New England News

Time is getting short now before our departure for New England. We’ve never been to that part of the States before, so if anyone has any advice or recommendations, we’d like to hear them. Don’t be shy. All contributions welcomed.
The friends of our Californian friends landed in Barcelona this morning (according to the internet) and are planning on driving through Spain and Portugal to Lisbon. I would have allowed more time for a drive like that, but each to his own.
They will fly from Lisbon to Luxembourg on 17 September and we’ll show them around the area and how to use our appliances before flying off on 21 September. Our friend, Claire, from California will meet us at Boston airport and drive us to our new home from home, staying on for a week to show us around the area and get us orientated.
I’m stocking up on my meds so that I have enough to see me through the 6 weeks we’re staying there, as well as strips for my meter and lancets.
We’ve used air miles to upgrade our flights to Club so we’ll have a comfortable journey and I’ve bought a new camera to record the most memorable sights. I’ve got my own computer so Jackie won’t be able to complain that I monopolise hers.
We’re staying in Greenfield, Massachussetts, so the surrounding states of Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Maine and Rhode Island will all be within reach. We’ve been advised to visit the areas further north first as the famous fall starts in the northern states and moves south as the autumn progresses. Hope we can get some spectacular photos of those glorious trees.
Why did I waste my life working?
I’ll keep everyone posted here on the differences between the East Coast and the West as far as products suitable for diabetics are concerned.
And just to put us on the road to the workhouse, I'm keeping a promise I made to Jackie in 1969. In that year I went to the Monaco Grand Prix (Graham Hill won) and left her at home with the boys. Afterwards I promised her I would take her there sometime and never got around to keeping the promise. So to give her a break at Christmas I went online and checked out the prices of hotels in Monaco over the festive period and was surprised at how reasonable they were. And we can drive there from our home in Luxembourg. So I booked a room for four nights and we'll take a couple of days driving there and another couple driving back.

Thank you for the advice, Viv. At the end of our stay we're spending 3 nights in Boston at the Radisson Hotel on Stuart Street. I just looked on Google Earth and discovered that Stuart Street is quite close to Boyleston Square so we'll probably give your recommended restaurant a try. We're also just around the corner from the site of the Cocoanut Grove fire where almost five hundred people were killed and hundreds more injured when a fire broke out in a busy nightclub in November 1942.
I've jotted down your other suggestions, Nantucket and Marblehead, and I'm pretty sure we'll be paying them both a visit. Many thanks for your thoughtfulness.
And if I could afford it, I would take all the lovely people on this site with me. Sadly, though, my pension only goes so far. Unless I win the Euromillions lottery this evening.... :roll:

Sorry, Viv. I just checked the lottery numbers online and I got one number and no stars. Unpack your suitcase.

