Sunday 14th June - Albuquerque

We have fallen in love with Albuquerque! Sadly we only had one full day here so were unable to visit any Reservations or recommended museums but we spent a lovely day roaming around Albuquerque Old Town which dates back to 1706. The architecture of Old Town Albuquerque is adobe in the Pueblo-Spanish style. These traditional buildings have flat roofs, stuccoed walls with rounded edges and are supported with heavy wooden beams. Most are painted in the colours of the surrounding desert, some with blue window and door frames to provide protection from evil spirits.

Many of the historic adobe homes have been renovated and there were many quiet hidden patios, winding brick paths, and gardens, although these days they are full of galleries, local pueblo craft shops and cafes. We could have spent many dollars in the art and photography galleries.


We had a delightful lunch at a Mexican café where we were waited on by 11 year old ‘Levi’ who said 'You guys are really cool ‘cause you’ve got accents'! He was a great little waiter and continually made sure we had all we wanted. We saw a couple of colourful little birds while we were eating and Terry was lucky enough to see a hummingbird darting amongst the flowers on the creeper twined around the veranda post.

There were several street entertainments including a fully dressed Indian dancing and a mock cowboy street fight including gunfire.
We boarded a replica trolleybus for a town tour which included not only the lovely Old Town area but downtown, the university campus, the Rio Grande river (John Wayne, where are you?) and other interesting residential areas. This tour lasted 66 minutes - I wonder why? 66 is the magic number here owing to the historic Route 66 running right through the middle of town, much frequented by aging bikers riding their Harleys.

We will be sorry to leave tomorrow as there are so many interesting and historic things to see here, but I am sure Santa Fe will have lots to offer ….

One thing I forgot to mention in yesterday’s blog was that we are staggered by the amount of freight being transported across the country. Every few minutes mile-long freight trains rumble along the railroad, sometimes each wagon carrying a double load of containers, and there were hundreds of huge container-laden trucks on the highway (another reason I was pleased not to be driving).