Thirty years ago this August, when Jim and I were travelling south to spend a year in South Carolina, my parents told us to try to avoid the traffic around Baltimore. To do that we went east down the peninsula that includes Maryland and part of Virginia, across the 25 mile Chesapeake Bay bridge/tunnel, and stumbled into Williamsburg. We spent about an hour and moved on and were intrigued.
It's hard to explain Williamsburg or do it justice. First of all, "Colonial Williamsburg" is actually Williamsburg. All day every day and well into the evening, Williamsburg is alive with actors and tourists. Sure, there are modern shopping centres, hotels, housing developments, fire and police department, but downtown Williamsburg is the colonial museum which is about a mile log and several streets deep, and has 88 "original" buildings. I'm not sure what they mean by original because someone told us that Williamsburg was pretty much burned down during the revolution; I'm still muddled. I do know that Bruton Parish Church (Episcopalian) was built in 1715 and the Governor's Palace is a reproduction.
 |
| Art from armor, in the entry of the Governor's Palace |
 |
| and outside |
Our first day on site we bought an annual pass for very little more than a one-day pass. The annual pass gave us unlimited access to buildings and tours but you don't actually have to have any kind of pass to be in the town centre, listening to actors and getting a feel for the place. There aren't any walls, barriers, entry gates; it's just downtown Williamsburg.
 |
| Our 'orientation' guide, demonstrating the pillory.What I didn't know is that the piece you sit on is a narrow piece of metal and that hurts. |
 |
George Washington making the rounds. Last night we saw him galloping that horse up the green on his way to rally the masses. The actors are always in character.
|
Dinner on the patio at Christiana Campbell's tavern. Yummm!
No comments:
Post a Comment