Beautiful drive on Saturday morning from Freeport to Concord, New Hampshire's capital: winding roads through woods and little towns. Sun for a change, too, and warming up, which felt good. After a stop at the Discovery Center and a complex of galleries, we drove into downtown Concord. Saturday is a good day to be in Concord, because of the weekly farmers' market on the grounds of the State House (pic above). Of course, we bought maple syrup and fresh baking goods for a late breakfast. Lots young families and dog lovers around.
Main Street is packed with unique little shops, boutiques and cafés, with some public art inbetween, and it was fun to wander around and check them out, especially since the weather was great for a change. Especially liked Gibson's bookstore, founded in 1898.
On to Manchester afterwards, completely different from Concord. Much less fancy, more "industrial", which comes from its history as a mill city. The Currier Museum (pics above), our first stop in Manchester, is renowned for European and American art, a nicely presented not overwhelming collection. The Museum also offers tours of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Zimmerman House, which we visited on a previous trip.
After a stroll along downtown's main street, we visited the Millyard Museum,located in a former textile mill. The exhibition tells the story of Manchester and the people who have lived and worked here, from early times to the period, when the textile industry flourished. In the 1920ies bigger textile companies were founded at the Merrimack River and the Amoskeag Falls (pic below), which served as a "power canal" for the mills.
Starting in 1831 the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company took the city over and a huge textile manufacturing complex emerged, including housing for the workers. This corporation employed over 17,000 people, including immigrants from many countries, mostly French Canadians, but also Irish, Scots, Germans and Swedes. In 1935 operation was terminated, but the company's vast brick millyard still dominates the cityscape today and the buildings are re-used by different smaller companies.
Afterwards we checked in the Hilton Garden Inn, which is located directly at the baseball stadium. We got a room with a view towards the ballpark and after a site inspection with the general manager, we watched a game of the Manchester FisherCats (Eastern Legue, AA), which was taking place this afternoon, and enjoyed a drink on the sunny patio of the hotel while watching.
Later, the hotel shuttle brought us to "Cotton", a great restaurant in one of the mill buildings in town. Corresponding to our rule to have seafood or fish every day while in New England, we had lobster bisque and pan-seared scallops followed by steaks - all of it was excellent! - and walked back to the hotel afterwards to still see the fireworks after the baseball game.
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen