Day Eight … Heading north to New England

After a jam packed 3 days it was time to say goodbye to New York and transition to the next phase of our journey. Leaving behind the big cities we are now entering the world of New England - six states in the far north east of the US. We were up and away early as we had tickets booked on the Northeastern Regional Amtrak train that would take us to New Haven as our first stop. Having spent 3 days negotiating  the subway we had perfected this form of public transport so getting to Moynihan Station (the main station in NY for regional and interstate trains) was pretty easy going.

We arrived in plenty of time … no surprise there! We had said we would leave no later than 7.45 but we were out the the door by 7.25 … we were definitely operating on “Phillips” time. Arriving early though gave us a chance to take photos of the station and to try and see Madison Square Gardens. Sadly the exit for this is currently blocked off due to reconstruction work so we were unable to see it. I was able to grab a coffee, we waited for our train to be ready to board, and then we were off and on our way.

Sitting on a train is fantastic … you get to see so much of the country and often you get to see areas you would not normally see. The journey took about 2 hours but the time flies! The scenery whizzes by and you pass through towns you wouldn’t necessarily stop at. We arrived into New Haven at about 10.45 and we were catching our next train at 1.30, but man we packed a lot into that time!

The reason for our stop … Yale University! Being lovers of universities and folks who regularly wander through a campus, stopping at Yale was a no brainer. We tried to check our luggage into storage at the station but they did not have storage facilities on site so we dragged our suitcases out to catch the free shuttle bus that would take us on the 10 minute drive to the campus.

At the campus we headed to the Visitor Information Center to grab our map and have a quick chat to find out what were the must “sees” on the campus. The lovely man was very helpful and happily agreed to hold our cases for us as we were only going to be there for just over an hour. This made touring the campus soooooo much easier.

We decided to stick (mainly) to the “old” campus, so our wander involved glorious architecture, gateways, arches, courtyards, quadrangles, and buildings both residential (for the students) and campus. We stopped at the Sterling Memorial Library which was open to the public. So many areas are (for legitimate security reasons) accessed only via the students and staff via a security card. However, some lovely students let us in to wander the Old Campus Courtyard. The library is outstanding … a massive gothic building which at times looked more like a cathedral than a library. It had incredible mosaics, stained glass, wrought iron and painted ceilings. We were amazed at the sheer size of this library and how many students were using the space and seemed somewhat oblivious to the sheer magnificence that it is.

We headed back to the Visitor Information Center to collect our baggage (and to thank them for holding on to our luggage) and wandered back through the New Haven Green, complete with its fountain filled with seating areas for students and the public to enjoy. The green is flanked by historic churches, the New Haven Free Public Library and the New Haven City Hall. We caught the shuttle back to the station (the bus travels in a loop every 20 minutes … so we saw the same driver again) and had time to grab some lunch, a cool drink and a restroom before we boarded our next train to Hartford.

Hartford is the capital of Connecticut (our first New England state) and is only about 40 minutes north of New Haven. The train was fairly full but given we were only on for a short time we didn’t fuss too much about not sitting together. The time again went super quick … admittedly we were stuffing our faces with lunch! We arrived just after 2 in the afternoon and, having booked our accommodation whilst on the train, we headed straight to our hotel on arrival (an exhausting 50 metres walk from the station - on Asylum St!), where we dropped our luggage and then headed back to the station to catch the shuttle to the airport in order to collect our hire car.

The airport shuttle was a smooth process and the new transportation hub where all of the rental cars are located is well signposted and easy to access. We were allocated our car … a white Kia … very boxy in shape with the fabulous number plate of 2LEG17. After getting oriented with the car … yes we both tried to get into the “wrong” side of the car … getting the mirrors organised and setting up the navigation system we were off … if a little tentatively.

We headed out of the airport and, having already checked out times and options, we decided to head to the Mark Twain House & Museum. Whilst we didn’t intend on going into the museum we wanted to wander the grounds and look at the house, as well as the Harriet Beecher Stowe House (author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin … which has been described as a moral battle cry for freedom, an anti slavery novel)  and the Katherine Day House, which all sit on the same location. We completed an Ad Lab which gave us the opportunity to wander around the space and learn a little more about the buildings. The three buildings are incredible … Mark Twain’s house is huge and a little over the top and is built to reflect his time working on paddle steamers (Ian could see the nod but I’m afraid I couldn’t). The Stowe house is much more refined and less ostentatious with pretty gardens surrounding it. The Katherine Day house is somewhere in between … if a little eclectic.

We headed back to the hotel, managed to navigate the roads again, parked the car and checked in. Whilst I headed out to check out the laundry facilities and to get some dinner, Ian got his head into work mode as he had a work meeting with a council leadership group back in Australia. We had a delicious meal from a small Vietnamese cafe/restaurant called Banh Meee … Bun Thit - cold rice noodles with fried egg roll, crispy chicken tenders with spicy mayo, slow cooked pork butt with butt mee sauce and some seasoned fries. We had a picnic on the bed before Ian went to work and I began the blog. 

Now the washing is almost done, Ian is finished his Zoom meeting and is making the final plans for our day tomorrow, I am almost finished blogging. I have a glass of red sitting beside me (a plastic cup no less … hotels here do not do crockery and cutlery) and some M and Ms from the vending machine.

Life is good.

Today’s tally …

Photos - 437

Steps - 16,524

Kms walked - 12.65 km

Ad labs completed - 1

Trains caught - 3

Buses caught - 3