Quirky, unique and with a lot of charme: Fort Collins

Early afternoon we arrived to Fort Collins/Colorado, driving over from Scottsbluff/NE, about 2 hours, a peaceful straight drive through Pawnee Grassland to Fort Collins. 

In the afternoon, we extensively explored downtown FC in beautiful sunshine - what a change to rural Nebraska! We indulged in icecream at Walrus, went shopping and had a good time. Also, we walked over to New Belgium Brewery and crossed the Cache la Poudre River with its pitturesque Poudre River Trail:

 

The history of Fort Collins goes far back: Legend has it that in the early 1800's, French-Canadian fur traders were caught in a  snowstorm. To lighten their load, they buried large amounts of gunpowder (“poudre”) in a hiding place (“cache”) along the banks of a river – the Cache la Poudre River. In 1862, Camp Collins was built to protect travelers and settlers along the Overland Trail, but it only lasted for a few years. By 1872, the former fort site had become a small town and when the railroad arrived in 1877, Fort Collins became a thriving agricultural center. Colorado State University was already established in 1870 as the state's land-grant institution.

The Old Town district (photos above) with Old Town Square was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. It's a quirky downtown with lots of diverse, unique shops, restaurants, bars, etc. Shops like Topo (bags of all kinds), lots of vintage clothing and accessoires (e.g. Ragstock) or the Otter shop (containers). There is a resemblance of FC with Disneyland's Main Street USA. Reason is, that Harper Goff, the designer, used his hometown FC as a model for the buildings along Main Street USA in Disneyland, California.

The Exchange (left photo) is a new addition to the downtown scene. It has a large, central plaza with patios, green spaces, indoor and outdoor dining as well as event space.There is e.g. Crooked Stave, famous for its sour beers, a winery, a taco and a chicken place. Nicely done and similar to places in San Francisco or Portland.

New Belgium as well as Odell are the two larger players among many smaller craftbreweries in town. We checked out New Belgium and re-confirmed that their "Voodoo Ranger IPA" is still very good, and, that their grounds are nice to sit and relax (photo below).

Our hotel, The Elizabeth Hotel, was the best we had so far on our trip. A "music-themed" hotel with a "music instrument library" and vinyls to borrow for the record player in the room. Also, there was a music venue, the Magic Rat (photo below) in the house, the Sunset Bar (where we enjoyed cocktails with a great view, photo far below), a restaurant and a coffee shop plus wine shop.  

We had breakfast today at Ginger & Baker in an old mill building from the turn of the last century, which was expanded, and, now not only offers a fantastic (breakfast) café (pic left), but also a "Market & Bakery" and a full-service restaurant and a teaching kitchen. 

On to Birgit Halbreiter's "MouCo" Cheese Company for a tour and tasting before leaving Fort Collins. Birgit and her husband are famous for their soft cheeses, camemberts in different variations as well as cheese curds and beer cheese. Interesting background and great cheeses!