Friday 2nd June
There was another hiccup with our travel plans; with our day of travel from Vancouver to Boston via Toronto. Our flight from Vancouver to Toronto was delayed first by 2 hours, then by 3, and then by 4, meaning we would not be making our connecting flight from Toronto to Boston. Apparently, Air Canada are experiencing communication problems that were causing wide spread flight delays. I’m now wondering if it’s the same ‘communication problems’ resulting in the shade blinds in the lounge randomly going up and down at various intervals? It’s got people in the lounge mightily amused, none the less.
In the end, we only arrived into Toronto by around 8 pm and that meant we were stranded there for the night. This technical issue for Air Canada was affecting travel for everyone across the whole country. I was upset that it meant we were going to miss a history tour in Plymouth but there was some poor people that missed weddings and connections to flights to make Greek island cruises, and the like. We did have one stroke of luck in this sorry saga though. I had spied a Sheraton as we were landing and we managed to get one of the last rooms available for that evening; at great expense mind you.
We had been rebooked by Air Canada onto a flight the following morning at 7:40 am, which involved a 4.45 am wake up, and on arrival at the airport found there were people sleeping on the floor of the terminal. It seems we got off pretty lightly by comparison.
Our plane eventually departed, after a further delay, and made it into Boston by 10 am and we were most relieved to see on landing, via our AirTag data, that Mark’s bike and bag were in the same location as we were. I just hoped my bag made it on the flight as well.
Our saga didn’t quite end at the airport however; the car rental queue was so long that it took over 2 hours to process our booking. We didn’t leave the airport until almost 1pm and didn’t get to Plymouth until 2.30 pm meaning that we’d spent more than a day and half in transit. The drive from Boston down to Plymouth also wasn’t without incident. Our initial travel time was 45 minutes but this soon expanded to over an hour as we got lost in the loops around Boston Airport. We eventually realized we needed to head south and found our way to the south-bound highway that dropped us into Plymouth right at the last moment. It was quite a transition from the multi-lane highway to this lovely and, quintessentially, Cape Cod town. Plymouth is just lovely. One other joy of being in Plymouth was the humidity….’ah…how’s the humidity’ comes to mind. The humidity levels throughout Canada peaked at 30% and that experience was simply desiccating. Down here though, with the warmth and being by the water, we were greatly enjoying the 90% humidity levels and hoping this lasts for us for a bit longer.
We were exhausted on our arrival to Plymouth but glad to find our accommodation was in a great location and very comfortable for our shortened stay (our initial plans were for 3 nights but this was now just 2 thanks to Air Canada). The apartment was huge, light and bright and offered views out over the Harbour and the historic Mayflower and I’d highly recommend this location, and this particular apartment (201), if you’re ever staying in the area.
Our first task after locating our apartment, parking and dropping our bags was to go and look for milk which took us to a few different stores where we met some rather friendly locals and the milk was eventually sourced at the petrol station; not the pickle shop or the ice cream shop or the bottle shop. With the milk purchased and safely deposited back in the apartment we then set out to explore the waterfront. It was rather hot to be out walking though and after a while, and being near enough to beer o’clock, we headed to one of the many little bars along the harbour front for a reprieve from the heat and to have a drink. Cabby Shack was rather reminiscent of The Quarter Deck at Narroma, for those who know the south coast of NSW, and might give you a picture of what the place was like; well, the Quarter Deck before Justin Hemmes that is. We both feel that Plymouth, overall, is rather much like an up-market Coffs Harbour; it has a similar demographic and a very similar Harbour having a long breakwater. It’s at this point I should also note that there is no Lululemon in the area, not for about 30km, and this kind of gelled with my ongoing hypothesis and with the age of most of the folk we’d seen thus far; we weren’t out of the age demographic at all! We also had a chuckle when we went to tap to pay for the drinks, “oh, no Apple Pay here” the girls said with some surprise that we had even attempted to pay via this method.
