Day 28 - Burlington, VERMONT # 3

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It’s now been 4 weeks since we’ve been away which is hard to digest and I don’t fancy jumping on the scales anytime soon. Alarm was set for 8.00 am so we could have breakfast downstairs and be on the road by 9.00 am for the 60km drive to the ski resort town of Stowe.



No traffic issues encountered so it was an easy drive to the Von Trapp Family Lodge. You may find that name familiar and you would be right. It was made famous by the movie Sound Of Music starring Julie Andrews. Well what I did not know until quite recently is that the movie is actually based on a real story and there is a real Captain Von Trapp from Austria who had 7 children who were taught how to sing by a Nun named Maria who later married him.



Some of the movie is not true including the children’s names and the specific timelines of events but a lot is factually based and the reason I know this is because today we have just completed the Von Trapp Family History tour here which included a Q & A session with Maria’s grandson Sam Von Trapp. Sam’s father Johannes is the only living child of the Von Trapps and is 84 years old and was the third and last child Maria and Captain Von Trapp had after getting married.



The tour was really interesting about the “real” Maria Von Trapp who moved here to live in Stowe, Vermont after fleeing Salzburg, Austria from Hitler the day before they were going to be taken by the Nazis just like the movie, but they actually took a train to Italy before migrating here to USA rather than climbing over the alps to Switzerland (thanks Hollywood !).



Maria would develop this magical mountain property which was originally just her home to later include the hotel as it is today and Sam’s father now has majority control of the property and remains actively involved in the business. Other than learning about the family history we also watched a family video taken when Maria made a return to Salzburg a couple of years before her death in 1987 and we also saw the family burial grounds where both Captain and Maria Von Trapp are now resting.



After the tour we decided to have lunch here and I had a Johannesburger (grass fed burger) and much to my surprise I was asked “how you would like it cooked !”. We certainly don’t get asked that at home where it’s always cooked however it comes. It came with a small salad (this could also be called a bowl of lettuce with 2 cherry tomatoes !). Kerry had the prime rib sandwich with a small portion of fries with au jus on the side for dipping.



As we were leaving we were taking a couple of photos from the front of the hotel and guess who we bumped into ? It was none other than our newfound friend from Minnesota, Beth with whom we enjoyed the fireside evening reception with last night along with her sister Bonnie and mom Jackie.



As a proud and passionate Vikings fan she was not impressed to see me wearing my Green Bay Packers t-shirt as they are fierce rivals in the NFL but she still agreed to pose in a photo for us. Turns out we must have only missed them at breakfast by a few minutes and we were both a little disappointed we were not able to resume the evening reception discussion again tonight but they sure have a long way still to travel to get to Bar Harbor, Maine as it was now almost 2pm.



We then drove to the little village of Stowe to hunt down a Vermont licence plate from one of their souvenir stores but I had no luck so we headed down to the Cold Hollow Cider Mill factory where we bought a sample of 4 different cider drinks and also bought a six pack of apple cider donuts (or should I say we devoured these !). Afterwards I had a look in the gift store and I bought some Maple Syrup Peanut Brittle to try later and why not at the same time get another six pack of donuts !



The weather today has been a bit warmer reaching 22 degrees so hopefully we can put the cold clothes away for good. The next stop was not far down the road towards Waterbury to the factory of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. This is where it all started for this global business and I have never had one before and decided I would just wait until I got here to it’s original home. It was very crowded and the car park was bigger than I expected so we had a bit of a walk and the factory tours were closed for the day and they were just selling ice creams from the shop window. I waited in line for almost half an hour and there was still 30 people in front of me so I ditched Ben & Jerry’s to make sure I was not late for the 5.30pm evening fireside reception at the Green Mountain Suites.



We only just arrived in time and tonight they have a Mac & Cheese bite to try with some sort of mild chilli sauce similar to what we’d have back home when we order Thai spring rolls from Pinto Thai (oh, how I miss their food !). These small bites were very tasty indeed so quite good for a dinner replacement. We went a bit easier on the drinks this time and there were a lot less people around so we did not meet any new folk to chat with like we had done with the Minnesotans last night.



Back to the room to chill and watched an NBA preseason game featuring the Brooklyn Nets against the Milwaukee Bucks and aussie Ben Simmons was playing pretty well so maybe he can turn his career around this season and show his amazing potential. Also great to see Patty Mills still out there putting in 100% every minute he gets and he is such a great Australian.



I had grabbed a couple of muffins from the breakfast area in the morning and had these whilst watching the game and they were up there with the best I have ever had (and big too !). The food preparation for both breakfast and the evening reception here is top notch.



Well it’s our last night here in Burlington. It was a busy day today and tomorrow we head south along the valley of the Green Mountains. I was unable to track down that licence plate today so maybe tomorrow it will show up ? A storm is forecast tomorrow to arrive in the afternoon so it is expected that a lot of the leaves will come down with the high winds. We were so lucky to be here right on peak foliage time but it’s also going to be nice to see leaves on the ground. Somehow after a slow start all of the 18 maple cream cookies are now gone within 3 days !

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Photos

The headstones of Georg Van Trapp and Maria Von Trapp
Georg was born 4th April 1889 and died 30th May 1947 not long after arriving in Stowe Vermont. Maria was born 26th January 1905 and died on 23rd March 1987.

This is a packers fan alongside a Vikings fan !
Great time meeting Beth and her family last night.