We didn’t have to check out until lunch time so we decided to go for a walk around Hartford as it is the state Capitol of Connecticut, we actually stayed quite close to Bushnell Park which is where the old buildings are. We walked through the park and looked at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch which is a magnificent arch over the road on the entry to the Park, this was built to commemorate the dead of the American Civil War. At the top of the hill is the State Capitol building, this was started in 1871 when funds were granted for the building of a new statehouse, it was finally opened for the General assembly in January 1879. We walked round the outside which is very spectacular then I saw a visitors entrance so decided to go and see if we would be allowed in to have a look round. As it turned out they run guided tours of the building and one was just starting so after getting through security we walked to the other side of the building to be met and introduced to the tour, it was rather a strange set up as we basically were greeted then told to walk back to where we started where we would be met by a guide! Anyway it gave us a chance to look at the new part of te building and also all see how many of the portraits we could recognise – as it turned out quite a few! The main building is made of marble and granite and has a gold leaf dome on the top which can be seen from almost anywhere in the city. It cost about $2.5 million to build and the replacement value of the roof alone is about $200 million! It underwent a major refurbishment project starting in 1972 which took until 1989 but was well worth it as everywhere still looks very new now almost 30 years later. There should be a statue on the top called virtue but the restoration project ran out of money so they haven’t been able to put her back up, she is currently in the hall way and I actually think she looks rather good there and you can actually see the details of it as it is at your level rather than on top of the building. We walked round the Senate Chamber and the House of Representatives, in the Senate they actually sit in a geographical order so you could end up with Republicans and Democrats sitting next to each other, in the House of Representatives it is more like the Houses of Parliament where they sit according to party. We were told that the Governor has the right to overrule anything that comes from either house and if he / she does so it can then be appealed and it is debated again as long as this happens within two weeks. If the governor doesn’t agree with something but knows that if he overrules it it will just get appealed he can just ‘forget’ to sign it, that way although it becomes law it is not with the approval of the Governor! By the time we had finished the tour and had another walk round the outside it was almost 11.00 so we went back to the hotel, packed up the car ready for the drive to Mystic. On the way we stopped at Wethersfield which was one of the early settlements. Originally settled by the Native American Wangunks, who ‘sold’ some of the land to the settlers and thought this meant that they were still able to use the land and would now have the protection of the settlers, unfortunately the settlers had different ideas so they ended up at war where the native Americans came off badly. The frontier settlement was founded in the late 1700’s and the first English settlement was built around what is now called Broad Street Green and is a really nice area. There is a free walking leaflet that you can pick up from the information boards which explains some of the houses, who lived in them and what happened in the area. We followed this walk and found out that at one time the main crop was Red Onions which were sold to the West Indies as they are a good source of vitamin C and they were fed to the slaves working the plantation. It was also where Washington met with the French to plan their strategies during the war of Independence. It was also the site of the first Witch trials which took place about 20 years before the Salem ones which are far more famous. By the time we had finished walking around it was lunch time so we stopped in a local inn and had a really nice burger then hit the road again heading for Mystic Sea Port, our final stop was Gillette Castle which was built as a country house rather than a castle, unfortunately it has now closed for the season so we walked round the outside then got back in the car to continue our journey to Mystic and our home for the next couple of nights. When we arrived in Mystic we stopped on the way at the tourist information site and have picked up a few leaflets of things to do in the area, we also got tickets for the sea port museum as it has a couple of tall ships and some working buildings along the port, we finally arrived at the hotel about 4.30 so checked in and had a relax overlooking the harbour.
