Cycling through Portsmouth New Hampshire

Portsmouth is one of the oldest cities in America, incorporated in 1653. This area is the cradle of the American Revolution. We’ve all heard the story of Paul Revere riding into town shouting “The British are coming” or “The Red Coats are coming” — to warn the Revolutionists that the British were on their way to attack. Portsmouth is where this took place in 1774.

Portsmouth is a coastal city and was an important trade route for the early Europeans and a fishing mecca.

Our good friends from Florida (Greg and Kathy Tawes) were visiting so we decided to take a cycling tour around Portsmouth — it’s a great way to see the city and get a little exercise.

Starting in Portsmouth, the tour follows the Piscataqua River (a tributary to the Atlantic Ocean) to New Castle, New Hampshire.

Along the way we stopped at Four Tree and Pierce Island.

After cycling, we headed into Portsmouth for a popover. A popover is a light roll made from egg batter, baked in a special pan that shares its name, which has deep wells with straight-walled sides. Their origin is English-inspired. Settlers from Maine who founded Portland Americanized the pudding from Yorkshire. If you visit this area, you must have one.

After filling our bellies, we visited our son and daughter-in-law’s farm then headed to York Maine to see the Nubble Light house. There were a few guys fishing off the banks, pulling up squid.

We really enjoyed the visit with Greg and Kathy and you’ll see more blogs in the coming weeks covering our escapades.

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Fall in New England

After a hot Florida summer, we headed north for a month to enjoy the change of seasons: Fall in New England is spectacular.  We spent most of our time in New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts.

Portsmouth New Hampshire

Portsmouth is one of the oldest cities in America, incorporated in 1653. This area is the cradle of the American Revolution. We’ve all heard the story of Paul Revere riding into town shouting “The British are coming” or “The Red Coats are coming” — to warn the Revolutionists that the British were on their way to attack. Portsmouth is where this took place in 1774.

Portsmouth is a coastal city and was an important trade route for the early Europeans and a fishing mecca.

There are lots to do in Portsmouth. Portsmouth is a funky city with small cafes, coffee shops, and breweries but its much more. Portsmouth has done a great job of preserving its rich history by restoring and renovating its pre-revolutionary homes and the visitors center is a great place to sign up for walking and biking tours. Portsmouth’s oldest house (Jackson House) dates back to 1664 and is currently being restored.

We toured several houses as well as the iconic Strawbery Banke – a separate neighborhood of Portsmouth featuring over a dozen restored historic homes in Colonial, Georgian and Federal styles of architecture.

One of the best ways to soak in the history of Portsmouth is on a bicycle tour. In about 3 hours and 13 miles, you take in the best of Portsmouth.

If you are a leaf peeper, a 1-hour trip north to the White Mountains rewards you with beautiful fall foliage.

If you travel north of New Hampshire into Maine, you will find the towns of Kennebunk and Kennebunkport, where the Bush family spends a lot of vacation time. On the way to Kennebunk is a home that’s referred to as the “wedding cake house”. Can you tell why?

Kennebunk and Kennebunkport sport some of the nicest beaches in New England.

Kennebunk is a short drive from Old Orchard Beach, a quaint beach town where a lot of New Englanders spend their weekends and summers. Friends of ours (Derek and Susan Langone) own a place here and we were able to have dinner with them in their Danvers home during our stay.

Since we were so close to Boston, we spent a couple of weekends in Boston. A fun way to explore Boston is through a Duck tour. This is an amphibious vehicle that first takes you through a tour of Boston on land then pops into the bay to show you Boston from the water.

I also took some time to golf in New England. The courses here are a bit easier than ours in Florida but offer incredible views of the fall foliage.

Our final stop was in Bar Harbor, Maine and Acadia National park. It was off season and a bit sleepy but offered beautiful scenery.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this post on our trip to New England.  If you are not subscribed to our blog and would like to subscribe so that new posts come directly to your email, scroll up to the right top section of this page and type in your email address.

I’ll leave you with a picture of Thunder Hole, a coastal area of Arcadia National Park that thunders loudly as waves come in from the sea.