The Car

Our special purpose vehicle:

Higher learning

Thursday in New Haven started with a violent thunderstorm - made the windows tremble. It cleared up soon though and brought the temperature (and humidity) down to more endurable levels. We took a walk on the campus of Yale University (picture; please note Esther's deeply intellectual expression), which was very quiet - students having left for the summer. There were just some kids playing a game that appeared at least as complicated as American football.

We then drove to Mystic, Connecticut, a sweet little place on Mystic River (Esther: "it is an estuary, not a river!") where we stayed in the lovely Steamboat Inn - right on the bank of the river/estuary and in the middle of town. We walked around a bit and had lunch at Bravo Bravo (go there if you're in the neighborhood - they serve great food!) and then went to the Mystic Seaport maritime museum. That was a bit of a disappointment - we liked the Zuiderzeemuseum better. Took a brief boat trip which was nice although slightly embarassing as we were the only passengers and were signficantly outnumbered by the crew, which included a guide telling us about Connecticut's maritime history. After dinner (not so memorable), we had planned to watch the movie Mystic River but, not surprisingly considering all we had done and seen, fell asleep....!

Work in progress

We have a couple of new posts ready to be uploaded, but because of a poor internet connection cannot get them on the site yet. Please be patient!

The 2 most divine edible things in 1 picture

(The pitcher and the pizza, as my mom requested)

First breakfast

Now a tradition: Esther's first breakfast in the US. Although I am sure that the homemade Joel version was much better. 

Pizza's from the past

After a rather uneventful flight we arrived at JFK at around 4 pm yesterday. Picked up our car - a black Ford Huge SUV - and drove to New Haven, Connecticut, passing our first state line. After having re-established contact with the digital world, we took a stroll to Frank Pepe's pizza restaurant. Pepe's (opened in 1925) is said to be the best pizza restaurant in the United States and we both agreed that indeed our Margherita was one of the greatest pizzas we have ever tasted - simple yet fresh and very flavorful, with a delicious and crisp crust. Of course portions are huge and the "small" pizza we ordered to share was enough to satisfy the both of us. Drinks are served mostly by the pitcher, and there is no fuss in the decor. Still, there was a long line outside of the restaurant so we had to wait a little while before we got a table. Esther took a picture of our pizza and may post it on this blog later.

Today we plan to look around New Haven and go to Yale University, and then drive to our next stop. However, it looks rather cloudy and it is supposed to start raining later so we may be forced to look around while driving. We'll keep you posted!

Here we go again!

Just a few more days before Esther and I will start our second (!) roadtrip. This time we'll be exploring a very different part of the country: New England! Starting on July 10th, we will post our updates here regularly and look forward to your feedback!