Hi there,
In this post I am going to tell you about the places we visited during our almost month-long stay in Durham.
Sweet Trail
This is a hiking trail that is very close to our house; but you must go by car.
From the very first moment I was impressed with the number of signs asking people not to litter, to always keep their dogs on a leash, not to leave the defined walking space.
I was delighted not to see a single piece of litter along the entire route, something I unfortunately cannot say about the hiking trails I have done in Europe.
In 1973, shipping and oil tycoon Aristotle Onassis planned to build the world’s largest oil refinery on this land at Durham Point, with a pipeline that would run all the way to the Isles of Shoals. Had those plans materialized, they would have forever changed the nature of Great Bay and the New Hampshire coast.
Locals organized and opposed because they understood the value of the wilderness on these lands. In 1974, the locals won the battle, and the refinery was never built.
The trail was named in honor of Cy and Bobbie Sweet of New Castle, New Hampshire, who have generously supported conservation work in Great Bay for many years.
White Mountain National Forest
This is one of the most typical things to do in Durham.
You go along the Kancamagus Highway which is a National Scenic Byway. Along the highway there are a lot of stops to see White Mountain National Forest attractions and do various hiking trails.
You have to pay 5USD for the parking ticket which is good for a whole day; so, with the same ticket you can park at all the points of interest along the highway.
Once again, I was astonished and amazed at the civility and politeness of the people.
We did relatively short hiking trails because since it was getting dark by 4 pm and there were so many things to see, if we did longer routes, we were going to lose the whole day just on the hiking trail.
In these two days, we also noticed the difference in how people drive there compared to Porto. The politeness of the people who drive, the respect for cyclists, the respect for pedestrians, and all the good things that you don’t find in Porto when you are behind the wheel.
In these landscapes I felt like I was in the American movies I have seen all my life.
Doe Farm
This place is a 30-minute walk from Durham’s house or a 5-minute drive.
There are several short hiking trails in the area, and we linked them all together. There was no trash here either.
At one of the points along the trail you could see our house across the river.
Here we had some beautiful autumn scenery.
Boston
We were planning to go to Boston and back on the same day, but Diego’s boss gave us two nights in a hotel, so we went for the weekend.
Boston is a small city so you can see it all in one day. We saw almost everything on the first day.
Coming from having already spent a week in Durham, it was a shock to enter a city again: the noise, the traffic, the garbage, the homeless. I was struck by the fact that everything smelled like marijuana.
The good thing is that the city is small and perfectly walkable.
As recommended by Diego’s boss, Boston is quite safe, but you should avoid walking in the public gardens, the Boston Common and east of Massachussetts Avenue, at night.
At Boston Common, the Freedom Trail begins.
https://www.thefreedomtrail.org/
Salem
Sunday morning, we left Boston to go to Salem.
I wanted to see Salem and would have liked to do the exchange so that we could be in Durham by the end of October and spend Halloween in Salem.
It was a fail because the town has little or nothing to do. In fact, I went into the most famous store in town for witch stuff and there was nothing.
So, I don’t recommend it.
Gloucester
After Salem we went to Gloucester which is a beach area in Massachusetts.
The place is nice, but it doesn’t have too much to do as a typical beach area.
Paddle board in Durham
Although we were at 0ºC, we had to take advantage of that wonderful river we had in front of the house.
Once again, movie landscapes.
Maine
Maine was highly recommended by everyone when we said that our favorite thing to see when traveling was nature.
Our exchange partner recommended a route to Portland to see the coast. The towns with spectacular houses left me with my mouth open. They could not have been more beautiful.
You could tell that the level of purchasing power there was very high.
After York we drove along a dream road with yellow trees and idyllic houses. Here I saw the most beautiful house of my life that was completely black and made me want to paint the roof of my house when I returned to Porto.
My home exchange partner said that growing up in California, Maine is a novelty because it is as far as you can get from home in The States.
Finally, we visited Portland, and that city looked a lot like when you see the poor areas in the movies. The streets were a bit dirty, and you could see quite a bit of destitution.
Compared to Boston, Portland felt empty. Overall, we felt that we wasted our time visiting Portland because it was ugly and had nothing special.
Mount Major & Vermont
Vermont was also highly recommended by Diego’s coworkers for its scenery.
On the way to Vermont, we stopped at Mount Major for a short (5km) hiking trail.
Then we drove to Woodstock, toured the town and on the way back we stopped at other points of interest.
This visit was on November 19, and it was already getting pretty cold here.
Wagon Hill Farm
For the week of November 20, I had a couple of hikes planned that we were unable to do because the sites were already closed for winter, and you could only access them “at your own risk”. In addition, we were not well equipped for hiking in the snow.
We decided then to visit Wagon Hill Farm which was one of the things our exchange partner also recommended.
We hiked 4km and I was left with the feeling that I hadn’t done anything because it was so short.
The place is nice, but I prefer the Sweet Trail or Doe Farm.
Portsmouth, For McClary & Fort Foster
This was our last visit from Durham.
Portsmouth is the closest large city to Durham. We visited on Thanksgiving Day and fortunately found it empty.
I found the city beautiful and very clean.
We then went to two sites recommended by our home exchange partner, Fort McClary and Fort Foster, both of which are already in Maine. The two forts were also spectacular and the houses we saw in the area were dreamy.
Here is a map with the places we visited:
Links to my YouTube Channel: