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Hanover – Woodstock –
Manchester – Bennington
Wednesday, 4th October, 22 °C, partly cloudy, distance 179 miles
After breakfast at the Cascade Coffee
House we were on the road by 9 a.m. We took US 118 to Warren, NH, where we were
surprised to see a rocket standing next to the village church! A former resident had
convinced the
government to donate an unused rocket to the town to put on display. We crossed the Connecticut River
near Orford and via I-91 south we reached Hanover, home of 
Dartmouth College,
one of the famous Ivy League colleges,
same as Harvard and Yale. Then we left New Hampshire and entered Vermont. We
stopped at the bridge across the Quechee Gorge, Vermont's Little Grand Canyon. Next we
drove past a country store with plush cows
and sheep on the meadow! We stopped at the wooden bridge in Taftsville
and by 12:20 p.m. we had arrived in Woodstock (not the Woodstock of the music
festival). Woodstock, Vermont, is a typical New England village. We had lunch with pastries
and coffee from a bakery. Back on Highway 100 via Ludlow and Weston (the latter
is famous for its country store) we arrived in Manchester. The foliage in the Green
Mountains was not as spectacular as what we had seen in the White Mountains, probably still too
early down here.
The historic Equinox Hotel in the Village of Manchester
has already seen
Abraham Lincoln's family spending their holidays here. We drove up the 5 miles long Mt. Equinox Skyline
Drive ($10 for two)
to the
summit at 1170m. Unfortunately the view was greatly obstructed by trees. We did a little
hike along a wet and slippery path to Lookout Rock which offered a good view of
Manchester Village from above. Back at the bottom we set out to find the covered bridge in East Arlington
and shortly before 5 p.m. we reached the Harwood Hill Motel in Bennington which
we had booked in advance via telephone. We had a little cottage with a Queen Bed,
fridge and coffee maker. The owner recommended two restaurants in the area. We
chose Kevin’s at Mike’s Place in North Bennington which is frequented by the
locals a lot and it was indeed very good ($31 incl. tip for pork chops and broiled
flounder with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables).
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Bennington –
Williamstown – Mohawk Trail – Deerfield – Hartford
Thursday, 5th October, 17 °C,
sunny, distance 194 miles
 After
a self-made breakfast in our room, we were on the road again by 9:30
a.m. It was another beautiful day. First we visited the 3 covered
bridges of North Bennington, then we drove to the Bennington Battle
Monument. There was a lift to the top of the obelisk ($2 each). The
viewing platform offers a great view of Bennington from above and its
surroundings. Afterwards we had a look at Old First Church. By now it
was 11 a.m. and we left Bennington via US 7 to the south. Shortly after
crossing the border to Massachusetts we reached Williamstown on US 2.
Most buildings along Main Street are a part of Williams College. The
highlight was a magnificent white church in typical New England style.
In historic Spring Street we bought sandwiches at Subway which we ate
for lunch on one of our first stops along the
Mohawk Trail,
a 63 miles long former Indian route through the northern Berkshires. It
is also a popular foliage route. Eventually we reached
Shelburne Falls with its Bridge of Flowers. Some glacial potholes can be
seen here along Salmon Falls in the centre of town.
Around 2 p.m. we reached
Historic Deerfield with well-preserved colonial-style buildings. Further south on I-91 we got to Hartford, capital of Connecticut. It was
4 p.m. and rush hour traffic. We had a look at the villas where Mark
Twain, author of "Tom Sawyer", and Harriet Beecher-Stowe,
author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin", lived. After another stop at
the impressive capitol with its golden dome we headed back on the
motorway. Around 5:30 p.m. we reached our accommodation for the night,
Motel 6 in Southington. We got a good internet rate and found the motel
was really good value. It was just off the Interstate with lots of
eateries all around.
Unfortunately we
didn't have the chance to go on a whale-watching trip or on a moose
safari. But at least we didn't hit any moose on the road by accident!
The two weeks we had were
time enough to get a good impression of this area, but there's still so
much more to see, thus three weeks or even four would have been easy to
fill! |
 
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New Haven - Yale -
Newark
Friday, 6th October, 13 °C, cloudy, distance 144 miles
The forecast had promised
another sunny day, however, it was going to stay grey. We left the motel
at 8:40 a.m. and drove down to New Haven where we had a look at
Lighthouse Point Park ($10 during summer and on weekends). Then we
stopped at Yale University, very close to New Haven's downtown. By 10:30
a.m. we had to be on our way again. We made another stop at Westfield
Shopping Town near Bridgeport along Merritt Parkway where we bought a
pair of jeans each ($50 total for a Lee and a Levis jeans) and we had
lunch at Panda Express. At 12 p.m. we were on the road again. The trees
along the parkway were still pretty greenish. Still too early for fall
foliage down here. On Interstate 95 we crossed George Washington Bridge
(no toll from this direction). We had to return the car by 3 p.m., but
we were more than an hour early, good timing. We took the AirTrain to
the terminal and had to queue at the Continental check-in which took
about an hour, then through the security scan. The departure was
scheduled for 6:45 p.m. but it was delayed for about 30 minutes. The
return flight was 6.5 hours only. About 10 seats remained empty, but not
in our row unfortunately. The movie programme wasn't great. In spite of
the delay we arrived at Köln-Bonn airport 20 minutes early: 7:50 a.m.
on Saturday, 7th October. It was 2 a.m. at the US east coast, so we were
not that tired yet. Germany greeted us with 12 °C and a light drizzle,
however, it was still going to be a beautiful day. For the New England
states it was Columbus Day weekend and the forecast had promised
glorious weather - ideal for leaf watchers! And the hotels should be
full... |
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