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!