Our first morning in Maine found us breaking our fast in the hotel restaurant. I really can't say enough good things about our stay there at the Portland Regency. Beautiful, ideally located in thenheart of the Old Port area, and the staff were very friendly and attentive.
The hotel has several turrets, whose ground floor interiors created these semi-privite nooks in the dining area.
We arrived in Portland just as the tail of Tropical Storm Elsa was hitting Maine. We knew it would be rainy and brought some gear, but in my case a travel umbrella and my Zambezi were going to prove entirely insufficient to the task. At the very least I needed more suitable footwear, something that had entirely slipped my mind.
My wife fell in love with trains after our second trip to England, when we rode the train cross country from Edinburgh to Berwick-upon-Tweed, and later down to London. We've enjoyed several rail excursions since, and the opportunity to ride the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad couldn't be passed up.
The weather limited us to a closed cabin, but it was still delightful, if short; only a small section of track was in operation, and we moved along it very slowly. Still, we got to see some of the East Promontory of the harbor which we resolved to hike later.
Back to the hotel to change clothes and wait out the rest of the weather.
Lunch at the Crooked Mile Café, just across the street from the hotel.
Weather relenting, we walked up to Congress Street, where we found the Portland Museum of Art and spent a wonderful afternoon lost in its halls.
Finally, dinner at the Harbor Tavern.
A piece of the Berlin Wall. Apparently pieces of it were donated to cities throughout the world as a gesture of peace and goodwill, and as a reminder of the consequences of the Cold War. This is Portland's. I had no idea it was here, or that this had even been done. It affected me quite a bit, as I remember so very well when the wall came down.
