Friday, 17 May, 2013

Said good-bye to Mt Washington Hotel and made our way to the Cog Railway that would take us to the top of Mt Washington, more than 2000m! We had booked the last two tickets on the only trip of the day...the weather was really foggy when we woke up but the brochure says they would go in any weather.
Entrepreneur Sylvester Marsh had climbed the mountain and encountered a fierce storm. He felt there would be another way to be more comfortable so he designed and built a cog rail in 1866 after being laughed at by the New Hampshire legislative, from whom he had to receive planning permission. The cogs under the trains keep the trains from sliding backwards. At places there is a 37degree grade as you can see from the photo of Rob trying to stand straight on the train.
Believe it or not is was snowing on the way up to the top. Visibility was very poor, but thankfully it cleared a little halfway back down the mountain so we saw some pretty views.
We stopped for lunch in North Conway, a cute small town with a lovely feel to it. This is about the first lunch we have had on this trip as we usually try to have a big breakfast and an early dinner, but today we only had a bagel for breakfast.
As we headed back to Boston, we took another scenic route but soon realized we wouldn't get to the airport in time to pick up our friends, Jan and Andy from San Diego (Jan had been my Matron of Honor in our wedding party).
We took the turnpike and heading North we saw more traffic than we had seen in the last week!
After picking up Jan and Andy at the airport and checking into our hotel, we met Jan's nephew and his wife at a great little Italian restaurant for a late dinner. So good to catch up with great friends!