so on. It is also quite a compact city and is readily explored on foot. The Freedom Trail, a marked walking route links the main historical sights. Alternatively, take one of the several Trolley Tours covering most of the city's major attractions, which enable you to hop on and off all day long. Besides providing an excellent commentary, the drivers are also accomplished comedians. At one point our driver entertained us with a song and dance routine complete with straw boater, banjo and cane, while waiting at the traffic lights in the centre of the city! The drivers waiting behind us were quite amused too! The shopping is excellent, from the exclusive establishments in Newbury Street to the bargain basement of Filenes department store and the tourist boutiques of Faneuil Hall and Quincey market. Eating out is another pleasure with a wide variety of excellent restaurants, many featuring the best clam chowder in the world. All too soon it was time to leave Boston and head north on Interstate 93 to rural New England in its autumn glory. It is difficult to pick the peak time for the autumn foliage, but generally the last week in September and the first week in October should be pretty reliable. Because of the influx of "leaf peepers" at this time it is essential to reserve accommodation in advance and book early. Waiting at the airport on our return we spoke to an English couple who had decided to take pot-luck on accommodation. As a result they had had a miserable holiday spending a great deal of time looking for somewhere to spend the night and often having to accept some very dubious establishments. We had decided to rent a house for a week in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and another house for a week in the Green Mountains of Vermont. This we arranged with the help of Hallmark Travel who have an excellent range of brochures of homes to rent and car hire. Both our homes were first class--large and very well appointed with every piece of domestic equipment imaginable--except egg cups, which the Americans do not seem to use! Our first house even had a snooker room and about two bathrooms each, or was it more? Both homes were beautifully situated, particularly the one in Vermont. This was a large and very superior log cabin set in its own sixty acres of woodland high up on a hill with spectacular views of the surrounding Green Mountains. It was called Manitook, which means the country of the gods. It was aptly named. There was no shortage of things to do and see in the surrounding area. First and foremost we enjoyed the incredible colours of the autumn foliage--the scarlet of the red maples, the deep orange of the sugar maples and the yellows and browns of the birches and oaks. The hillsides were like patchwork quilts of different colours, contrasting magically with the bright blue sky above. With innumerable streams, waterfalls and lakes this is a superb area for walking and picnicking, or for the less energetic just cruising around in the car. The villages are equally attractive with their tree lined streets, neat white boarded colonial style homes and always the icing sugar churches. The area abounds with antique shops, art galleries and specialist food stores selling homemade cheeses and preserves, maple syrup and home-smoked bacon. Incidentally, Vermont is the home of Ben and Jerry's luxury ice cream. It was all a serious threat to the waistline! The final waistline disaster occurred with the discovery of Polly's Pancake Parlour where you can sample wholewheat, buckwheat, cornmeal and oatmeal-buttermilk pancakes with real maple syrup and a few slices of streaky bacon on top. What a way to go! There is no doubt this is a very attractive holiday area. The scenery is magnificent--there is plenty to see and do and the people are extremely friendly and hospitable. Permeating it all is the strong association with England. Nearly every town or village has a similar name to one in England, presumably reflecting the fact that the first settlers came from that town or village in the mother country. We really only scratched the surface of New England in one short visit. For example we did not visit any of the coastal areas of Maine, Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard or Rhode Island, nor did we explore other large areas of the other New England states. There is no question in my mind--we must return.
Alaska: the last frontierby Charmaine Hallmark
Forget cities and sophistication, forget hurry and worry, but keep your spirit of adventure, your love of wide wide open spaces, peace, quiet, wilderness and beauty! The Railroad follows a trail through Denali National Park and stops conveniently at points where we stayed over to relax and enjoy our surroundings. At Talkeetna we stayed in a charming bed and breakfast, the peaks of Mt McKinley on the distant horizon. You can see the snow capped tops for miles. The train is a wonderful way to travel--comfortable dome cars, informative commentary and a delicious restaurant! All the while Alaska's breathtaking scenery is unfolding all around you. We stayed a couple of days at Denali, just walking and enjoying the fresh air! Early mornings and early nights were the order of the day. Overhead Mt McKinley stood magnificently above us. We took a light aircraft ride and flew as close to her as we dared. The snow at the top was like whipped ice cream and I was enthralled at the greatness of Nature. Our journey came to an end in Fairbanks, where we waved goodbye to the train, blowing its whistle and wishing us well. From here we hired a car and took the road south back to Anchorage. We spent a couple of days in Anchorage. There is a wonderful museum and some curios shops to visit. But my love of Alaska has to be the numerous glaciers, each different, the waterfalls and lakes. I've never seen such colours and reflections anywhere else in the world. And Denali Park--moose, bears, eagles--how lucky they are to call this place home!