Our friends’ friends arrived at Luxembourg airport on time last Thursday afternoon. We took them on a deviation on the way home to show them the town and some of the sights. They were quite taken with Luxembourg City and the great gorge that runs through the centre. We drove them over both bridges so they could see it from several angles.
Then we headed home and got them settled in and unpacked before dinner. We spent the rest of the time until we departed on Monday showing them around, giving them the rundown on supermarkets and shopping malls. On Monday they drove us to the airport and we jetted off to Gatwick. After experiencing a horrible journey from Gatwick to Heathrow on the shuttle bus previously, we opted to be met by a driver and car for the drive to Heathrow.
Having used our air miles to upgrade to Club we were able to spend the hours before our flight in the BA Lounge at Terminal 5 so free drinks, free snacks, sandwiches, soup and newspapers were on offer. Our flight was on time and we enjoyed the whole Club class experience. For lunch I chose shrimp cocktail, sea bass and ice cream for desert. I was able to indulge myself with the ice cream and that was the only carb-containing dish I had had all day.
Our flight path took us over Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, quite distinctive in shape when you watch the moving map on the screen. I had intended to watch the film “from Here to Eternity”, a flick I haven’t seen seen in years, but the seat was so comfortable that I stretched out and found myself waking up three hours later as the cabin crew served afternoon tea.
Arriving at Boston’s Logan Airport, we found our Californian friend Claire waiting to meet us and drive us to Greenfield, Massachussetts, where we’ll be spending the next seven weeks. By the time we arrived darkness had fallen and we were both terribly weary, so we unloaded our bags from the car, dug our pjs out and after a quick cup of tea, fell into bed.
We were awake fairly early, the time difference having taken its toll, though we actually were up and about by 8 a.m. After breakfast, Claire drove us to a small New England town called Shelburne Falls, set on the Deerfield River. One of its features is an old trolley car bridge, now disused, which has been converted into a flower bed which visitors can walk across, admiring the enormous range of flowers planted along the length of the bridge.
On the way back we stopped off at a couple of supermarkets and did some shopping, largely for dinner that evening. Being the beginning of autumn, the shops have lots of squashes and pumpkins, great for diabetics. We bought a butternut squash and a cauliflower which I cooked together and pureed to go along with the Jamaican-style jerked chicken and the asparagus I prepared.
The trees here in northern Massachussetts are just beginning to take on an autumn tinge, but we are assurede that in a couple of weeks they will be in their full glory. We’ve been told that the trees change colour earlier in the north, so we’re planning to head up to Maine next week for a few days. The Maine coastline, we understand, is really spectacular.
Our journey today took us along a short stretch of the Mohawk Trail. Back in the ‘50s I reember reading the book “Drums Along the Mohawk” and letting myimagination work on pictures of the countryside that was just then being settled. My surprise today was that my imagination had been pretty accurate. I’ve been happily snapping away with my new Canon though I haven’t downloaded any of them yet.
Another delightful surprise today was that lobsters were being sold in the local supermarket for $4.95 a pound. We’ve invited our hosts’ son over for a lobster dinner tomorrow night and he’s going to sort my computer out so that I can log in to our hosts’ internet connection.

Claire decided that the best wasy to get us orientated was to drive us to some of the historic sites in the area. Our first stop was Deerfield, where a massacre tppk place by Mohawk Indians and French settlers who killed the men and kidnapped the women and children to use as slaves.
The village itself is absolutely gorgeous, with houses dating back to the 18th century lining a wide, tree-lined avenue. The trees are beginning to change colour and at the moment they are at the delicate stage of green-turning-to-yellow. Many of the houses are open to visitors and it’s never the same houses each day, so the visitor can come back frequently and see a different set of houses. We stopped in the historic Deerfield Inn and had a coffee on the terrace.
The weather has been mixed – mostly cloudy with sunny spells though the temperature is around 70°F with fairly high humidity. This afternoon the clouds cleared and we had a beautiful, clear sky with a low sun shining through the trees.
We took in more local towns, having lunch in Hatfield ($58 for 4 people, with pre-lunch drinks included). Then on to Northampton, Williamsburg and Whately. Then we made for home. I was going to cook dinner, but after the fish and chips we had had at lunch, none of us felt at all hungry, so I made do with an apple to accompany my Metformin.
This morning we took off for Hadley where we stopped at a shopping area where we did a turn around Trader Joe’s, then Wholefoods. I can never pass up a bookshop so when I saw Barnes and Noble I made a beeline and bought a biography of the actor James Stewart.
Then on to Amherst where we lunched at Judie’s restaurant. I had a fantastic chicken sandwich with melted cheese and Jackie shared a chicken and guacamole salad with Claire. Amherst is a town with three universities – Amherst College, Hampshire College and the University of Massachussetts, so there’s no shortage of bookstores and cafes. Emily Dickinson was born and lived in Amherst and Robert Frost chose to live there for most of his professional life.
We drove through the most amazing countryside, typical of what most of us would imagine New England looks like – woodland interspersed with farms and orchards, barns and outhouses, dotted with little towns with spired churches and little general stores. We stopped off at Montague Mill to take a look at the cascades that tumble over the rocks and we shot off a good few photos.
A ten-minute drive brought us to Sugarloaf Mountain where we drove to the top, then climbed the tower for an unbelievable 360 degree panorama of the surrounding countryside, including the broad sweep of the Connecticut River.
This evening we cooked the lobsters for dinner. We’d bought 7 Maine lobsters this morning for $46, the best value for lobsters I’ve ever seen. Claire cooked them and we had them with melted butter and lemon, accompanied by some locally-grown corn on the cob. The lobsters were incredibly tender and the corn was the best I’ve ever eaten, coming off the cob with very little pressure from the teeth. If I lived here, I think I’d be at risk of dying from an overdose of seafood.

