Burlington, North Vermont

Burlington is an attractive college town on Lake Champlain overlooking New York State. We stayed a couple of miles out of town at a La Quita hotel which was very good with free public transport door to door into the city centre which ran ‘til late. The centre is a lively, bustling place with a really safe feel about it - one taxi driver said it was a bit like Boston 20 years ago which is easy to imagine.

Yet another harbour lighthouse

Trips around the lake

You'd think she owned the place!

It was bright, sunny  shorts weather but because of the wet summer there were loads of mosquito’s that took a fancy to my chrome dome so Mary had a good excuse to regularly beat me around the head – the fun we had!

Local pad - not at all ostentatious

The architecture is similar to, but on a smaller scale to that of Boston with a nice blend of old and new. Burlington was a major centre in the War of Independence so there are plenty of memorials referencing the demise of the British.  

The water front faces on to Lake Champlain the other side of which is the Adirondacks and New York State. The Lake was a major transport link in Burlington’s heyday which connected the Great Lakes with New York City and the rest of the World. Unfortunately, the advent of the railways and road transport saw the end of it as a trading centre but it still retains a busy leisure port and has commercial and cultural importance in the area.

Mary playing around with the local brass kids - hard faced as they come! 

Students had recently returned so there was a lot of activity in town especially in the Church Street (the city’s main street) which is a hub of activity full of restaurants, bars and shops.  As in all places we have visited, everybody we have met has been really helpful and friendly.

We found a great Italian restaurant down a back street called Trattoria Delia where we celebrated Mary’s birthday. The place was full and considering it was a Monday night we were lucky to get a table. Food was great – beef carpaccio followed ossu buco with a risotto – rated in the top 3 to date.

We visited St Pauls Cathedral which is a modernist concrete structure akin to Paddy’s Wigwam in Liverpool. The old cathedral was destroyed in a fire the cause of which was unknown but rumour has it that the cause was associated with some property dealing skull duggery.  The church was closed that day but the warden opened it especially for us (he was doubling up as the car park attendant and saw us wandering around) and then gave us a guided tour. The chancel wall is filled with a collage called ‘beyond the wall’ designed by Judith McManus and created by the congregation from pieces of fabric – quilt style (a Vermont tradition). The collage was inspired by the idea of what the view would be if the back wall of the chancel wasn’t there and can be likened to an impressionist view of the bank side park, Lake Chaplain and the Adirondacks at sunset.

Lake Chaplain also had great sunsets that rank up there with Seal Beach and Crosby – I’ll do a sunset quiz at the end of our tour with answers on a postcard!