New York-Florida-QE2 - Day 4
Day 4 – Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Clocks went forward in the USA last night but we were still up early and found breakfast had been left in the kitchen for us and the other couple who had stayed in the guesthouse.
Eli came across to say farewell looking very smart in his Sunday best of white collarless shirt and black jacket which we noticed had hooks and eyes instead of buttons which are thought to be an unnecessary decoration. We talked a little about the Amish way of life but he had to excuse himself to go to ‘church’. The Amish do not actually have churches but assemble at individual homes for their prayer meetings. Later as we drove out of Lancaster County we saw several houses with dozens of horse and buggies tied up outside.
By the time we were ready to leave, there was torrential rain and sleet and the temperature had dropped to 4°C so we decided to skip the town of Lancaster and move on to Gettysburg where at least it was sunny although the temperature never rose above 8°C all day.
We booked into our room at the Quality Inn, Gettysburg, conveniently next to the National Military Park and across the road from the American Civil War Museum. In the Museum gift shop we were able to buy a CD of a guided tour of the 1863 Civil War battlefields which we can thoroughly recommend. The narrator tells you how fast and how far to drive and what you should be looking at then goes onto tell you something of the history. It takes about 2 hours to drive round so we were really glad we used this option rather than book onto a guided tour. Although it was sunny, it was bitterly cold on the battlefields and the wind so strong we could barely stand. At one stage we were quite close to our hotel so we were quite glad of the opportunity to switch off the CD and go for a coffee break to warm ourselves up. We would thoroughly recommend anyone to take this atmospheric tour where it was easy to imagine the battle scenes in the fields in front of us especially with the battle noises, sounds of bugles and civil war songs on the CD.
In the distance we could see snow on the mountains, where we were heading next day, and wondered if we would see any snow.
We ate that night at a restaurant called General Picketts Buffet. The waiter was an expert on the civil war and Gettysburg and was testing everyone on their knowledge – fortunately he did not ask us any questions as this was Mastermind type questions. We were pleased to discover we knew the answers to a couple of them and had learned something from our tour.
Next morning we were up early in time for a 7am breakfast where we found it was so cold we kept our coats on! We set off in the car to take a photograph of a covered bridge which the waiter had told us about last night and discovered it was -2C. The bridge which is on the edge of the battlefield is the route of Picketts retreat – in excellent condition it was well worth the 5 minute detour.
We would have liked to stay longer and see more of the town but we had already booked our accommodation for the night.
Before leaving we went to visit the Gettysburg cemetery and stood on the spot where Abraham Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg address in 1866 (by the people, for the people etc).
Maureen
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