Day 6 - Burlington to Stowe

Our destination today wasn't too far from where we started so we didn't leave too early.  Our first destination was Montpelier, the tiny capital of Vermont. It meant that we went back on ourselves but it was totally worth it.

Montpelier is the smallest state capital but it is absolutely delightful.  Our first stop was Down Home Kitchen for breakfast. It was a lovely southern style cafe with a great vibe. K got fried eggs, cheese grits and a biscuit (american meaning not a digestive) and i went left-field and ordered an omelette with maple sausage, vermont cheddar and potatoes with a side of collard greens. We both really enjoyed our breakfasts and agreed that it would be our regular haunt if we lived there. Lots of nice wee touches around the place and great service.

Our next stop was Bear Pond Books across the road. It was great and I managed to get the new issue of The Beliver. The "city centre" is only really streets so im comfortable we covered most of it. K also enjoyed the sweet shop. Obviously.

Driving out of town we passed the State House which was lovely but way too grand for such a small place.

Our next stop was the Ben and Jerry factory tour and it was everything I hoped that it would be. We parked near the graveyard for discontinued flavours and that really set the tone for the whole, wonderful place. We got a good face in hole with a giant ice-cream lid where we were Ben and Jerry, we did the tour which involved seeing the production from above and we ate ice cream. As i said, perfect.

There were a few places we wanted to visit before Stowe but the weather was getting a bit more overcast so we decided to power up the hill so we could get a good view at the top of Mt Mansfield. This turned out to be a good decision as it was quite blue on our way up in the gondola but once we got to the top the sun went behind a cloud for the rest of the day. This trip up Mt Mansfield and around Stowe was the "fall in New England money shot" that people travel from around the world for. The colours were vibrant and plentiful and everywhere you looked was truely beautiful.

At the top there is a (quite expensive) restaurant so we decided just to have some hot drinks and cake. K had coffee and I had a hot spiced apple juice and we got both desserts on the menu to share. The apple pie and strawberry shortcake were both great but at $12 a pop that was to be expected. Completely worth it for the view.

After we got back to the bottom we drove back down the hill to visit the places we'd passed earlier. My favourite was the Cabot Cheese place where we both tried about 30 different cheeses - unfortunately we couldn't really buy any cos of the travelling.  The other great stop was the Cold Hollow Cider Mill where we had millions of more tasters including help-yourself freshly-made apple juice. I bought a wee cider donut to compare with the other ones we've had, this one wasnt as sweet as the others and was still warm - 2nd best thus far.

At around 5 we finally checked into our hotel, the Stowehof. This was the hotel I was most looking forward to and I haven't been disappointed. It is like something from the past, in a good way. Our room is incredible with a wrap round balcony and views of the mountain on 2 sides. It is like a ski lodge from the alps in the 60s and eveyone has been hanging out in the communal areas - reading, enjoying the views or playing games. We enjoyed a game of scrabble (K won) with some complementary coffee before dinner.

We had dinner in the hotel restaurant, as did most of the guests. They had lots of mountain-type fayre, fondue, sausages,  giant pretzels etc but we just went for burgers on local made potato buns and they were delicious. I had a local IPA with mine and K had a locally made soda. We decided to forgo pudding cos we've had loads of sweet treats. There is a fire pit outside where you can toast marshmallows but we decided it was too cold.

Post-dinner we've just been hanging out in the lounge, reading and drinking hot chocolate but we'll head up to bed soon.

Tomorrow we, sadly, leave Vermont and head to New Hampshire. Vermont is now my favourite state so NH has big shoes to fill.

Comments

  1. Unknown5 October 2019 at 06:38

    I'm looking forward to the money shot pic- just headed to that page now...

    ReplyDelete

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