Day 6 - Pittsfield, Massachusetts
The new day dawned dull but dry and improved steadily throughout to end with blue skies and sunshine (much better than yesterday). Our first stop was to the Mystic Seaport Museum (where we got rained off Tuesday afternoon) that is a working shipyard, specialising in the restoration and renovation of wooden hulled ships, and also a museum of the same sort as, say, Beamish in the UK with a village made up of reconstructed old homes and business premises. Sadly our schedule only allowed an hour and a half for what might easily have kept us busy for an entire day.
However, we did see the on-going restoration work being carried out on the Mayflower 2, a replica of the original donated to the USA by the UK in the late 1950s and which is due to be returned to its usual mooring off Plymouth, Massachusetts, in time for the 400th anniversary of the pilgrims' arrival in 2020:
We also went on board the last remaining whaling ship of its type the Charles W Morgan Like the Mayflower 2, it seems to be remarkably small for the job that it did and the oceans that it sailed:
We left Mystic and headed north west through Connecticut back over the border in to west Massachusetts to Stockbridge, only 4 miles short of the border with the state of New York. Here we stopped off to visit the museum dedicated to the celebrated American illustrator, Norman Rockwell To be honest, neither Tracey nor I had heard of the fellow although we did recognise some of his work as we toured the museum including "Main Street at Christmas" and many of the covers that he illustrated for the Saturday Evening Post. The museum itself is in a magnificent rural location very reminiscent of "old" England:
Our day ended at the Hilton Garden Inn in Pittsfield, again less than an hour's walk from the border with New York state. A slightly frustrating day in part due to the time pressures imposed on us following the curtailed visit to the Mystic Seaport Museum yesterday and in part due to the lack of flexibility over scheduling with us being part of a coach tour. All being well we should be back on track tomorrow as we continue north in to Vermont, hopefully for some serious "leaf peeping".
However, we did see the on-going restoration work being carried out on the Mayflower 2, a replica of the original donated to the USA by the UK in the late 1950s and which is due to be returned to its usual mooring off Plymouth, Massachusetts, in time for the 400th anniversary of the pilgrims' arrival in 2020:
We also went on board the last remaining whaling ship of its type the Charles W Morgan Like the Mayflower 2, it seems to be remarkably small for the job that it did and the oceans that it sailed:
We left Mystic and headed north west through Connecticut back over the border in to west Massachusetts to Stockbridge, only 4 miles short of the border with the state of New York. Here we stopped off to visit the museum dedicated to the celebrated American illustrator, Norman Rockwell To be honest, neither Tracey nor I had heard of the fellow although we did recognise some of his work as we toured the museum including "Main Street at Christmas" and many of the covers that he illustrated for the Saturday Evening Post. The museum itself is in a magnificent rural location very reminiscent of "old" England:
Our day ended at the Hilton Garden Inn in Pittsfield, again less than an hour's walk from the border with New York state. A slightly frustrating day in part due to the time pressures imposed on us following the curtailed visit to the Mystic Seaport Museum yesterday and in part due to the lack of flexibility over scheduling with us being part of a coach tour. All being well we should be back on track tomorrow as we continue north in to Vermont, hopefully for some serious "leaf peeping".
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