Saturday 10th June
It was a beautiful sunny day for our drive up to Albany. Mark started the morning off with a bike ride and I had one last walk around Mystic. The drive from Mystic to Albany takes about 3 hours. We stopped at the Dam Cafe in Holyoke on the way and they were most noteworthy as they had the biggest muffins I’d ever seen. The girl behind the counter agreed and said they’d even had to source larger paper bags to serve them! So, if you’re a fan, this is your stop. They also served a great variety of sandwiches.
Our accommodation in Albany was in a delightful boutique hotel period brownstone property, The Morgan State House, just near Washington Park. We were greeted with rather loud music coming from the direction of the Park, just across the road, and realised this weekend Albany was hosting their Pride celebrations. The first few people we encountered in our hotel looked like they’d be a good fit for the event and we felt rather out of place
We didn’t stay too long in our room after dropping our bags though, as we had downloaded a walking tour of Albany that we had decided to try. This self guided tour took us around the main historic sites in Albany, extending from our hotel down to the Hudson River and back. It was quite residential near our hotel but quickly turned to empty CBD in just a few blocks. Being back in a large city we were once again confronted with a lot of homeless people and beggars. It was quite confronting, especially as we were hassled a couple of times. It was not a place I would want to walk around after dark. The area had a vibe similar to that of Harlem in NYC, however, we stuck with the walk but remained vigilant.
Our walking tour finished up at around 4.30 pm and so we headed to a craft beer place, Pint Sized, for Mark to have a rest and a drink. There were some night markets across the road from Pint Sized and I went to check them out but, I would have to say, they were the weirdest markets I’ve ever been to. There were two taxidermy stalls, a stall for getting crystals embedded on your teeth and a taxidermy jewellery store where you could buy rings, necklaces and whatever with any kind of tooth, or bit of skeleton you like, embedded in them. It sort of went with the whole vibe of Albany though; it was rather weird.
We did manage to find a very nice Italian restaurant though, Villa di Como, just a few hundred meters up the road from Pint Sized, and that’s where we headed for dinner at the obscene hour of 5.45 pm. Having said that, the place was filling up at around 5 pm when I went to book our table. We had a delicious meal there, the best seafood pasta I have ever tasted, and I would highly recommend this restaurant if you’re ever in Albany. After that, it was home for an early night as we had another decent 3 hr drive tomorrow up to Burlington, Vermont.