As I wrote my last piece, I was on Amtrak 69 - the Adirondack - from New York to Montreal. I was only travelling as far as Plattsburgh though, which is a couple of stops before the Canadian border (which I should hopefully cross later today, but more of that later). Train has a whole load of advantages from bus or car: you are free to roam (including to the café car), the railroad route is more scenic (it hugs the Hudson river and later Lake Champlain providing views over the water for much of the way), you get more seat space (much more than trains in the UK) and it has become more fashionable in the US (who doesn’t want to be with the trends?). My luck with the weather has continued and it was truly stunning. I took virtually no photos through the slightly gritty windows, spending my time gazing, writing or chatting to a student I met whilst stretching my legs at one of the stops.
Train is no faster though - in fact it can often be slower (I’m stationary on one now, heading to Niagara Falls); there is very little high speed rail in America. Part of the reason for this is that there is only a small (although growing) amount of passenger traffic on the train lines. Part of the reason for this is that the Ford Motor Company bought up almost all of the railroads in the 1930s and promptly shut them down in order to force people into petrol vehicles. Worked admirably well for the corporation, and very badly for the nation whose lasting legacy is a disappointing rail system. When you are on holiday though, there is no great rush and the landscape can be savoured as it meanders by.
As I said earlier, I alighted at Plattsburgh and my cousin and her husband met me and immediately rushed me off for a meal just out of town at a faithfully imported Texan steakhouse. This place was quite something to the European’s eyes. I managed to finish the majority of a 20oz ribeye steak which was really quite something, not to mention these bread rolls that were clearly made with an enormous amount of butter and sugar (think small white buns crossed with large brioche) as well as being coated in butter and served with a cinnamon, sugar and butter spread. Oh my goodness. Had them for breakfast a couple of days later too - all part of the take some of your food home American experience.
We travelled back to their home in Potsdam, which is a good two hour drive through changing landscapes by which night night had fallen and so we headed to bed fairly quickly. Unfortunately I didn’t sleep so well, feeling increasingly ill during the night (more on that in a later post). Despite this I pushed on with the planned trip into the heart of the Adirondack Park to visit Lake Placid - name of both the lake and, confusingly, the town that has built up along the edge.
Once again the scenery was simply stunning driving into the mountains. Most exciting of all for me though was being able to go for a walk on the lake, not something I’ve been able to do before. Even more exciting was going for a ride in a sled pulled by huskies. We then went for lunch in a really nice restaurant with many little trinkets from the history of Lake Placid scattered along various sills.
I continued to feel OK but pretty rough as we did various bits of shopping and stared into the windows of the allegedly beautiful but certainly closed library. As the day drew on I figured I needed to see someone and so we headed home a little early and went to the local Emergency Room - another all American experience. This turned into quite a late night so we went straight to bed.
The next day I was feeling a whole lot better and we went for a walk around Potsdam, a town that was properly established in 1806. Today it is home to four universities including the famous Crane School of Music. It has a local history museum, which was sadly closed. However, the local maple syrup and cookshop was open and so now I have a couple of distinct syrups to compare when I get home, plus some maple cream, which is for spreading on toast.
One of the locally sourced stone is a rust red sandstone and many of the older buildings have at least some of this stunningly beautiful stone in them. It works well with both slate and copper roofing. Two of the buildings that stood out were the Catholic and Anglican churches which are strikingly similar and yet show off distinct architecture and styling. The latter has some quite fabulous stained glass windows by a particularly famous artist and studio in NYC.
