We left Bardstown and headed up to Louisville, where we stopped off at the home of the Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs. We didn’t stop here as a race track was starting to buzz with visitors arriving for the afternoon’s racing, we just nosed about and admired the stands and horse enclosures.
We did stop at the Mohammed Ali centre, a museum showcasing his life as a young boxer, as an adult boxer, his fight against enlistment in the Vietnam war and as a public figure afterwards, his involvement in religion and charity. It was enlightening, interesting and very informative. We had just arrived and got into the lift to start the tour, when a fresh suited man entered with us, along with another couple. It transpires that this was the Mayor of Louisville and he welcomed us to his lovely city!
Indy
Our next stop was at the Indianapolis Motor racing track, home to the Indy 500, NASCAR, Moto GP and the USA Grand Prix! The museum was amazing, full of original working race cars, lots of driver memorabilia and information on historic speeds, dates, winners and record breakers. We took a ride around the track, in a minibus being driven by two old ex-employees, both flowing with information. We learned that until 1909 he track was made up of red bricks, but with the improvement in engines and tyres, the bricks were tarmacked over and a metre of bricks were left by the winning line. It is customary for winners to get out, kneel down, and kiss the bricks, so we did!
Back to Chicago via Joliet
We headed back up towards Chicago, back through the prairie lands again, before stopping at Joliet, just outside Chicago, for our last night together. Joliet is on Route 66, but is a large modern town nowadays. We went to a bar/restaurant called Juliet’s and had a lovely meal and a few glasses of wine!
It was so cold that night, minus 9c!! Food was lovely, and I got to try the national favourite – deep fried truffle ravioli – simply delicious, followed by home made tiramisu!!!
After 4
weeks together, we dropped Mike and Brenda at Chicago airport and we spent a
few more days with friends Paula and Perry at their apartment on the outskirts
of town, chilling and relaxing. One of
my requests during our stay was to visit a cat café, Paula had made it her job
when travelling the world to visit as many cat cafes as possible
(www.theneighbor’scat.com), while Perry tries chocolate milk in an effort to
find the best in the world, or the best in the USA (www.afoolzerrand.com).
Paula’s view
So we went
to a Cat Arcade, the owners of a cat rehoming charity have set out a room with
old arcade games and sofas and chairs, so cats and public can interact in a
relaxing environment. The cats were so
happy to be stroked, played with, cuddled and cooed over and this helps with
their socialization before they are rehomed. Whilst we were there a man arrived
with a cat carrier and scooped up a lovely older cat, was given advice on how
to let the cat settle on arrival at its new home and he left, grinning like a
Cheshire…..cat!
A sassy
grey feline was happy to be stroked, rolling over for tummy rubs, but every so
often let me know she had had enough!
We popped into an old building which was home to the Schlitz Brewery, a “tied house” that sprung up after Prohibition (1890 – 1903), a Tavern owned and operated by the brewing company in what could have passed as an ornate residential property.
That ends our journey to the USA, hope you have enjoyed all the pictures and write ups!!
We left the
endless flat prairie land – clapperboard houses with long driveways through the
fields and white log fencing that reminded us of Little House on the Prairie
and headed into Kentucky and Bardstown, rolling hills of greenery and forests,
dotted with roadkill every few miles – deer, squirrels and badgers. It was so green and gently hilly that it is
likened to Oxfordshire and we can see that.
When planning this part of the trip, several web sites recommended three days in the area with a visit to 4 or 5 distilleries each day with a designated non-drinking driver of course. Each visit offers a tasting, and each distillery is several miles apart even though on the maps they look close together so we managed 3 in one day and 2 in another. This was hampered (in a lovely way) by the fact that we had met a lovely couple, he was from Coventry (of all places!) and she was American, and they helped us feel like locals, plying us with alcohol and food at night! Their hospitality went beyond anything we had experienced before, we were introduced to dignitaries in the town and to a chief plant engineer at another distillery that we were then invited to for a private tour, but we really did run out of time….and never got to see him and his brewery.
