Boston, Newport and New Haven were great, but it's the countryside we really came to New England to see, and with good reason. We left New Haven early and began the drive north through the rural parts of Connecticut in search of fall foliage at its peak. Sunday brunch was had in the picturesque town of Litchfield, in the northwestern part of CT, which is apparently a weekend destination for rich New Yorkers who have holiday houses in the hills. More or less unable to get lost because we have a GPS, we've made a point of driving as many back roads as possible so as to try and get a real taste of the places we're passing through.
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| A River in CT |
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| Daniel and Our Fully-Sick Maxima (with NY plates) |
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| Back Roads of Rural Connecticut |
Choosing routes other than the Interstates and Highways yields many rewards, and not just in the form of spectacular scenery and covered bridges (more on them later). You also stumble across some wonderful little villages. For example, Gaylordsville, Connecticut. Seriously.
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| The Gaylordsville Candy Shop |
Don't you just love their local candy store? It appears that whoever runs it has a sense of humour, or at least I hope they do... After spending a couple of hours looping aimlessly through the countryside we ended up in Hartford, the state's capital. Our true destination was the Mark Twain House and Museum - Twain (born Samuel Clemens) lived in Hartford from 1874 to 1891. He had the house built for him and his family, and it's actually quite ugly - apparently everyone in Hartford at the time thought so too.
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| Mark Twain House |
On the way out of Hartford we passed its Occupy movement of a measly six or seven tents camped in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere next to a freeway on-ramp. They didn't look as though they were making an impact on
anything, but one can only try I suppose. As it was getting late we cheated and drove up to Brattleboro, Vermont, through Massachusetts, on the interstate. It was dark when we got in, so we found a fantastic little restaurant for a tasty dinner of steak and pasta then called it a day. A good one.
I can understand why you think you could live in Vermont - we loved it too and remember staying at a most gorgeous B & B. Aren't the covered bridges just lovely. So glad you saw some Fall colour. We are so enjoying your beautiful descriptions - keep them coming. Much love, Nana xx
ReplyDeleteThe Bittersweet Shop is not a candy store, it's an antiques shop, named after the bittersweet vine that grows rampantly on the property. The building was originally the local grange hall build in 1910. The owner, Mark Estabrooks, lives in an apartment below the shop out back, and he happens to have a great sense of humor!
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