New England

However, after a good night's sleep things seemed much better and after breakfast we drove north into the White Mountains to visit the Cog Mountain Railway on Mount Washington (picture in Photo album).  Here are a couple of picture of us enjoying the fabulous scenery on the way back. Speaking of breakfast, the hotel we stayed for the first few days supplied everything for breakfast in single serving sealed containers.  I have never seen so much rubbish generated by two people having such a simple meal; so much for considering the environment!!

The weather for the first part of the trip was quite simply perfect - warm sunny days and clear skies; we couldn't have asked for better.

The following day we visited Salem (after a tortuous drive as I hadn't realised there were two towns called Salem in the area!).  Salem, infamous for the witch trials in the 1600s, is an interesting town although a trifle over commercialised. 

Here is a picture of the impressive Town Hall.

We enjoyed a guided tour of  the House of the Seven Gables and enjoyed the sunshine sitting in the attractive garden.

Here I am standing outside the 1830 Counting House, moved into the House of the Seven Gables Garden for preservation.

The third day was the best of the whole trip - a day spent at the Shaker Village of Canterbury.

 Despite now having no Shakers living on the site, their spirit certainly still pervades the place; both myself and Alan had a sense that once the visitors were gone the Shaker folk would reappear to get on with their work.  The tour guides were very interesting, the weather very warm and all in all this was a most fascinating place to visit.

The Shakers believed and practiced a communal way of life that didn't involve sexual relations at all; male and female segregation was a way of life.  Men and women even used separate doors to enter the meeting house (see photo).  Quite incredible then that the movement lasted for many generations, 200 years or more. 

The village is extremely well cared for, and there are many surprising things to learn.  For example, unlike the Amish people, the Shakers embraced new technologies and gadgets as soon as they were available.  Among the first to have electric light and the  telephone, the Shakers were a delight for door to door salesmen - they were enthusiastic customers for anything that could to speed up the everyday chores in order to give them more time to spend praying and serving God. 

The buildings are still full of the Shakers possessions, we particularly enjoyed touring the sewing workshops, laundry and the kitchens. There are more photos of us in this village here.  The Shaker belief in community extended to death.  The individual stones in their cemetery was replaced by this single stone to express their unity.

Then followed a couple of days in Boston, attending the work conference, and staying at the fabulous Copley Fairmont  Hotel (glad I wasn't paying the bill!).  We managed to squeeze in an afternoon on the famous Freedom Trail which was interesting if a little hard on the feet. 

The final few days were spent on Cape Cod, which owing to a mixture of poor weather and rather average hotels was a bit of an anti-climax. 

However we discovered Province Town and enjoyed a couple of days in this vibrant place, went whale watching and enjoyed some excellent food in a central restaurant. 

Climbing the Province Town monument was a terrifying experience for Alan who suffers badly from vertigo!