Today was a first for us – three states in one day! Claire drove from Massachussetts for about half an hour and then we passed the sign that said Welcome to Vermont. We stopped for lunch in Brattlesboro at the River View restaurant. It sits right alongside the Connecticut River beside the bridge and the land across the river is the state of New Hampshire.
As we travelled north through Vermont we could see that the trees in that area were already beginning to turn considerably more than where we’re staying in Massachussetts. Autumn begins in the north and spreads southwards.
The subsequent days we’ve been taking excursions that took us around the area, visiting towns like Williamstown with its great art gallery, Colrain for its cider farms, Keene just because it’s a nice drive to get there.
The trees are taking on more colour now and we’re looking forward to the real turn. We drive along and see rolling landscapes and forested hills and we can just imagine what they’ll look like in a couple of weeks. I’ll put up a few photos when the trees are at their best.
This is an area that makes an enormous amount of maple syrup, which I adore but have to look at longingly. If I’ve had a particularly low-carb day, I might have dessert int he evening of greek yoghurt with a teaspoon of maple syrup. I’t not quite heaven, but pretty close.
As we drive along we see the maples with the tubes inserted into their bark through which the sap drips and is led into a tube that runs past a number of trees, collecting their sap as it goes. The sap is then boiled and boiled to drive off the water and leave the pure syrup behind. You see little sugar houses behind many of the farmhouses, as so much water is driven off that the house would be wringing wet if the job was done in the kitchen.
A near neighbour is Bill Cosby, whose house we passed the day before yesterday. I sneaked a photo (didn’t want to intrude on his privacy) but from the lack of cars outside it appears that he wasn’t home.
Yesterday it rained heavily and we drove to Williamstown to have dinner with friends of our hosts. We drove for more than an hour along the Mohawk Trail, a picturesque road that will look incredible when the sun is shining.

Today we’re driving Claire to the airport in Hartford, Connecticut for her flight back to California. After that we’re entirely on our own.
We’ve made reservations for a 4 day trip to the Maine Coast, for next week, and on Friday we’re taking a boat ride along the Connecticut River with Claire’s aunt and uncle.