We stopped a few days in an old town called Bardstown, and on the Sunday night, stopped at The Old Talbott Tavern, built in 1779 and recognised as the oldest western stagecoach stop in America, the hotel part is said to be haunted! European Americans settled here in 1780, Bardstown is the second oldest city in Kentucky, the town was formally established in 1788.
9 Bourbon Distilleries in 1 Town!
In 1789, Baptist minister Elijah Craig pretty much saved the American soul when he developed America’s signature spirit – bourbon. Since the first barrel was produced over 200 years ago, it’s helped build the lives of Bardstown residents who’ve earned their living by distilling America’s native spirit. Established by European Americans in 1780, Bardstown is the second oldest city in Kentucky county.
Today, visitors can tour Bardstown’s nine distilleries as well as enjoying bourbon entertainment, bourbon-inspired dining, bourbon history, and bourbon shopping.
The distillery
tours were all different.
We started
at Heaven Hill, America’s largest family owned and operated distilling company,
home to Larceny, Elijah Craig and Rittenhouse (our 3 tasters) as well as Evan
Williams, Fighting Cock, Georgia Moon, Henry McKenna, Mellow Corn, Old
Fitzgerald and Pikesville Bourbons ; a small batch brewery where they still
regularly roll the barrels in storage and hold a competition to practice the
art of barrel rolling and loading in a purpose built area outside.
Entrance
Rickhouses
Inside a rickhouse
Some of the tasters
The barrel rolling area
At the Jim Beam factory, we watched traditional barrels being loaded into the “rickhouses” where the barrels are stored. We were able to dip our fingers into the “mash” and taste the sweet malty liquid before it is distilled; we watched the distilling control room monitoring the flow of liquid before it emerges as a clear flow of “wine”, it’s then poured into barrels, stored for several years before emerging a deep red colour. We tasted Knob Creek straight from the barrel, before David enjoyed dipping a bottle of bourbon into the red wax to seal it. He picked his own bottle, washed it in watered down bourbon, put it into the bottling plant and collected it the other end, full and stoppered.
Jim Beam is
also home to Basil Haydens, Bookers, Bakers as well as Knob Creek.
A delivery
Some family history
Good old Jim!
Ingredients lists
Tasting the mash
The clear liquid before it is barrelled.
The complete automated process
On to Maker’s
Mark distillery, this was a small scale operation, set in lovely landscaped
gardens and buildings that were established by the owner’s wife (Mrs Burks) back
in 1815 after Mr Burks built a water powered grain mill on the site in 1805. All the processes were visible, all
operational and all original, including printing their own labels! We could taste the mash in a wooden open
barrel, and saw the large brewing vats. The
tasting was interesting, here we learned all about adding a drop of water to
the bourbon, how it changed the molecules and therefore the taste.
Again,
David was able to dip his own bottle, this time the process was heavily “health
and safety” aware!
Next we visited
Barton 1792, established in 1879 and the oldest running distillery in Kentucky,
and distilled with water from its own spring a few miles away. It is called 1792 after the year Kentucky
became an official state of the USA, based on the original distillery,
Ridegwood Reserve, which was also established in 1792. It’s now owned by a large conglomerate which
also produce Glenmore and Buffalo Trace.
However, the most varied tasting was in the “whole county of Kentucky” where David tried every different one he could, whilst he could!
St Louis
We stopped for two days in St Louis, pronounced, St Lewis to us Brits! It’s in the county of Missouri along the Mississippi River. Its 630-ft. Gateway Arch, built in the 1960s, honors the early 19th-century explorations of Lewis and Clark and America’s westward expansion, a fascinating bone shaking tram ride to the top and then a video show and tour of the museum below round off the trip.
