Woodstock to Stowe via Burlington
After our extended stay in Woodstock it was time to move on to Vermont. Number one in our list of places to visit according to our Rough Guide to New England was Burlington up in the top-left hand corner of the state. And en route were the towns of Montpelier (pronounced rather unfortunately as Mont-PEEL-yer) and Waterbury, home to the Ben and Jerry's ice cream factory.
The route into Vermont was as scenic as any we'd done so far with rolling thickly wooded hills and little waterfalls cascading at the side of the road. This continued until we crossed the bride over the Connecticut river (a rather weedy little river to have a state named after it, at least this far up). It wasn't that the scenery was any less pretty but we couldn't see any of it. The rain came down just as we crossed the river. It was as if the states controlled the weather; New Hampshire sunny, Vermont rainy. Well I guess that's why the area's so green.
To accelerate our journey now we'd come off the scenic route, we switched onto the interstate. The traffic got heavier, the speed increased, and the rain lifted a little. Parked by the side of the road was man in a hat waving to one side. Next to him was his car, a big car with blue lights on top. "Oh bother", I thought as I pulled over. We were going to have a chat with one of Vermont's finest. As I watched him in the mirror slowly walk towards the car, I wondered what the correct ettiquette was for situations like this. I hadn't stopped too suddenly (it was a freeway after all) so there was a bit of distance between us. Should I reverse along the shoulder or just wait? Should I have pulled in more quickly? In the end I just sat there. Hi lowered his dripping hat to the window and gave the usual opening question "Do you know what the speed limit is here?" To be honest I didn't. I'd been in a flow of cars all doing the same speed and just kind of went with it. We'd been warned that this might happen. Andy, our host in Washington, had said that the police in the US worked on a quota system, and that in many states this meant police would pull people over for any minor infraction towards the end of the month when deadlines approached. Fortunately in our case, the kindly trooper let us off with a warning and we were on our way.
The rain didn't lighten any further, so that seemed like a good excuse for a bit of indoor activity, which meant a visit to Ben & Jerry's ice cream factory. To be honest I was looking forward to it - I had not seen milk bottles whizzing round conveyer belts since my very early years watching TV programs such as Playschool, so there would be a bit of nostalgia. Apparently the factory is now the number one attraction in Vermont which is a bit disappointing in a land blessed with excellent natural features. We had thirty minutes to kill waiting for our tour to start, and spent this bumping into kids, gawking at B&J tat in the shop, and visiting the Flavor Graveyard, an area in the grounds where they errect tombstones for flavours that didn't make it in the long run. B&J have always used unusual names for their flavours such as Phish Food, Cherry Garcia and so on. One of the failed flavours in the graveyard was Cool Britania, which according to the epitaph was strawberries and shortbread.
As might be expected, the place was overrun with kids, but we enjoyed it nonetheless and I can recommend the apple-pie flavour ice cream. This was the flavour we got to sample at the end of the tour. Somehow they keep the pie-crust firm and not soggy.
The rain still hadn't stopped by the end of the tour, so we drove on to Burlington hoping the weather would improve (and sticking religiously to speed limits). We parked and had a wander. Well, I guess being number one in our guidebook had lifted expectations, but the town didn't live up to them. I was reminded of something between Guildford and Basingstoke. It was all a bit new-town, and dull, with wierdos on street corners. I tried to like it, but it wasn't great.
We had to plan a few things so hunted down an internet cafe. A security guard in a mall pointed us in the direction of a building with an odd logo. Climbing stairs coated with carpet and Big Mac sauce we found the local geek-youth. The room was dark, with industrial rock pumping out and people yelling things like "dude, you are *so* dead. I'm gonna get your weopans", and "what are the ingedients for the reincarnation charm?" All but one of the machines was being used for playing network games. I'm not sure they got out much but they seemed to be enjoying themselves. We stuck it for as long as we could (and secretly I was wishing I could join in a quick round of whatever Quake clone they were playing) but thought sod this, let's go to Stowe and left Burlington..
Stowe is a ski resort. Its claims to fame include being one of the first ski resorts in North America, and the place the Von Trapp family (of Sound of Music fame) came to after they fled Europe.
We didn't arrive until late, and were getting worried about accommodation, as this was a Friday in peak-season, near-ish to Boston but we were lucky. The hotel we found (the Green Mountain Inn) was 30% cheaper than the lowest published rate, and rather nice. To top it off we had our first spicy meal in weeks, a very good Thai. I'm not sure the guy at the table next to us had had Thai very often. He kept banging on to the staff and his friend about some great "pink dish" he'd had before that was spicy. They each tried to persuade him it was red curry but he refused to be convinced. Still, combining that with his Japanese beer, and insistence on using Chinese chopsticks (Thai people use a knife and fork - their king introduced it a while ago after being educated in Britain) seemed to impress his friend.