I’m beginning to see why this area is called New England. You would think you were back in Old England by the names of the towns you drive through – Manchester, Colchester, Sunderland, Chelmsford, Billerica(y), Worcester, Rutland, Halifax, Greenwich... It’s just that the geography is considerably different.
Once again we’ve been struck by how very courteous the average American is. If you find yourself walking into the path of someone, there is always a smile and a cheerful greeting. When did we lose this in Britain? Whenever I’ve been in supermarkets in Britain I’m more often met with scowls or a bad-tempered jerk away. And yet I remember that politeness and courtesy were drummed into my generation. Perhaps that’s why we get pushed to the back of the queue in the rush to get onto a bus nowadays.
The weather here has been none too kind to us. Mostly it’s been overcast since the first few days and we’ve had rain during the night, but not much during the day. Today was different – it’s rained all day, either a drizzle or a heavy downpour. As a result we’ve had a domestic day today. We trundled down to the supermaket, which is only 2 minutes’ drive away, and bought a few necessary items: frozen vegetables for my cooking and hairspray for Jackie. We returned home and passed the time downloading our pictures and working on them in Photoshop Elements. And there’s a story behind that, too.
Before we left Luxembourg I loaded Photoshop Elements into my new laptop. I didn’t use it until we got here, and when I tried to open it I was asked for the serial number of my program. Of course, you can guess where the serial number is – that’s right, back on the shelf in Luxembourg. So we decided to go to a store nearby called Bestbuy and to pick up the new version, Elements 7. They had it in stock so we got out the Visa card and brought it home. And that’s when I logged onto the photographic website I frequent and found that there is Elements 8 about to be released.
On Thursday, we were invited by Claire’s aunt, Terry, and her cousin, Diane, to join them on a visit to the 5 States Fair - The Big E - in West Springfield. It was about a 40 minute drive and we were able to park near the entrance!! We got a seniors’ discount of $2 per person.
This was a great experience with five houses, each representing a different New England state. They had all kinds of products from that particular state, many of which were heartbreaking for a diabetic. They had all kinds of maple syrup products from maple butter to maple candy floss, which I denied myself with a self-righteous air. Then we came to the Maine House, where they were selling lobster rolls for $8. I looked at them in astonishment – there was a filling of lobster, both claw and body meat, an inch thick. I can resist anything except temptation so I bought myself one and everybody else joined me. I was in lobster-lover’s heaven. Just for once I said “Nuts!” to my BG levels and ate the roll as well.
Another stand was selling enormous jacket potatoes with a choice of topping – butter, sour cream, bacon bits, chives and cheese. You could have all the toppings if you wished, but this would have been too much for my system so this time I resisted.
We strolled through the arts and crafts section in the open air and then visited a gigantic hall where as wide a variety of goods as you can imagine were being demonstrated and sold.
We took an easy drive back, dropping off first Diane and then Terry.
Previously, Terry and her husband, Michael, had invited us to join them and a couple of friends on a boat cruise on the Connecticut River they were planning for the day after the Big E trip. Once again the weather was overcast, though dry and the only other people on the boat were three nuns in mufti. Once again we got a seniors’ discount – if we go on like this I’ll end up showing a profit on this trip.
It was a shame about the weather as the trees were beginning to turn, and they would have looked really spectacular in brilliant sunshine. As it was, it was a pretty good voyage.
That evening we joined Terry and Michael in a meal at the Four Leaf Clover Restaurant, a diner of considerable antiquity. They had a wide menu of local produce and I was able to take fish and chips with a dish of cole slaw. Jackie decided to try the jumbo shrimp stuffed with crabmeat. We were both very satisfied at the end of the meal.
On Monday we leave for our 4-day visit to Maine. We’ve been warned that Maine lobsters are more expensive in Maine than they are in the other New England states. But we’ll just have to attack the other kinds of seafood available.