Balloons, Bats and Burritosby Richard Cutler
Luckily Taos and Santa Fe are good shopping centres and have also become a mecca for artists and sculptors. Other points of interest in this area included the very moving National Vietnam Veterans Memorial set high up in the mountains. For historians interested in the ancient pueblo civilisation which existed before the Spanish arrived, Taos Pueblo, one of several pueblos or villages in the area where time has stood still for a thousand years is a fascinating experience. Our next stop was Albuquerque for the world's biggest annual hot air balloon fiesta. The mass ascension at dawn of the unusual shapes was a wonderful sight. Then it was south to White Sands National Monument, a vast expanse of brilliant white silica and sand dunes resembling an arctic landscape. Standing in the middle of this white wilderness watching the sun set behind the mountains was a memorable experience--total silence save for the gentle sound of the wind across the dunes. Driving on down to Carlsbad we passed Roswell, site of the supposed alien spacecraft crash landing in 1947. Carlsbad is famous for its complex of huge limestone caverns. From the entrance it is a mile and a quarter's walk and 800 feet down to the main caverns, which are quite dramatic in their sheer size and beauty. Returning to the surface is by lift, thankfully! At dusk we watched the night exodus of the half-a-million bats which inhabit the mouth of the cavern. They poured out of the cave like black liquid for some fifteen minutes and flew off into the evening sky for their night's foraging. They call New Mexico a land of enchantment, and it lived up to its description with beautiful and varied landscapes ranging from pine clad mountains to near desert, a wealth of art, and fascinating history. We shook the dust from our boots in lively New Orleans. We did all the tourist things from a steamboat trip on the Mississippi to a swamp tour looking for alligators. The French Quarter was another must, especially the famous Bourbon Street. We managed to find the famous Preservation Hall, where Louis Armstrong and others started, and listened to some superb traditional jazz from a group whose average age must have been over 70! We had to queue to get in and stand at the back of a very packed hall. But the rhythm was infectious!
Buffalo and bikers in the Black Hillsby Richard CutlerThere were cowboys everywhere, complete with snakeskin boots, jeans, loud check shirts and wide brimmed Stetsons, clutching cans of Budweiser wherever they went. We had arrived at Cheyenne, the first stop from Denver on our fly-drive holiday to Wyoming, South Dakota and Colorado. We had caught the last day of Cheyenne's annual weeklong "Frontier Days" celebration and were therefore able to enjoy a great afternoon at the rodeo. Next day we moved on across the seemingly endless grasslands of Wyoming to Custer State Park in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota. Here we had our own little cabin among the pines at one of the park's lodges and this served as an excellent base for a few days to explore the area. We visited Mount Rushmore with its huge sculpted heads of four presidents as well as the equally impressive Crazy Horse monument nearby which is still under construction. Here a 600-foor sculpture of Crazy Horse, the legendary chief of the Sioux Indians whose land this was, is being carved (or rather blasted) from a granite mountain. Millions of tons of rock have been removed and the head (nine storeys high) is now complete but it will be many years before this gigantic project is finished. We also visited the Devils Tower, a geological wonder, steeped in Indian legend, that rises abruptly 865 feet above the surrounding Belle Fourche River Valley. This was the location of the spaceship landing in the film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". We didn't actually spot any aliens but we did meet up with some rather unconventional characters the next day at a little town called Sturgis. Sturgis has a population of only 6,000 but for one week every year it is the venue for the largest motorcycle rally in North America (if not the world) when some 300,000 bikes descend on the town from all over the states and abroad. The streets are closed to normal traffic and it becomes a biker's paradise. Harley Davidsons dominate the scene and the air is filled with their throaty growl as the proud owners of these immaculately turned out and decorated machines cruise around the town. The scarlet headbands were everywhere, while there was a fair sprinkling of tattooed blonde girlfriends bursting out of skimpy black leather waistcoats. One of them even carried her pet baby python around with her, concealed somewhere about her person! Next day, by contrast, the magnificent herd of buffalo in Custer Park looked positively dignified and that evening we felt rather guilty tucking in to our prime buffalo steaks (low fat and low cholesterol by the way). We consoled ourselves with the thought, however, that the more buffalo we eat the more they will be farmed and the more the herds will increase. From the Black Hills we turned south again to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, more than fifty of whose peaks are over 14,000 feet. This is a beautiful area with magnificent mountain scenery, some of the highest mountain roads in North America, plenty of wildlife, a fascinating mining history, narrow gauge railways, ghost towns and tastefully restored gold rush settlements. It is also a great skiing area with the exclusive resorts of Vail and Aspen brimming with designer shops and gourmet restaurants. Here you could easily find yourself sitting next to Tom Cruise, Kevin Costner or any of the other celebrities who have multi million pound homes on the mountain slopes. From Aspen we drove over the breathtaking 12,000 feet Independence Pass to Colorado Springs, one of the fastest growing cities in the state. Here we visited the Garden of the Gods with its strange red rock formation sand the stunning chapel at the U.S. Air Force Academy. We also drove out to the highest suspension bridge in the world spanning the Royal Gorge and the foaming Arkansas River 1,053 feet below. After 2,000 miles driving and 11 different hotels, I have to confess we were ready to return to Denver and board our BA direct flight home to Gatwick, our minds buzzing with wonderful memories. |
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Three years ago I sailed a small ship on the "pan handle" of the state of Alaska. I have dreamed ever since of going back to that far corner of the world, and in June my wish came true. This time I travelled from Anchorage to Fairbanks on the historic Alaska Railroad.
Our fly-drive holiday to New Mexico started with an encounter with the American police and a reminder of the strict speed limits! But things soon improved and within a couple of days we were down to the Colorado/New Mexico border enjoying a whole-day trip on the spectacular Cumbres and Toltec narrow gauge steam railroad through some magnificent mountain scenery. The autumn foliage was stunning with the aspen trees in their full glory looking like liquid gold among the dark green pines, set off against a brilliant blue sky. As we moved on to Taos, just north of Santa Fe, the state capital and the oldest city in North America, the blue skies turned black and we ran into some unseasonable heavy rain.