Hartford

August 9, 2021

The day begins in a leisurely fashion. Last night Vance set the coffee to start brewing at 6, and we’re both up savoring the first cup when Laurie emerges and steps out the door for her morning run. She’ll return later and report the good news that there were no bear sightings this morning. There’s plenty of wildlife around though. A fox ran across the road in front of the car when we drove into the village for dinner last night; and on the morning of the day we arrived Laurie saw a large bear alongside the road we would be laboring very slowly uphill on a few hours later. And this morning we’ll see a dozen wild turkeys on the shoulder of the road on our way down the hill.

A few hours later we load our mountain of belongings into the back of the Forester, say our goodbyes to Laurie, Sarge, and Marge, and then Vance drives us down to our hotel in Hartford a few blocks from the Amtrak station. Along the way we stop off at the UPS store in Simsbury to ship some things back to Portland that won’t be going to Europe after all: two tires, because all those on the bikes still look like they’ve got three more months of wear in them; the backup camera I’d shipped ahead with the suitcases as insurance, because I beat the odds and managed not to lose or break one in Part One; my rain pants, because they’re bulky, I hate wearing them, and we don’t plan to see much rain in the next 90 days anyway.

We arrive at our hotel around eleven, too early of course to check in at our hotel by a few hours. I sit around the lounge while Rachael goes to the store to get a few things for lunch; and after we have our snack she heads off for a walk down by the waterfront. She phones me some time later and instructs me to listen to the phone. In the background I can barely hear a rhythmic beat and faint music, but she assures me it’s something wonderful. She’s listening to a group on the waterfront recording a music video. We’ll have to watch for it to be published so I can hear what I’m missing today.

She returns an hour later after I’ve checked in to the room, excited about what a great walk she’s had along the river. I’m in the middle of a lengthy call to Elizabeth at the moment, but we’ll plan on going out again later in the afternoon for a walk before dinner.

Hartford’s colorful skyline, seen from the opposite bank of the river.

Rachael was excited to see a groundhog grazing in the grass beside the river. Then she came across an entire groundhog herd.

We go out together about an hour later and head to the river again. She’s right - it really is an attractive space, just blocks from the CBD. Hartford began reclaiming its waterfront along the Connecticut River about forty years ago - capping the freeways and reconnecting the river to the city, creating ribbon parks along both banks. A highlight is the Lincoln Sculpture Walk, a collection of sculptures honoring Lincoln, his life and his associations.

It makes the city a much more attractive place than we’d imagined. We had decided to stay here overnight mostly just for the logistics, but it made an unexpectedly fine day. It’s hot though, and very humid. I’m perspiring so badly by the time we turn back that I finally take my shirt off to ventilate and dry off before heading back to the room to shower and change for dinner.

A surprising mural to see here. It looks like one we’d expect to see in Tucson.

Looking south from the lid over the freeway, we can see what a difference it has made to the city to cap it and reconnect downtown to the waterfront.

Abraham Lincoln meets Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Mary Lincoln’s dressmaker: Elizabeth Keekly, a former slave.

A quite abstract representation of Secession. Zoom in, read the description, and see if you can resolve the patterns suggested here. South Carolina? Bayonnets?

This is an impressive and sobering display, especially after reading of the terrible flooding in Europe last month. The plaques above Rachael’s head are the high water marks of the great floods here.

The splendid nine arched Bulkeley Bridge reminds me of the fine bridges in France. Completed in 1908, it is the largest and one of the last stone arch bridges built in New England.

This building puzzled me when I tried to identify it, looking for orthodox churches. It’s the crown on the armory of the revitalized remains of old Colt gun manufacturing complex.

This golden wall mystified us when we saw it from the waterfront. It’s zoomed in here to show the detail, but you can get a more complete view in the following photo.

Here’s where the gold comes from. It’s a reflection of the Gold Building, now the home of Virtus Investment Partners.

The Old State House. Built in 1796, and the original seat of the Connecticut state legislature.

Dinner at Salute is especially fine. Rachael has this grilled salmon with potato lasagna, and I have shrimp piccata: sautéed shrimp, Italian and chorizo sausage, leeks, capers and tomatoes in a white wine sauce over linguine.

The day ends with an unexpected, unnerving but hilarious comedy act. We spend about an hour completing and submitting travel documents to United for the flight and entry to the Netherlands, and the travel locator document for Belgium. The document for Belgium requires the address of our first stay, so I look it up on booking. I’m horrified when I pull it up and see that somehow we booked it for October 11th rather than this month. This explains why we’ve been so puzzled by the fact that we could never manage to get it added to the calendar- it didn’t occur to us to look for it two months out.

The hotel is not available when we actually need it of course, so we spend the next half hour frantically scanning through the possibilities on Booking and AirBnB before finally finding one that works for us. Looks like we’ll have a place to sleep when we arrive after all. At the end we’re both fully stressed out and Rachael collapses into bed minutes afterwards.

What luck! We could just as easily have arrived at this hotel at the end of the day, jet lagged and stunned to realize we had no place to stay.

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Jacquie Gaudet“We don’t plan to see much rain.” Famous last words? We didn’t take our rain pants on our two-day ride to Victoria in 2018 (only 2 days, no rain in the forecast, etc.) It poured on Saltspring Island that first day and overnight. Perhaps some less bulky, more comfortable rain pants will find their way into your pannier before you get to Rome.
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3 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Jacquie GaudetIt’s a possibility, especially when it gets later in the season. And if I do! Someone very close by will say she told me so. I’m not sure I can remember a day in recent years though when I bothered pulling them out so it feels like a poor investment since we have such little carrying capacity anyway.
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3 years ago

Jen RahnGlad you figured out your first place to stay in Belgium!!

Can't wait to read about the trip there.

I had a visit with my old physical therapist who is from Germany and was traveling in Europe this past spring. She said there were pretty wildly varying Covid-related restrictions from country to country.
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3 years ago