I’m writing this while sitting in the Crest View Inn in Camden, Maine, gazing out the window at trees and flowers, even though autumn is well under way. We left Greenfield, Massachussetts, yesterday morning at 9 am and arrived in Topsham, Maine, before 1 p.m. We stopped along the way to pick up a road map in a visitor centre, and have a cup of coffee.
We found our overnight B&B but, as it was too early to check in, we went out looking for somewhere to have a light lunch. Topsham is a very small place and we settled on Subway as the best chance for a light meal. Fine dining is my thing, you may have noticed.
The journey up was a spectacle of nature – the trees’ change is more advanced in the north. The colours are beyond my powers of description. Maples turn bright red, but there are others that are a bright yellow, almost lemon. Then there are the browns – everything from dark chocolate to café au lait. The russets should be included here, lightening to gold from place to place. Poison sumac, which will give you a really painful welt if you brush it with your bare skin, has already turned red and is now transforming into dark brown. The countryside changes from day to day.
After lunch in Topsham Subway (chicken teriyaki) we decided to visit the coast which, according to the map wasn’t too far. Unfortunately, there were no towns on the way and the GPS doesn’t work on highway numbers. We wanted to be on Route 24 but somehow got lost and ended up at Popham Beach, which was more interesting as there is a fort on the water’s edge, built during the Civil War to protect the river and the shipbuilding facilities there from any Confederate attack. We walked along the beach, enjoying the emptiness without a tourist in sight – except for us.
The b&b had a collection of menus from nearby restaurants and after having a read through we chose a place called The Taste of Maine. We drove down Highway 1 to Woolwich (another one of those English names) and found a fantastic selection of seafood on offer. Jackie and I both chose the seafood medley with lobster. A young lady at a nearby table ordered the jumbo lobster roll. When it arrived it was 16 inches long with the meat from at least 3 lobsters stuffed inside. The word to describe the young lady would be “petite”, so to say that she polished it off was a bit of a surprise. Our dinner, a grilled haddock fillet, shrimps, and seared scallops drizzled with melted butter, topped with a half-lobster draped over it, was superb. It was cooked just the way I like it, the way Rick Stein does it – excellent ingredients cooked simply. It was so low-carb that I was able to eat half the jacket potato served with sour cream and chives that accompanied it.
The Black Lantern, our b&b, was welcoming and comfortable, decorated in old New England style. We slept like logs and were up in time to make it comfortably to our 8.30 am breakfast, which was eggs benedict with asparagus. I ate only one of the muffin halves the poached eggs were served on so kept my carb intake down to reasonably normal.
This morning we wished our hosts farewell and drove all the way to Camden on Highway 1. It was a prettier drive than the motorway, we were assured by the owner of the Black Lantern. He’d also advised us to drive through Camden to Mount Battie, a state park, where a short drive up the mountain reveals a breathtaking panorama of Maine coastline. This area is not as rocky as it is in the northern part of state, but there are inlets, coves and islands for mile after mile.
From there we drove back to Camden, parked the car in the harbour parking area and had a look at the menu outside the Bayview Lobster House. Once again, great food: lobster roll for me, crab roll for Jackie. Would you believe there was the meat from a whole lobster in my roll and it cost around £7, complete with cole slaw? When the word gets around that Bill is coming to Maine, lobsters are scared, very scared.
We checked into our motel, the Crest View Inn, then returned to the Camden town centre, which is not dissimilar to Carmel in California. We did some window shopping and browsing and drifted around the little park that overlooks a waterfall that runs under the main road and emerges between a couple of shops.
We had more seafood for dinner and returned to the hotel and watched TV before dropping off to sleep.
I’m now resuming after waking to torrential rain and driving through it to Ogunquit, a pretty coastal area. We stopped off along the way to view a life-size moose made out of pure chocolate. It weighs 1,700 lbs, and you’re not even allowed to lick it. While in the chocolate maker’s shop I bought a couple of bars of sugarfree chocolate. I just ate a square and it was so good. First chocolate I’ve had in a couple of months.
When we arrived in Ogunquit the rain had stopped and the sun was trying to break through. Our room overlooks the bay and the Atlantic Ocean – a spectacular sight, and I can lie on my bed and gaze out the window, watching the tide fall.
Dinner tonight was – guess what? – lobster.The restaurant we chose was doing a specia: two lobsters for £18. How can you resist a price like that? Jackie passed on that as she’s not the lobster addict I am and she settled for grilled haddock with shrimps.
Tomorrow we return to Massachussetts and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the rain doesn’t return for the 4 hour drive.

