New England Experience (2) by Vacanzeinamerica

The place is called Ducktrap Motel and it's about 10 km from the centre of Camden, near Linconville Beach. Along the road that brought us here we saw a truly wonderful sight, the mist rising along the shores of the bay. Worth noting is the visit to Camden Hill (8 $), from where you get a spectacular view over Camden bay. The town of Camden isn't all that much, with its very crowded main street and the harbour area where we ate the famous Maine lobster, boiled and served (20 $); there's no comparison with a nice bistecca alla fiorentina from my parts, but we make do. Worth mentioning is the river that divides the town, which spills into the sea in a scenic waterfall right below a restaurant. In this area there are wonderful lighthouses; we were lucky enough to visit them in weather worthy of a Stephen King novel, fog, rain and solitude.

The first is Rockport, it's the Indian Island Light; the second is Breakwater Light at Rockland, truly spectacular, a lighthouse you reach on a walk over blocks of granite, and between going and coming back you cover about 2.5 km in the middle of the sea; another really beautiful one is the Marshall Point near Port Clyde; and then the most beautiful of all, imagine the fog, the ocean crashing on the rocks, in the middle of a wood, only the sound of the wind and the waves, and suddenly from a hill you glimpse the lighthouse, which intermittently lets out a deafening sound: this is the Owl's Head Light at Rockland Harbour. Once the lighthouse tour was over we headed for Bangor, where a short visit to Stephen King's house was planned; after two photos we set off again for Portsmouth in New Hampshire.

Here too we were pleasantly struck by the hotel, a lovely Motel 6 completely refurbished not long ago, wonderful, nothing more to add, every comfort and set in an area full of shopping malls and restaurants, very close to the motorway, recommended as a base for exploring the Portsmouth area. The town is very beautiful, a classic town in a very Anglo-Saxon style; unlike other American cities, especially in the old part, it's built entirely of red brick, giving it a typically British air. In this town there are countless historic traces dating back to the time of the Declaration of Independence. From here the tours to the Shoals Islands depart; these lie 6 miles off the coast and it's said they were the scene of a series of murders within the Danish community by a serial killer in the 1700s. This story was brought to the cinema in the film "the mystery of the water" with Sean Penn.

We leave Portsmouth after returning to York Beach; during the week the town and the beach are almost deserted; we went back to Nubble Light for the sunset, and the sight of this lighthouse reinforced our good opinion even more. After a week we finally found a lunch of pasta and pizza at Sbarro; mind you, nothing like our own pasta, but it comes very close to our habits. We reached Lake Winnipesaukee, a large lake about 80 km from Portsmouth; big speedboats skim quickly over the water, lots of tourists, a sort of miniature Rimini, clubs and games for everyone.

We tried the thrill of the illegal drive-in: basically, on a hill there were several cars with people inside; curious, we stopped and realised they were watching the film projected at the drive-in below, and suddenly a guy climbs out of the car next to us and I think "now he'll get angry and send us away" instead he invites me to tune the radio to 89.1 to hear the film's audio. Unfortunately, our stay at Lake Winnipesaukee turned out to be very indigestible, because the motel we had booked is very old, dirty and smells of mould; we decided to sleep only one night, terrified of bed bugs, and to flee as fast as we could even though we had already paid for 3 nights.

Upheaval of the programme and off to Cape Cod, where we decided to stop for the next 4 days; along the way we touched Rockport in Massachusetts, a wonderful seaside town, its main street dates back to 1670 and many buildings go back to that period; then we passed through Gloucester, and it's already the second time we've been there, and a stroll along the seafront is always lovely; this town was the location for the film "The Perfect Storm"; heading south, after about 30 km we passed through Salem, again the 4th or 5th time we've been there, we're practically locals by now; we added this visit to show our little girl the House of 7 Gables, a black house from 1700 where the writer of The Scarlet Letter lived.

We arrived at Cape Cod and reality turned out totally different from what we expected; Cape Cod, and Hyannis in particular, is an incredible bedlam, chaos, cars, traffic, which, together with two days of unsettled weather and paid beach parking (15 $), made us rethink the plan and move again towards Plymouth. This town is very beautiful; it's the landing point of the Mayflower in 1620 that brought the English Pilgrims to the N. England coast; along the sea there's a large green park and on the opposite side of the road shops and venues; about 5 km from the centre there's Plymouth Plantation, a reconstruction of the 1600s village where costumed interpreters, staying in character, explain life at the time; this park has two distinct areas, the native area with their customs and the English area.

For our stay we chose the Fairfield Inn Marriot, a truly over-the-top place, a huge room, silence, spotlessly clean and a big bathroom; the hotel is in Middelboro, 30 km from Plymouth, and the price is really low for the quality and standard (86 $). In these two days in Middleboro we visited, besides Plymouth, the southern part of Rhode Island, a very beautiful state; the Newport peninsula is entirely surrounded by the ocean and there are many coastal views to see.

Setting off from Middleboro, we had decided to grant ourselves, on the last day before departure, a relaxing visit to Mystic in Connecticut, a small fishing town, very beautiful, with beaches and lighthouses within a few miles, which we had visited some time before; instead we threw ourselves into the I95 traffic to reach Springfield, where the Six Flags New England is, a big amusement park halfway between Disneyworld and Universal Studios; huge crowds, heat and chaos, in short, maybe Mystic would have been better. Unfortunately the holiday has come to an end.

Two thoughts in hindsight: the itinerary we followed, even though we ended up covering 2000 miles, allowed us to relax with wonderful scenery, live the holiday in total tranquillity, observe up close the ways of life of the most American community of the States, the one of Anglo-Saxon origin; we tried breakfast at Mc Donalds with omelette, bacon and pancakes with maple syrup, we visited a dealer of enormous camper vans, talked with lots of people even about trivial things, experienced the room with the mould, attempted to reach a lighthouse more than a km away under a hurricane that tore off our raincoat, stuffed our hand luggage with purchases and then, what a joy, the light suitcase, we gorged on hamburgers and steaks, in short, a really great trip.

Vacanzeinamerica.net To see the photos

Coming soon Ontheroad again