Replica paddle steamers are found on the river, and the Soulard district is home to barbecue restaurants and bars playing blues music. The Cardinals (baseball at Busch Gardens) and NFL (hockey) are based here, as well as the America’s Centre, a huge arena full of sporting memorabilia and a Walk of Fame on the pavements outside.
In October, Samson was put into storage in Spain, together with our friends Mike and Brenda’s motorhome. Anything attractive to ants (the bane of our life along with mozzies) has been double wrapped and packed away or dumped! Samson was to be cared for by a Dutch family, surrounded by several large Alsations and Doberman(s) in a 10 foot walled and fenced enclosure, wedged between caravans and boats, safe as houses!
For those who didn’t know how this trip evolved, we made friends with Mike and Brenda in Portugal, about 18 months ago. They mentioned a trip to Detroit to a 5 day Motown musical event, in about a year’s time and asked if we wanted to join them, we said that sounds great! Last autumn, they added in a wedding event after Mike proposed! It was booked for Friday during the Motown A Go Go, so we became part of the wedding party!
David and I decided to continue our stay in America after Detroit and do a short trip on Route 66 and down to Kentucky for David to experience the genuine Bourbon trail, being a bourbon fan! Mike and Brenda asked to join us on this part, we said sounds great! Cheapest flights were with Norwegian Air from Barcelona to New York so a 5 day stay in the Big Apple came first. **We can highly recommend Norwegian Air, Dreamliner planes, and option to bid to upgrade from economy to Premium class and superb service.
Our flight left Barcelona airport on time on the 16th October 2019 and flew through the afternoon, arriving in New York at 9pm, to a blustery and wet evening! We finally returned on the 12th November, heavier, wiser, happier, more knowledgeable and much much lighter in pocket!!
This blog is mainly pictures with a short write up about each stop during our trip, we experienced so much that it would take months to write about! We hope you enjoy the pictures, as much as we enjoyed taking them!!
Our route over October and November 2019.
New York, New York – so good they named it twice!!
We arrived in New York’s Newark airport on a wet windy evening and got into a taxi to our Hotel in Newark just a few miles away. Newark is opposite the island of New York so we negotiated the numerous transport options each day and made it to Times Square on one day, and “Downtown” another day. To us Europeans or Brits, Downtown is an area outside the City, in America Downtown is the City! We left Penn Station Newark and arrived at Penn Station NY! Confused? Yes, we were too!
Standing
opposite Macy’s store one day (the store takes up a whole block) Mike and David
negotiated a 3 day pass on a tourist bus, a brilliant idea when we realised how
BIG New York is!! We thought we would
just wander up to Central Park, head down to the financial district, sail down
the Hudson River or trot over Brooklyn Bridge to Brooklyn.
Yeah!! Right!! A block takes several minutes to walk and take into account stopping and turning to check out and watch every ambulance, fire engine and police car crawling past, getting neck ache from looking up at all the immensely tall buildings, and the sights, smells and sounds that invade and overload all the senses, walking just half a mile took well over an hour!!
The bus
ride took us one route “Uptown”, through the theatre district, up the edge of
Central Park, through the posh Washington Heights, through dodgy Harlem, and
back down Museum Mile, passing the American Guggenheim, Central Park zoo ,
Carnegie Hall and Times Square!
Route 2 was
“Downtown”, Times Square, Rockerfeller Centre, Macys, Empire State Building,
Flatiron Building, Soho, Little Italy, China Town, Canal Street, City Hall,
Garment District, Meat Packing District, Chelsea and the port of New York.
Route 3 was
a mix of the above plus areas like Upper West Side, the Bronx, East Harlem and
Midtown.
We crossed
the Hudson River one evening just as sun was setting, to tour around the Statue
of Liberty and saw New Jersey and Brooklyn in the background on the horizon.
We visited all the usual tourist buildings – we had to! We gawped at the size of Macy’s and Bloomingdales (didn’t actually have time to go into them), went up the viewing platform on floor 89 of the Empire State building, paid an emotional visit to the eerily quiet 9/11 monuments, went to Madison Square Gardens to see if anything was on (it wasn’t) and marveled at Broadway, attending a matinee showing of Phantom of the Opera at the Majestic Theatre.