After breakfast in Ogunquit (a little difficult for a diabetic, but I managed by sticking mostly to the fresh fruit), we checked out but left our car in the parking lot while we went for a walk along the coast on what’s known as the Marginal Walk, a path that has been created along the shoreline and the clifftop. The weather was glorious – blue sky, breezy with a snap in the air that makes you feel on top of the world. The path stretches for around 4 miles, but we only did the first part, about a mile and then back, as Jackie doesn’t like to abuse her athritic knee.
We headed for home after that, instructing the TomTom to avoid motorways. This lengthened the journey by more than an hour, but what a drive it was! We went from Maine to New Hampshire and then into Massachussetts. The trees are turning faster now and we passed through small villages and townships, along residential streets, past fields and meadows edged by stretches of woodland and forest.
There’s nothing of the rows of terraced housing that you find in Britain, but each house is detached and sits on its own plot of land. The house is usually set back from the road while a drive leads across a lawn to the garage. Against a backdrop of autumnal colours the effect is almost always picturesque. And practically every area has an Elm Street. Two of the three inns we stayed, Topsham and Camden, were situated on Elm Street. When we stopped for a light lunch we found we were on Elm Street. Given how much maple syrup these states produce you’d think they’d name the streets Maple Street, but it’s the humble elm that gets the kudos.
After arriving back in Greenfield, we unpacked and went to a local Chinese restaurant for dinner. What a surprise! The food was superb, among the finest Chinese meals we have ever eaten. The locals have cottoned on to it quickly, as it was crowded when we entered. We’ll definitely be returning.
The next day was a domestic day, with Jackie shoving our clothes into the washing machine then we went together to do a grocery shop at the Big Y supermarket. Saturday didn’t give us such good weather as it was overcast and colder than we had previously enjoyed. We set off on a drive through the Green River Valley, a beautiful road that took us alongside the Green River for several miles, through the woods in all their finery. We had a light lunch in Shelburne Falls, although I was hit by a low bs and suddenly felt very nauseous. I recognised the symptoms so took a spoonful of sugar and then Jackie produced a couple of boiled sweets. The nausea went away, but when we got home I felt unutterably weary and fell asleep on the couch. I felt a lot better when I woke up.
On Sunday We decided to drive up into Vermont, to a little place called Wilmington which , according to the map, sits at the end of a picturesque road. We found this to be true, the route taking us up into the hills, over a ridge called the Hogsback Mountain. The view was unbelievable from the top as we could see the trees stretching off for 50 miles or more into the distance.
Somewhere near Wilmington we came across a restaurant called simply The Roadhouse, so we pulled up and had a look at the menu. It sounded pretty good so we went inside, had an aperitif and ordered – both of us choosing the baked cod with marinated artichoke hearts. This country never ceases to amaze me – here we were way out in the backwoods and had a meal that would have graced a French country restaurant.
Later that evening we had a minor catastrophe when Jackie, attempting to load some photos onto a flash drive had a major crash on her computer and was left with a useless laptop. This morning we took it into Staples, hoping that they could advise us where a computer repair shop could be found. We had a bit of luck as we discovered that Staples offers a computer fixing service, so we left it with them. We’re hoping that her photos can be saved – just have to wait a week or so.
After that we went off to Mount Tom, a mountain to the south of us which has some great scenic outlooks when you drive to the top. We drove home cross-country, avoiding the motorways again, and thoroughly enjoyed the drive.

You don't have to have a lot of money, Dipsticky, to go travelling the way we do it. Travel in Business Class - pay for Economy Plus and upgrade with air miles. House exchange (only with people we know, or are highly recommended by friends) - no hotel bills, no hire car payments. Costs? Just the food bills you would normally have at home. The excursions we take while here or in California cost us way less than taking a two week holiday to the same area. But then, again, I'm still spending the money I got when I sold my mother-in-law to a shortsighted Arab sheikh. :lol:
Viv, I hope the weather was better for your travels in this area than ours has been. We had been planning on driving to Williamstown today, but when we woke up it was raining hard, so we went shopping for possible Christmas gifts. The forecast is better for tomorrow. Keeping our fingers crossed.

I'm sorry if you're offended by my postings, Dipsticky, but is it my fault that your life is not perfect, or like mine? Do you really believe that because you can't travel that nobody else should? Let me remind you - my father was a stoker, my mother worked as an office cleaner. When they married my father had been unemployed for 2 years during the depression. Then a bomb destroyed a large part of the home they had so painstakingly worked for. I inherited nothing and neither did my wife: what we have we worked for.
So if my posts offend you may I suggest you stop reading them. That way you can keep your envy and jealousy within bounds.