English Burn Down Towns

We left Boston on Thursday afternoon (17 October). Mode of transport was AMTRAK, the main U.S. railway service. It was scheduled as a three hour journey to Stamford, Connecticut, but took three and a half. Our hosts, Dawn and Jim Del Greco, who were waiting for us, were not particularly surprised. We are not in Switzerland.

Hazel knew Jim from her volunteer days in Sierra Leone days a long, long time ago. Much reminiscing about who was where and what has happened to so and so, and do you remember when.......

We spent three great days with them in Norwalk, Connecticut. Plenty of local history and geography lessons. In fact, on the Friday evening, we attended a silent Auction (Hands up, those who do not know what this is – like me, for instance) for the Norwalk Historical Society. Plenty of time to eat, drink and socialise and be reminded of how the English in 1779 burnt down the entire town in the revolutionary war. Well, what does one say, except “Sorry. I think that it must all have been a big misunderstanding” or “Of course. That is what we did best”.

They also discussed the preservation order recently placed on a building that the English did not burn down. Definitely room for improvement in the “Burning Towns” department.



On Saturday, we walked along the waterfront. The Atlantic Ocean (shouldn’t it be the “English Ocean” to go with the English Channel?) is actually 100 miles away, as the Long Island sound stretches all this way. It all looks so small on the map – about 3 cms or so.

A quick drive took us to a second hand book sale at the local library – yes – we are seeing how close we can get to our luggage allowance of 37kg per person – and then to a food market the size of Heathrow airport, to buy some lunch and head down to the sea front. There were so many food samples in the market, that it was almost unnecessary to buy any food, except that by the time you have made one tour, it is time for the next meal.

Saturday evening – a quick look at the internet to confirm that Ipswich Town Football club have lost yet again and it is time to go to a ..........Silent Auction. Is this all that the folks of Norwalk, Connecticut do? Well, possibly yes, but I have decided that it is a very good idea and one that should be adopted more generally. This second silent Auction was held for the benefit of a Norwalk church, followed by a 75 minutes “Night Music” cabaret, by members of the Church Choir. But this was not any old choir and this was not any old Cabaret. The quality was amazing, with the tenor giving a rendition of “Nessum Dorma”, made famous by Pavarotti and many others, to a standing ovation.


Sunday morning was time to take in some American Culture, by reading a book by Scott Fitzgerald (be impressed) and then for a drive into the Connecticut countryside to visit Jim’s mum, whom Hazel met 32 years ago. Then on to Charlie (Dawn’s brother) and his Haflinger horses, followed by a drive through some other villages that the English completely or partially burnt down and back for a Chinese takeaway.

Monday morning saw us once again on our travels. Jim and Dawn took us to the station, to give Amtrak an opportunity to redeem themselves, as we then travelled to Grand Central Station, New York City, for the last leg of our U.S. Tour.

Many thanks, Dawn and Jim for looking after us so well. On behalf of the English viewers of this blog, we are real sorry that we burned your town down.