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Allan Rogers takes
THE MAINE CHANCE
We found out just how fractured the coastline was by taking a road
that corkscrewed down the peninsula to the lighthouse at Pemaquid Point.

We boarded the "Downeaster" at a country station just north of Boston.

The arrival of this Amtrak train was impressive. We heard the wail of her siren, then saw the glare of her head light as she rounded the bend, then the massive carriage towered above us and we climbed aboard from almost ground level.
The space inside was generous and so sitting comfortably sipping coffee and nibbling a cookie from the buffet car we watched the rolling countryside of northern New England roll by. We slipped from Massachusetts and New Hampshire into Maine. There were places with familiar names, Exeter, Durham, Dover and Wells passed by. (and coming, as I do, from Britain, they seemed strangely out of order.) Then almost before we realised it we were pulling into Portland and ready to begin exploring mid Maine.

Now I must confess that what little notion I had of that coastal state had been
coloured by television and seeing Angela Lansbury cycling through the fictional "Cabot's Cove" in the series "Murder She Wrote”
Well it was not immediately like that. We arrived just as a snowstorm was brewing.

Driving snow and misty ‘white out’ hid much from view including and the ferries that scurried back and forth carrying commuters from the islands in Casco bay. In the summer there are great a selection of short cruises that you can take, they range from working boats that deliver mail, to a 58-foot ocean sailing yacht. Most leave from the Casco Bay Ferry Terminal at 56 Commercial Street.

If you want to prepare a picnic you’ll get inspiration and all the ingredients that you would need at The Portland Public Market. It is an open food hall that supplies local produce, freshly baked bread, wine and Maine cheeses. You can get lunch there and even experience Bison Stew at a bargain price.

Exploring the town we found statues of a couple of local lads who made good, film director, John Ford (sitting in his director’s chair) and the poet Longfellow. Longfellow was the son of a local teacher and is boyhood home is open as part of the ‘Center for Maine History’ located at 489 Congress Street.

Portland is surrounded by classic New England Villages and as you drive along there is an absence of billboards A sensible state law restricts the advertising clutter that could spoil the enjoyment of the countryside.

One thing that was obvious was the American flag. It is now much more in evidence. It seems to be flying at almost every household. It was there too when we arrived at the Pryor House in Bath, (a little town which has a few historic timber houses.)

Pryor House is a ‘Bed and Breakfast’ place in Front Street and is run by Gwenda and Don Pryor. They, plus baby Loreli and an affectionate greyhound, gave me a warm welcome.

The building was an 1820 Federal Style home and the next morning after coming down the elegant double staircase to a superb full breakfast, I sat on a rocking chair and looked out at a bright blue sky shining over the Kennebec River.

(It was what we used to call a Kodachrome day, in the days before the cameras went digital.)

By the 1840s Bath was one of the largest seaports in America. It was known as "The City of Ships" and The Maine Maritime Museum stands amid twenty acres of riverfront. It is located on an old shipyard where some of the biggest sailing vessels in the world were built, including some forty schooners with four, five or even six masts. Numbering amongst them was the Wyoming, the largest wooden sailing vessel ever built.

Ship building still goes on and the neighbouring yard "The Bath Iron Works"
Guided missile destroyers are produced. During the second world war some 25% of the Destroyers built for the US Navy in were made there.

The Maine Maritime Museum makes an excellent starting point of a visit to Maine's Mid Coast especially if you were to take advantages of the cruises that they run in summer. A six-hour trip, which includes a stop for a picnic lunch, cost £22.25 ($30) Admission to the museum was £6.85 ($9.25) for adults and £4.65 ($6.25) for children.

MAINE COASTLINE
Driving on, we found out just how fractured the coastline was. We took a country road that corkscrewed down the peninsula to the lighthouse at Pemaquid Point.

It lead us through farmland and woodland, and an unexpected ‘photo opportunity’ came when we found a collection of metal sculptures fashioned from old farming implements and oil drums.

A delightful teddy bear held up a knife and fork, a deer crafted from a wheelbarrow and a unicorn with an oil drum tummy were all there to be admired. A teenage girl hurried out to tell us proudly that they were all the work of her father, Nathan Nicholls.

Amid this surreal garden I asked young Elisa which her favourite was. "Well," she said. " It was the helicopter, but I am afraid he sold it!"
Resisting the idea of flying a unicorn back home and depriving her further, we drove on.

Further south we exercised our cameras at New Harbour where lobster creels were stacked around the boats and the houses painted in terracotta, lemon and pastel shades stood out against the snow. There were no foot tracks out to the roadside mailboxes so I guessed that folks were still snug inside or the postie had still to come by.

Along the Maine coastline Pemaquid Point is particularly rugged and beautiful with a sea that can be dramatic. The Pemaquid Lighthouse built in 1827 beams out an 11,000 candlepower light and is one of 61 surviving lighthouses along the Maine coast. You can see them all marked on a chart in the little museum in the keeper’s house. (admission 75p - $1)
We rounded off our trip by going through Rockland (with its excellent Farnsworth Folk Art Museum) to Camden. Camden has a really pretty harbour and you get an excellent view of it from the enormous window on the first floor of the local library.
It was famous for its fleet of windjammers. Other claims to fame are: Camden was the location for the film ‘Peyton Place,’ and more recently the park scene from this year's Golden Globe award film "In the Bedroom."

It also figures in a poem by a local girl Edna St Vincent Millay (1892 – 1950)
It neatly sums up the area.

All I could see from where I stood,
Was three long mountains and a wood,
I turned and looked the other way,
And saw three long mountains and a bay.

FACT FILE

Amtrak
http://thedowneaster.com

Portland
http://www.visitportland.com Tel 207 772 5800

Pryor House
http://www.gwi.net~pryorhse Tel 207 443 1146

Icelandair: Flights to Boston from London or Glasgow
http://www.icelandair.net Tel 0207 7874 1000

Maine Office of Tourism
www.discovernewengland.org Tel: 02088916033