Saturday 19 October

We decided to go to Newport today and the weather was in our favour, sunny and not cold... 16 degrees. Newport Rhode Island is about 45 minutes drive from Providence and as we arrived at 10 am there were not many people around, so finding a parking spot in the centre of town was easy. We put money in the meter for 3 hours and found a Starbucks to have a very quick coffee before starting our exploration of Newport. We started chatting to an elderly gentleman in Starbucks and walked out 2 hours later !! Pierre was Swiss born, schooled in England and Germany, spoke Italian as his first language, has worked all over the world in a number of professions and was currently sailing his yacht down to Bermuda. He is an American citizen, as he could vote, and the subject that started us chatting was American politics. It was a really interesting and entertaining 2 hours with a well travelled and knowledgeable man.

With an hour now left on the meter, we looped back on our travels, added another 3 hours before we set out to explore Newport further. We had timed our morning arrival perfectly as parking spots were now impossible to fine anywhere. We discovered the town was packed with visitors enjoying a flea market, pumpkin patch, upmarket stores and restaurants as well as a Seafood Festival which was underway at the wharf area with food and drink stalls, and live music. We walked around the wharves, main street, the bay, millionaires row and the cliff walk. All in all it was a really good day out.

Newport is a very wealthy seaside resort for the rich and famous, and has been for quite some years, with so many mansions, and well kept town houses for visitors to enjoy. Home of the America's Cup for 132 years straight until it spent time in Australia, it was safer not to bring the topic up with any of the local boaties !!