We saw some
very strange things – hot dog stalls on every street corner and steam vents in
the roads (as you see in the films), a group of about 150 stake boarders
snaking down a road on a Sunday morning, and every nationality you could ever
imagine wearing all sorts of different types and styles of clothes.
So how would I describe New York? Its clean, friendly, noisy, unruffled, happy, busy, easy going, beautiful, eerie, fashionable, structured, and amazing!!!
A regular monster truck!
Penn station, but which one??? It was Newark.
Downtown New York
David checking out the hard ware!
A traditional bus!!!
Penn Station New York!
Accosted by Batman!
Interior of Penn Station Newark
David & Mike supping on the Pier
Museum of Modern Art (MOMA as it’s known locally)
Waiting to see Phantom
Images from the top of the Empire State Building, approx. 4pm until sunset
Hudson River in the background
Statue of Liberty trip & other pics
Mike placing his order with the NYPD, a night in the cells!
The cast of Phantom of the Opera at their final curtain call.
A modern shopping centre.
By heck, it was freezing on the River Hudson!
Images from the 7/11 Monument
The new building.
Motor Town Detroit
What a different 2 hours makes in American weather! We flew to Detroit, a short 2 hour journey and arrived to sunshine and a bit of warmth. Our hotel was just outside town so we discovered the delights of UBER drivers over the next week.
Detroit is named “motor city” where car production and manufacture “made the city”. Ford, Chrysler, GMC, all started here but as production was killed off in the 1960s or 70s, the city took a huge downturn, became a bed of riots, rotting buildings, derelict factories, unemployment and dire living. The other thing Detroit was famous for, and this is what has helped the rebirth of Detroit, is Motown music, where Berry Gordy lived at the time, created a recording studio and where he created his empire of record labels that made people like Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and the Temptations famous.
Berry had worked on a production line at Ford, realised the advantages and benefits of well skilled, smart, organised teams and applied this method of working to his artistes. If anyone fell below his standards they didn’t make it. His first house, bought by him and turned into a recording studio, is now the Motown Museum, along with the neighbouring 8 houses with displays of personal items, his original apartment, musical instruments and memorabilia given to him by his stars.
We had a tour of the museum, which was fascinating. One afternoon we visited a house that Berry Gordy once owned for a private party. The house is now owned by a local paint artist who is trying to keep the house as original as possible, however he had covered over the swimming pool and put away all the antiques!
The Motown event was amazing, although I have to confess that I was born after most of the artistes sprung onto the scene! Every evening we were entertained with old Motown musicians, I will attach a copy of the event’s line up, easier than trying to remember them all!
We took
time out during the day to explore the city, we walked along the sea front and
looked over the river at Canada. We
visited an area in Downtown that is simply full of restaurants and casinos, we
spent an afternoon at a museum where the original Ford Models A to T were made,
before the production became too big for the building and they moved to a huge
premises out of town. Our guide was an
ex-Ford worker and very obviously took pride in still being involved. The collection of all working models from A
to T is the only one in the world. Note : they ALL run!! The museum is
sometimes used as a wedding venue, and was recently patronised by the current
Ford family, who held a wedding on the top floor.
Detroit is
an interesting city, being modernised and updated, with a large financial
section in the heart of the city, and everyone we met was pleasant, polite,
friendly, helpful and very interested in talking to us.
Because of the wedding itself, we felt like one big family, people came up to us to congratulate the bride and groom, people who turned out to be old Motown singers, or band players or someone who knew someone in a Motown band – the connections were there even down to an Uber driver we had one day who used to play in a supporting band!! We felt humbled by their pride in the improvements in their life and city, it was a relaxing, happy stay during our week in Detroit.