Suitably rejuvenated after our drink at Cabby Shack we then set out along Plymouth’s Main Street for a bit of an explore and what a treat this was. Beautiful old heritage-style Cape Cods lined the street but these now housed a variety of shops, cafe and restaurants. We stopped, rather arbitrarily, at one venue called The Tasty for dinner and what a great move this turned out to be as I enjoyed one of the best meals I have ever tasted. We then and there decided that this would set the new benchmark for our 5-month tour thereby overtaking Model Milk in Calgary. However, there was no Apple Pay here either!
It was only 6.30 pm by the time we left The Tasty but we were very tired after our long two days of travel and so ambled home to do some washing (Brett!) and have an early night. We’d lost a lot of time thanks to Air Canada and had a rather full day planned for Saturday, our one full day in Plymouth.
Saturday 3rd June.
We woke to quite a turn in the weather and it meant that our raincoats got their first airing of the trip. This was not too much of a bother for us as the drop in temperature was somewhat appreciated. Our initial plans for our one full day in Plymouth had hinged on how hot it was going to be and what we could do, and, when it would be cool enough to do it. The lower temperature however gave us greater reign to do what we wanted and whenever we wanted.
Our morning walk took us along sections of the Pilgrim Trail and past the historic Plymouth Rock, the traditional site of the landing of the English pilgrims in 1620, as well as the Jenney Grist Mill, a 1970 reproduction of the grist mill that was built on this historic site in 1636. This remains a working mill producing cornmeal that is sold to local restaurants, bakeries, breweries and distilleries and, for an Aussie connection, this mill replicates that built one year before the grist mill built by Captain Cook. It then started to drizzle and so we went in search of a cafe and found one where we were the youngest customers by a mile. The place was lovely and the coffee was good too but here, also, no Apple Pay. We were going to have to dig out our physical credit cards again!
The stuff-up by Air Canada meant we missed our history walking tour on the first day but the tour organizer, Nancy, very kindly allowed us to tack onto another tour group that was heading out later this morning. So along we went with a group of 20 or so Year 9 students on tour from LA. It must be noted that they were a most polite and respectful group of students and it was a joy to wind with them along the trail to learn about life for those first Pilgrims. Our guide, Leo, emphasized the importance of the Mayflower Compact, struck up on the boat during the crossing, which was America’s first legal document of democratic governance in the New World and a significant break from the tyrannical rule of the English Monarchy. Plymouth is also where the tradition of Thanksgiving started with the Pilgrims celebrating the bounty of their first harvest in 1621 and apparently, today, up to 35 million Americans count themselves as direct descendants of those first 51 surviving Pilgrims.
Our tour finished up at 12.30 and, after a fond farewell from the Year 9 students, we went in search of a hot chocolate; it was that kind of weather. We found Will & Co doing a thriving trade on a Saturday morning and warmed ourselves over the hot drinks. It was then back home for a bit of a rest and some time out of the wind, in fact, the wind kept us snugged up back at our lovely apartment for the rest of the afternoon.
For our last evening in Plymouth we went to East Bay Grille for dinner as this was just across the road. We’d booked yesterday, when they couldn’t accommodate us, but they were able to squeeze us in for this evening. It was a fun night and we opted to stay for our dinner at the bar which offered much better people watching opportunity. The young couple next to us were on their first Tinder date and Mark suggested that the guy should shut up a bit or it would be their last date! It was a lovely place offering views out over the harbor and a nice vibe yet the food was not as good as the night before and, again, no Apple Pay. Mark thought it strange that the land of Apple Pay offered no such opportunity here! That said though, we wished that the Bondi Hotel could evolve into something similar as the East Bay Grille as it would have more greater local appeal. We were home by 8.30 pm, ragers that we are, but getting ready for the next chapter of our tour. We head off tomorrow morning for the short trip down to Newport RI where we are spending the next four nights. Stay tuned!
