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Published: June 22nd 2012
After three very pleasant days in and around Santa Fe and three lovely nights at the El Rey Inn it was time to get back on the road and head for Albuquerque. Since we arrived in Santa Fe I have been saying to Bernie that I read something about an Emerald Trail that we should do in/around Santa Fe or Albuquerque, but I couldn't find the references in our guide books again and searching for 'Emerald Trail' on Google was unsuccessful. The El Rey was on Cerrillos Road (Historic Route 66) which became NM Highway 14 as it headed out of town. Well, it turns out that NM Highway 14 is the 'Turquoise Trail Scenic Byway'!!
D'oh - I had remembered it as more green than greenish-blue. So we drove to Albuquerque by way of the Turquoise Trail for a short while until Historic Route 66 and NM Highway 14 parted ways. It was a very relaxed 59 miles to Albuquerque alongside the Rio Grande through the small farming communities of Domingo, San Felipe and Bernalillo.
When we arrived in Albuquerque we headed to the Old Town part of the city. We found Old Town really easily, but then
we struggled to find the booth that the walking tours are run from. Their website said that they were opposite the Visitor Information Centre so we were looking for one of the big 'i' signs that usually denote an information centre or office. We walked around and around the few streets that make up Old Town getting more and more frustrated because we couldn't find the Visitor Information Centre, let alone the walking tours!!
Just as Bernie was about to go back to the car to get the piece of paper with the exact address written on it, we stumbled across the walking tours booth. Yay! With the 10.00am, 2.00pm and 4.00pm tours showing as SOLD OUT it was just as well that we wanted to buy tickets for the tour commencing at 12.00 noon! When noon arrived our guide, Pat Ward, rocked up ... to take us on our own private walking tour. The remaining tours for the day were actually booked out by groups which left just two Aussie tourists wanting to take a tour in the middle of the day. Cool. What is it they say though? Only mad dogs and Englishmen ...
Once again
we were treated to an enthusiastic and informative tour. We didn't cover much distance - Old Town only covers a couple of blocks - but we were treated to a wealth of information about some of the people who contributed to the rich history of Albuquerque. Pat is an avid researcher of old newspapers and he certainly had some entertaining stories to tell that he had sourced from old newspaper articles.
At the conclusion of our tour we went to one of the restaurants on the Old Town Plaza for a latish lunch. We ordered taco meals that, unbeknownst to us, came with sopapillas. When our meals arrived we recognised the tacos, but we had to ask what the pillow-like things in the basket were. Sopapillas the waitress said. Then she brought across a honey dispenser from another table and told us that the Sopapillas are good with honey. And they were too! I don't think they are very healthy though because they are basically a puffy, fried bread pillow.
After eating, we walked around the Plaza again to take a few more photos. Then we walked back through the courtyard to the Information Centre to pick up
some information about the Petroglyph National Monument that is located near Albuquerque. A demonstration of some Native American dancing was taking place in the courtyard so we watched that for a little while before heading back to the car. Would you believe it? As we walked back to the car the Visitor Information sign was blatantly obvious. We have no idea how we missed it earlier!!
We programmed Edna to take us to our hotel so that we could cool down a bit. It is so hot here with much of America in the grip of an early summer heatwave. We spent a couple of lovely cool hours at the hotel and then showered and changed to go out for dinner atop Sandia Crest. To reach the mountaintop at 10,678 feet we rode the Sandia Crest Tramway which is billed as the world's longest. The tramway is 2.7 miles long and ascends over 4,000 feet during its 15 minute journey. At times the car is suspended 1,000 feet above the ground!!
After taking a few photographs out over the Land of Enchantment we headed into the 'High Finance' restaurant. Reservations were recommended on the website so Bernie had
booked a table. It really wasn't necessary though as the restaurant was far from flat out. And maybe that is because it is not a great restaurant??
First they had run out of our choice of entree, then we had to eat our main course without our entree plates being cleared away - very slack. After the meal I used the restroom. Eeuuw, not nice at all. They have a permanent sign up about water on the floor so it seems that they have some sort of plumbing problem that just can't be fixed. I think the moral of the story is that if you go somewhere for the spectacular view then you shouldn't necessarily expect that great food will be available to go with it!! Still, it wasn't the worst dining experience we have ever had.
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Janet
non-member comment
view looks worth it
Forget the food etc, the view looks worth it. I guess they don't have to try as hard to get diners as some places. Must be some great hiking trails in that area. I wouldn't have known how to pronounce the town name except for the Partridge Family singing 'Point me in the direction of Albuquerque..." all those years ago. I learnt a bit about US geography from their touring around on that show!