Tanglewood

The Berkshires is a beautiful hilly area of Massachusetts, and, among other things, home to Tanglewood. We drove to a place called Lenox. On our way there, we made a stop at Hancock Shaker village, a village that shows how the Shakers lived back in the 1850s. The Shakers are a religious group and they were called Shakers because of the way they moved during their religious services: dancing and shaking. Shakers are known for their strive for perfection and cleanliness, and also for their habit to embrace new technology and new inventions as soon as they became available. In the village we were shown among other things a watermill that was used to power several machines in a furniture factory. It was really impressive and amazingly efficient.

We had tickets for that evening's performance at Tanglewood. Tanglewood is an estate near Lenox where the Boston Symphony Orchestra spends its summers. The Tanglewood summer music festival is world renowned, not just because of the quality of the performers but also because of the huge estate where visitors have a picnic before or even during the concerts (as you can see in the picture, with people camping outside on the lawn). The concert we attended was a recital by Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel, and it was really wonderful - despite the thunderstorm that disrupted our picnic prior to the concert. You can find a review here. The concert was absolutely one of the many highlights of this trip!

Hot hot hot

My last post ended when we got to New York City. It was really really really hot in New York, around a hundred degrees Fahrenheit. We spent our first evening at home with Elizabeth, with whom we had a great dinner. The next morning we decided that the only things we could do would have to be inside because of the terrible heat. So we took the subway to Manhattan and went to the Museum of Modern Art. We had been told that there was an interesting and rather cool (!) exhibit called the Rain Room, and we wanted to check that out. However, when the friendly lady at the information desk told us that there was a waiting time of seven hours we decided to go to the Frick collection instead. Courageously, we started walking up the 15 blocks to the Frick collection. By that time we were pretty hungry but decided that we would get something to eat at the museum cafeteria. Unfortunately, the Frick collection doesn't have a museum cafeteria. We visited the museum and really enjoyed the collection. We then went to a nice little restaurant on Madison and had some lunch there. Because it was still very hot we decided that we would go into Central Park and see if things would be cooler there. That was a good choice. Inside the park, it was a little cooler and it was nice to see the New Yorkers enjoy the summer.

Later that afternoon, we had a manicure and pedicure. After drinks with Elizabeth and a few others we then went to the Village where we met Ben and Anu for dinner. It was great seeing the two of them again and of course Ben then took us to a special place promising us that we would be getting the best banana pudding ever there. He was right. Yummie!

The next day we went back to Manhattan to take the circle line cruise around Manhattan. Getting there was exhausting because it was still so very hot. However, as expected on the boat itself it was quite pleasant. Unfortunately because of the heat the last bridge just before the cloisters up north was stuck and couldn't be opened. Consequently we had to sail back all the way the same route that we had already done. We then dragged ourselves back home through the heat and made ourselves dinner: homemade gazpacho from scratch. It was delicious.

The next morning we left New York and drove up to the Berkshires.

I don't want to leave!

Currently we're in Bar Harbor, ME, and it's the cutest little town we've visited so far. Bar Harbor is next to the Acadia National Park, which was very beautiful. Then we went to a restaurant called Paddy's, where we had lobster (like you're supposed to when you're in Maine) and Barbara had a BLT and I had a burger. I also watched the sunset on the balcony in our hotel room, and it was really beautiful. 

Tomorrow we are going to watch some whales and adorable puffins! 

Slogans

States we have visited so far:

The constitution state
The ocean state
The spirit of America
The empire state

Can't wait for Live free or die...

Sturbridge

On Sunday, we left Newport and Rhode Island and drove up to Sturbridge, Massachusetts. There is not much to do in Sturbridge - it is your basic New England sleepy village - except for Old Sturbridge Village. Old Sturbridge Village is an open air museum of a rebuilt 18th century village, with people in clothes worn at the time telling about their work and answering questions. It is a beautiful place and it was really interesting.

We walked around and also took a little boat ride and then we spent the night in Sturbridge. The next morning we drove to New York City.

Concert Hall

We found ourselves back at the Breakers on Saturday evening. This time, it was not to view the building, but rather to attend the Newport Music Festival with the Klezmer Conservatory Band performing. During our day visit, we had been told that we could not take any pictures inside the buildings. Such restrictions did not apply - or at least we were not told so - at the concert, so I secretly took a couple of pictures. The concert was fantastic; all members of the band were great but the clarinet player, Ilene Stahl, was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. The audience had clearly expected something a little more Bach or Schubert like (overheard prior to the concert: "have you ever heard of this 'klezmer' [with audible quotes] thing?" "no, but it must be really interesting"), but they all warmed up to this amazing band and concert. I am not sure that the next concert we will go to is going to be quite so spectacular!

Bad weather

On Friday, we left Mystic and drove to Newport, Rhode Island. On the way, we passed two monumental bridges with spectacular views. Newport is on an island and used to be the vacation home for many rich Americans during the "gilded age" when they built vacation homes "Great Gatsby" style.

We started our visit to Newport with lunch in a pub. We then visited Touro synagogue, which is the oldest synagogue building in the US and dates back to colonial times. The building was inspired by the great Portuguese synagogue in Amsterdam (the chazzan who was president of the Jewish community at the time had trained in Amsterdam) and indeed it looks a lot like the Portuguese synagogue - only much much smaller which makes it rather cute. Interesting info: the oldest Torah roll in the synagogue was a gift from the Amsterdam Portuguese synagogue 300 years ago (at the time it was already 200 years old) and it is on display. When President Obama visited Israel earlier this year, he took a piece of the hardwood floor of this temple as a gift. The synagogue is also known for the George Washington letter: a letter from the first president of the US confirming the freedom of religion for all in the US - not mere tolerance.

After the synagogue, we walked around a bit in the shopping district and the wharf and harbor. After dinner, we drove past some of the mansions that Newport is famous for. It was Esther's first encounter with these huge houses, at the time referred to by their owners as "cottages".

The next day, Saturday, we had planned to visit some of the mansions. We had chosen The Breakers (picture, the largest of them all), The Elms (the most modern for the era) and Marble House (the most kitsch but also the one where its owner was a champion for women's rights). Unfortunately, it started raining by the end of the morning and kept on drizzling for the remainder of the day. Of course, the mansion tours - very interesting! - were inside, so it did not bother us too much, but still.

We then drove on Ocean Drive (picture), a beautiful driveway along the Atlantic coast. Despite the rain, there were lots of sailboats, and even a kite championship.
Esther made some nice pictures of the sea and the kites.

Had a memorable evening also - about which more soon!