Viv, your support is very much appreciated. We haven’t got to Marblehead yet but we’re planning it for the week to come. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.
And now to get on with another one of my self-indulgent ramblings. Last Monday the weather was fair so we decided that now was the time to do the Mohawk Trail, while the sun was shining, and visit The Clark, an art museum situated in Williamstown where we had been with Claire but only had time for a quick visit before it closed.
The Mohawk Trail is a great road to view the changing foliage, with lots of views over rolling panoramas of the never-ending forests. The museum was a revelation to us. We hadn’t even heard of Williamstown until we came here, yet this art museum has examples of work from the finest artists the world has seen. I was amazed to see Goyas, Toulouse-Lautrecs, Monets, Renoirs, Gauguins, Van Goghs, Turners, Constables, Corots, Degas, and modern American artists like Remington. We had dinner that night at the Chinese restaurant that had so impressed us previously, and it was just as good on a second visit.
On Thursday we drove down to Newport, Rhode Island. We had reserved a room at a B&B on Spring Street. This turned out to be a lucky choice as it was a delightful place with cosy, comfortable rooms. We arrived in the town around midday and stopped off at a pub for lunch. It started to rain while we were eating and it just went on getting worse. We checked in at our B&B and then went for a cruise around Ocean Drive, where the mansions of the wealthiest people in America are situated. Many of them can be visited, and the more you choose to visit, the cheaper the tickets for each one becomes. Having driven around the coastal drive, we took a turn around the town, but the rain got heavier and heavier and finally drove us into Barnes and Noble, an enormous bookshop where we spent the rest of the afternoon browsing. A bit of a waste, really, as we’re not likely to return to Rhode Island again, but the weather didn’t give us much choice.
Pat, the hostess at our B&B, recommended a local restaurant for dinner so we freshened up, borrowed an umbrella, and set out in the rain. The restaurant wasn’t far and fortunately they had a free table for us. The restaurant was called Pronto, and they served a pretty good meal.
Afterwards, we returned to our room, watched TV for an hour or so, and then collapsed into bed.
Breakfast was great for a diabetic. There was fresh fruit, omelettes, sausage and some roasted potatoes, which I took rather than the toast and bagels that were also available.
We decided to take a tour of the town and one of the mansions. Newport is where the Americas Cup was so hotly contested for many years, until the Australians won it away from the Americans, so the sailing traditions are very strong here. The mansion we decided to visit was The Breakers, the residence of the Vanderbilt family. Nearby is the one owned by the Astors, another built by Doris Dukes, the Firestone family’s house is not far away and every other person on the Richest Family List is represented.
If you’ve ever wondered how the very rich live, The Breakers is just the place to answer all your questions. Photography is not permitted inside the house, so I can’t put up any pictures of the kind of sumptuousness that was part of the Vanderbilts’ everyday life. Enough to say it’s a real eye-opener.
The next day we detoured to New Bedford in Massachussetts to visit the whaling museum which had been highly recommended to us. New Bedford is where Herman Melville lived and where he set the opening scenes of his masterpiece, Moby ****. The town is no longer involved in the trade, but the museum is a fascinating view of the history of whaling and the life endured by the crews of the whaling ships. After that visit we took a leisurely drive back to Greenfield.