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Old 15 Sep 09, 12:36 PM  
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roonlou
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New England 'Marmite' Flydrive - Day8 - The Village

Day 7 - Farms, Candles and Thunderstorms

Saturday 22nd August 2009, Day 8
Hotel Viking, Newport RI
Distance 85 miles
The Village and Seafood

We'd turned the noisy air-con right down before going to sleep, so the room had got very warm overnight leading to another disturbed sleep. I am enjoying these old hotels and Inns, but am looking forward to a cool room with silent air-con.

Normal start to the sunny day, I bashed away on the laptop, whilst Roo again repacked for the next hotel. The next very helping thing he did was go out and down to the hotel's tavern and return with hot coffee and freshly baked cakes, including those gooey maple pecan breads that were served complementary. After the mini breakfast, we showered and then dragged one of our cases off down to the car before meeting with the folks at the agreed time.



We had breakfast in the same tavern as last night, and Ma enjoyed fruit and yoghurt, Pa had eggs Benedict with breakfast potatoes, while Roo and had French toast and malted waffles with maple syrup and blueberry compote. Lots of lovely hot coffee too, which I knew my bladder would regret later.





As we were planning to visit Sturbridge Historical Village, and as it wasn’t due to open till 10am, we actually had our first bit of downtime for a few days, and spent half an hour in our room watching a spot of Food Network – my one true love. We then gathered the rest of our belongings and headed back down through the twisty turning corridors to reception, and checked out. With the car loaded up, we headed the short 10 minute drive to this planned attraction.



For yet another day with rain proposed, it was very hot and humid with just a few clouds in the sky. We entered the park, and soon passed from modern times, to those of 1830's. The whole village was done very well, with lots of staff wandering around in historical clothing on dirt track roads; there were also horses and carriages trotting about. Upon entering the different farm houses, meeting houses, homes, shops and different businesses, we were greeted by the local residents that informed you on things of the time and how people lived.









In-between the different buildings were toys of the time to play with, and even though it was very warm, we took the opportunity to mess around with the hoops, arrows and stilts. Soon we could hear beautiful singing coming from one of the meeting houses, and entered to find a choir of villagers practising their art. It was lovely to witness, and really made it easy to think you had travelled back 180 or so years.





We also met some villagers that were really enjoyed their role play, and perhaps a little on the crazy side, the cooper being the most entertaining of them all. The actors that were more “into” their roles than others were the ones we enjoyed visiting the most. We travelled onto the farming area and prodded a couple of sheep, chased chickens, and watched the two week old calves. Unfortunately, we also suffered a few mosquito moments, and had to keep swatting the suckers off ourselves and each other.



We travelled further on to the covered bridge area, visited the blacksmith, mill, sawmill, carding barn and so on and so on. This village is quite large and seems to have examples of every business and home stead possible. We stopped at the tavern to enjoy its air-con (strange after all the in keeping with the period stuff), and a cold drink, before visiting the town square. You could hear musket guns being fired in the distance at one of the presentations before a few drops of rain tumbled from the skies.





The end of the village was filled with small buildings with different exhibits; these were still interesting but not as much fun as the ones occupied by the locals. It had taken over 4 hours to visit the village, and we'd defiantly burnt our breakfasts up, so we headed out through the gift shop and to the tavern.



It was lovely setting again, and the staffs were still dressed in historical clothing, we ordered cool drinks and Ma had a Caesar salad with grilled chicken, Roo and Pa had the special - beef and 3 cheeses and herb wrap served with fresh onion rings. I had the turkey and brie with apple jam served on marbled rye bread with French fries. Roo and I split and shared our sandwiches so we could sample both – very tasty.





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Old 15 Sep 09, 12:37 PM  
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roonlou
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Now, all full both of mind and tummies, we headed on the road for the drive to Newport in Rhode Island. It was only supposed to take 90 minutes, but thanks to the vast traffic getting through the tolls on the Mass Pike it took nearer 2 hours. We stopped for a drive through Dunkin Donuts on route before we had to drive over some very big bridges to get to Newport, before driving through the tiny snaky lanes of the town.



We arrived at the impressive Viking Hotel at around 16:30, another old hotel, 1920's, but full of the modern luxuries, and took advantage of valet parking and then check in. The guy on the front desk was very helpful, advised us of the coastal path walk to do, and the best fish restaurant in town. On receiving our keys we headed up to our lodgings on the third floor for the delights of our new room for one night. It was very much a standard hotel room, not as unique as our last few, but with quiet air-con and a comfy king-sized bed, there were no complaints to be had.



Hot shower later and we were back out into the busy town, Saturday night in Newport seems to be very much a party town, with lots of young drunk Americans enjoying themselves. On the way down to the harbour, we spotted a man with a grown up Burmese Mountain Dog, looked exactly like the puppy we'd seen in Burlington but just bigger! There seemed to be a lot of wealthy visitors and this was reflected in the types of shops and restaurants that were overflowing and very busy. Using our map we took the long way round to the recommended eatery, and eventually arrived at Scales and Shells. Think posh café, with wooden floor, and small tables with white linen cloths, open kitchen tucked in the corner, and very loud and busy – the smell was amazing. It was walk in only, and we were told it would be a 30 to 40 minute wait, so squeezed in by the bar to order a cold drink to enjoy while waiting. Luckily, as soon as our drink orders were set, the waitress came over to say our table was ready!





We squeezed around one of the tightly packed little tables already filled with salt, pepper, cheese, chilli peppers and Tabasco, added our beers before the waitress added pints of iced water. It didn't leave much room for food or elbows. The menu was on a large chalk board, and very simple with super fresh fish starring. With much to consider, we had a raw platter to start with, cherry stone and little neck clams, oysters and shrimp to share between us – it was very fresh.





We all finally decided on our food choices and waited for our meals to arrive, a lot of the fish is cooked over a mesquite fire – and this was the option we all selected. Striped Bass for Ma, with linguine and red sauce, Monk fish for Pa and Black Sea bass for me, Tuna Tona for Roo all with linguine and white sauce. Red sauce was marinara, white was white wine, garlic and olive oil and some more garlic, and Tuna Tona was tuna marinated in soy and garlic. This was good eats, and very well priced!





Feeling very full, and very tired, we headed the 20 minute walk back through the busy town back to our hotel. There were many sights to see, including several cars filled with hydraulics jumping up and down at the lights.

We left the folks at reception in search of good late night coffee, whilst we headed up to our room and the pleasures of our lovely big bed.

Day 9 - Cliff Walks and Cold Stones

Edited at 01:38 PM.
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Old 15 Sep 09, 03:44 PM  
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DisneyMadAng
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The Village looks really interesting and dinner looks yummy.

I forgot to say but yesterday's bread basket...looks to die for!
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Old 15 Sep 09, 05:42 PM  
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Mickeyetta
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Originally Posted by roonlou View Post

Such a lovely family shot

And agin with the eating for England... I've a lot of training to do for our Jan trip

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Old 16 Sep 09, 03:39 PM  
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Another great report with lovely photos.
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Old 19 Sep 09, 12:08 PM  
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Brilliant photos. Another interesting day.
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Old 19 Sep 09, 02:54 PM  
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The village looks very interesting, it's the sort of place my children would love
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Old 28 Sep 09, 02:14 PM  
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orlandosgr8
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Another interesting day and yummy food.
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Old 28 Sep 09, 02:14 PM  
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