We decided upon Brattleboro for our first night’s accommodation in Vermont, the guide book enthusing about the strong hippy scene and the historic buildings lining the Main Street.
Instead of simply taking the fastest route, after passing through Providence we turned off the highway just before Worcester and took back roads through Barre, before reaching the highway again shortly before Brattleboro. The smaller roads were great fun, winding through hills and woodland. We stopped for lunch in Barre, managing to find that rare thing, a restaurant without WiFi.
It started to rain as we left Barre and continued throughout the afternoon, meaning we only paused in Brattleboro long enough to drink a good strong coffee in the excellent, very hipsterish Mocha Joe’s. I also realised that I’d left my waterproof jacket at Elizabeth’s, but fortunately Brattleboro boasts (the world’s?) “biggest little outdoor shop” in Sam’s Outdoor Shop. Finding a relatively cheap replacement jacket was no problem there.
As the weather wasn’t up to much, we headed on to our accommodation, the Black Mountain Inn on the Main Shopping Drag Heading out of town. Our first motel experience! The room was large and quiet, the main peculiarity being that the bathroom contained only the toilet and bathtub/shower, with the sink in the main room.
We ended up at a restaurant called Panasian for dinner, which looked very unassuming from the outside but had pretty good reviews online For its Chinese and Japanese food. We ended up with two massive portions of tofu and some very tasty tea.