Having returned from our trip to the USA in October and November and letting it sink in as to all the hugely fun adventure we had, we settled in Vilanova I La Geltru just outside Barcelona for a week, not wanting to travel too far just yet!! This was easier said than done!
The Rolls Royce engine on the Dreamliner and below, coming into land at Barcelona
Samson coming out of the storage yard.
Our storage facility had a Dometic engineer on site, one who was prepared to take a look at an issue we had with the electric on board heater not firing up, a fault we had found just before we left for the USA so after we had landed in Barcelona at midday, driven to the storage facility and hooked up the trailer, it was about 4pm. We left the storage place to travel only 15 miles to the local campsite and we expected to arrive half an hour later and get ourselves hooked up and straight before the sun set but we got caught up in the French/Catalan/Spanish demonstrations. The campsite was just a few miles from the French/Spanish border and the main AP7 motorway had been closed by Police that day due to demonstrations on the roads, all traffic had been diverted to parallel roads and told to park up as the Catalans were hoping to keep the road closed for 3 days!! I have never seen so many stagnant lorries, cars and motorhomes, in car parks, garages, service areas and on the edge of roads, all the drivers looked really ‘peed off’, just sitting doing nothing. We eventually got to the campsite at 7.45pm, the receptionist had kindly stayed open for us.
Lorries for as far as the eye can see……
We headed out of the site the next morning, back to see the electrical engineer, thinking how clear the roads were heading away from the border, until 2 miles down the road we hit brake lights! This time a coach, full of older aged French passengers, decided to pull across our side of the road, blocking our exit, with the attitude of “well, if we can’t move, neither will you” until the Police arrived! The Civil Police arrive, the coach driver soon moved and we were on our way. A few hours later, electrical fault identified, we headed south, still shocked at how many lorries were still parked up, probably back as far as 30 miles from the border!
We arrived at a site familiar to us, Vilanova I La Geltru, and signed in for a week; caught up and tried to regulate our sleep as well as eating at the correct times, my stomach was often wide awake at midnight, 6pm USA time!!! We did 4 suitcases full of laundry and found homes for all the extra bottles of alcohol we have imported from the USA!!
Vilanova was a little cooler than we had anticipated, we had to retrieve our jumpers and coats!!! However, the sun was out and the sky was blue, the sea was still rolling and the drinks were still cheap!! And…..one evening I scored 6 in a row when feeding the wild cats!!!
6 in a row at dinner time
One of the site’s pools.
Vilanova beach at sunset
Leaving G22 pitch at Vilanova.
After a
week we moved 200 miles south to Alcossebre, on the Costa Dourada. The change in weather and temperature was
immediate, an increase of 5C, which resulted in David getting his shorts
on!! We stopped at Camping Playa
Tropicana, where all the drinks are free!!!
Fun and Sunshine, there’s enough for everyone!!!
The coastline here is a mix of sand and pebbles, very clean and perfect for snorkeling in the summer, maybe not in November 🙂
We took a drive out one day to Alcala de Xivert, a small inland town with a fantastic 17th Century Moorish church, closed the day we decided to visit as the forthcoming weekend was a religious festival. However, the church tower was open, and we ventured up all 213 steps to the top, for amazing views of the plains.
The views were worth the climb. At 120 steps there was a platform with 7 bells, used for celebrations and holidays, and another tiny staircase upwards. We reached the very top, with several more bells, just as it chimed 12 midday, boy did that hurt the old eardrums being right under them!
Tower steps
View from half way up
We also spotted just across the valley, a hill top castle, Castel de Xivert, so off we went, 5kms drive over dust and dirt and another 1.5kms on the knees and calf muscles! Again the walk was worth the views from the castle. It was part of the Knight’s Templar empire, built during the 11th and 12th Century, but possibly with parts dating later than that, as suggested by an Arabic template on the main outer wall. The castle walls and towers remain, as does several of the small village houses below, but the quietness, and the views were something special.
View of the valley below
Upper area and twin towers
What health & safety???
