NEW ENGLAND BLOG July 6th, 2021 - NEWPORT
The train arrived on time and lasted about thirty minutes, but somehow we picked the most annoying cabin with a family and their kids next to us, someone smelling like too much deodorant and an elderly man on his phone in front of us. We couldn’t get off the train fast enough once it finally arrived and we immediately called for an UBER to take us to the Ferry dock.
We were supposed to arrive for our ferry about 45 minutes beforehand, but due to our late train arrival, and the UBER driver missing the turn to the port, we got there with only ten minutes to spare. Luckily, we had our tickets in hand and was let on with no problem. We did have to find seats that could handle our luggage so we stayed inside instead of the second deck in the open air. It was cloudy so the pictures weren’t ideal, but I got a few along the way.
We get to Newport around 10:30am and wouldn’t you know it the sun came out. We called another UBER to take us to our AirBnB, dropped off our luggage (almost stayed as we were so tired but the blue skies were calling) and took a third UBER to the Castle Hill Lighthouse. We did have to wait fifteen minutes for the ride, and once dropped off we were confused on where the lighthouse actually was as we arrived at a hotel and restaurant. Our map took us down a trail (that said private property for guests) and after bushwhacking through brush we finally get to the wonderful land of the lighthouse.
The wind was blowing our hair all over the place, but it was a nice reprieve from the sun that was starting to bake. After a good hour or so we called an UBER (4th one now yet still cheaper than renting a car for the day), waited 20 minutes for this ride to show up and were dropped off near the wharf shops.
We ducked inside a few places as they had quite a bit of interesting things to look at and soon found our way to the first mansion on the list to explore, The Elms. Immediately, we were stunned by the size of the property as we weren’t expecting it to be so vast. We took all the photos we could before entering as rain was forecasted around 4pm. When we did go into the house, we showed them our 3-mansion ticket we pre-purchased on-line and started our self-guided tour.
Rebuilt around 1901, it was set up like a European palace with each room having its own theme and marble statues everywhere. Even the ceilings were decorated as such, but of course not as lavish as some palaces we’ve seen before. Still, for an American cottage, this place was enormous and spectacular.
It took us about an hour to go through the several floors of rooms including the basement and enjoyed it very much. If this is a prelude to the other mansions we’ll see tomorrow then we'll be very happy (the 3-mansion ticket cost $42 per person by the way).
With our legs tore up, and my back hurting from pulling it on our luggage earlier, we retreated to our room for the night. We did stop at a gas station to pick up some food but the prices here are expensive. Anything within walking distance was way overpriced as well. We opted instead to have food delivered, thank god for apps.
*Side note- the thunder started roaring at 7pm.
Comments
Post a Comment