Full and content, we headed home looking forward to the sight of Stowe and the rest of Vermont without rain.
The route into Vermont was as scenic as any we'd done so far with rolling thickly wooded hills and little waterfalls cascading at the side of the road. This continued until we crossed the bride over the Connecticut river (a rather weedy little river to have a state named after it, at least this far up). It wasn't that the scenery was any less pretty but we couldn't see any of it. The rain came down just as we crossed the river. It was as if the states controlled the weather; New Hampshire sunny, Vermont rainy. Well I guess that's why the area's so green.
To accelerate our journey now we'd come off the scenic route, we switched onto the interstate. The traffic got heavier, the speed increased, and the rain lifted a little. Parked by the side of the road was man in a hat waving to one side. Next to him was his car, a big car with blue lights on top. "Oh bother", I thought as I pulled over. We were going to have a chat with one of Vermont's finest. As I watched him in the mirror slowly walk towards the car, I wondered what the correct ettiquette was for situations like this. I hadn't stopped too suddenly (it was a freeway after all) so there was a bit of distance between us. Should I reverse along the shoulder or just wait? Should I have pulled in more quickly? In the end I just sat there. Hi lowered his dripping hat to the window and gave the usual opening question "Do you know what the speed limit is here?" To be honest I didn't. I'd been in a flow of cars all doing the same speed and just kind of went with it. We'd been warned that this might happen. Andy, our host in Washington, had said that the police in the US worked on a quota system, and that in many states this meant police would pull people over for any minor infraction towards the end of the month when deadlines approached. Fortunately in our case, the kindly trooper let us off with a warning and we were on our way.
The rain didn't lighten any further, so that seemed like a good excuse for a bit of indoor activity, which meant a visit to Ben & Jerry's ice cream factory. To be honest I was looking forward to it - I had not seen milk bottles whizzing round conveyer belts since my very early years watching TV programs such as Playschool, so there would be a bit of nostalgia. Apparently the factory is now the number one attraction in Vermont which is a bit disappointing in a land blessed with excellent natural features. We had thirty minutes to kill waiting for our tour to start, and spent this bumping into kids, gawking at B&J tat in the shop, and visiting the Flavor Graveyard, an area in the grounds where they errect tombstones for flavours that didn't make it in the long run. B&J have always used unusual names for their flavours such as Phish Food, Cherry Garcia and so on. One of the failed flavours in the graveyard was Cool Britania, which according to the epitaph was strawberries and shortbread.
As might be expected, the place was overrun with kids, but we enjoyed it nonetheless and I can recommend the apple-pie flavour ice cream. This was the flavour we got to sample at the end of the tour. Somehow they keep the pie-crust firm and not soggy.
The rain still hadn't stopped by the end of the tour, so we drove on to Burlington hoping the weather would improve (and sticking religiously to speed limits). We parked and had a wander. Well, I guess being number one in our guidebook had lifted expectations, but the town didn't live up to them. I was reminded of something between Guildford and Basingstoke. It was all a bit new-town, and dull, with wierdos on street corners. I tried to like it, but it wasn't great.
We had to plan a few things so hunted down an internet cafe. A security guard in a mall pointed us in the direction of a building with an odd logo. Climbing stairs coated with carpet and Big Mac sauce we found the local geek-youth. The room was dark, with industrial rock pumping out and people yelling things like "dude, you are *so* dead. I'm gonna get your weopans", and "what are the ingedients for the reincarnation charm?" All but one of the machines was being used for playing network games. I'm not sure they got out much but they seemed to be enjoying themselves. We stuck it for as long as we could (and secretly I was wishing I could join in a quick round of whatever Quake clone they were playing) but thought sod this, let's go to Stowe and left Burlington..
Stowe is a ski resort. Its claims to fame include being one of the first ski resorts in North America, and the place the Von Trapp family (of Sound of Music fame) came to after they fled Europe.
We didn't arrive until late, and were getting worried about accommodation, as this was a Friday in peak-season, near-ish to Boston but we were lucky. The hotel we found (the Green Mountain Inn) was 30% cheaper than the lowest published rate, and rather nice. To top it off we had our first spicy meal in weeks, a very good Thai. I'm not sure the guy at the table next to us had had Thai very often. He kept banging on to the staff and his friend about some great "pink dish" he'd had before that was spicy. They each tried to persuade him it was red curry but he refused to be convinced. Still, combining that with his Japanese beer, and insistence on using Chinese chopsticks (Thai people use a knife and fork - their king introduced it a while ago after being educated in Britain) seemed to impress his friend.
Full and content, we headed home looking forward to the sight of Stowe and the rest of Vermont without rain.
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