Part of the lower walls to the village
Orange groves below the Castle
In full bloom still.
As we left the castle and headed back to Alcossebre, we drove through the orange grove valleys, the trees still loaded with partly ripened oranges. The smell was so fresh and fruity.
After several days here, we have decided to move on south, towards an old favourite, Bonterra Park in Benicassim.
We have spent the past 6 weeks in a lovely seaside town called Roses, in Spain, just over the French/Spanish border and have very much been acting like tourists, cycling along the prom, eating in the local tapas bars, chatting to other British caravanners about the occasional thunderstorm or windy day we were having, or swimming in the Med or the pool. But. … same as in the UK, autumn has arrived! Just not on such a grand scale!!
The nights are drawing in, getting dark by 7.30pm, mornings are darker until sunrise at 7.30am and evenings are a little chilly, resulting in the reappearance of my faithful fleece! Another downside to this weather, is the abundance of flies during the day and bloomin mosquitos in the evening! They drive David mad!! Me, the flies just annoy, and the mozzies feed a family of 20 on me, so frequent applications of anthisan are a regular occurrence after dark! I hope our neighbours have not heard the frequent cries of “oh, you b**tard, David, quick, rub here!”
This will be our last post for a few weeks, as we are jetting off to the USA with friends Mike and Brenda. We are flying from Barcelona to New York, spending 5 days there, then flying to Detroit, arriving on my birthday!
In Detroit we will be joining a few hundred others at “Motown A GoGo”, a celebration of Motown bands and singers, organised by a British man and held in the area famous for the Motown museum and Berry Gordi’s recording studios. On Friday 25th we will attend Mike and Brenda’s wedding, along with a few others, being performed in one of the actual studios.
After the wedding, we are taking an Amtrak train to Chicago, spending a few days there, before collecting a hire car and driving down part of Route 66, to St Louis, and Louisville, where we will pick up the Bourbon trail. Here we will no doubt visit a few distilleries, sampling their wares, maybe even purchasing some!!! From Louisville we head across to Indianapolis before heading north back up to Chicago. We fly back to New York and Barclona mid November, where we head south, so news updates will continue….
Sunset on Roses beach
A sundowner??? Don’t mind if I do!
Beautiful pink sky over the campsite bar
Empuriabrava beach one Sunday afternoon
Roses Bay from the mountains behind
Off roading to achieve the best views.
One day we took our snorkelling gear to Montjoi Bay, a secluded bay a little further around the coast, and spent the day at this deserted beach. At one point in the afternoon, there were a dozen people there, most had arrived on yachts or canoes! The water was cool, but not particularly clear, not many fish there, despite us taking tasty bread rolls along.
Montjoi beach
David contemplating going in
Next bay along.
One day, we took a ride out with Mike and Brenda to the local Hyper shopping mall, and found this amazing Cadillac, reminding us that we are just weeks away from our visit to the USA.
Brenda and I also visited Salvador Dali’s museum in Figueres, housed in an old theatre that burned down, so Dali purchased it, renovated it and used the interior to display his artwork, paintings, drawings, ceramics and jewels.
David, Mike, Brenda, Me and a Cadillac!
A beautiful house in Figueres
Dali’s Museum
Brenda on her way up!
One of Dali’s famous jewels
And another….
And another….
His most famous…..
The centre piece in the interior of the museum.
One of Dali’s most unknown works is called “Explosion of Mystical Faith in the midst of the Cathedral” and is worth studying, the photos probably don’t do it justice. Its a stunning piece of artwork, which Dali worked on for 15 years (1959 – 1974) and is still claimed to be “unfinished”, showing the virgin saint surrounded by a nebula. The second painting shows his first attempt that was used as his “study” attempt, without the layers or colour and depth of bodies.
Superman enjoying some beach time!!! OK, you can breathe out now!!!
One of the beautiful bays in this area.
And another, we have done plenty of off roading to achieve these views!
Recent Comments