We rather wish there had been "No room at the Inn"

We knew that we weren't American "Inn" people. Despite that, we'd gone ahead and booked our two night's stay in New Hampshire at the Franconia Inn, which had a good write up wherever we looked. It certainly looked pretty enough:


From the moment that we got there, and were berated for arriving "too early" we took against it. The room still wasn't ready when we returned, chastened, a couple of hours later. The"fine dining" cuisine was overcooked shellfish and a sort of almond brittle encased chicken - yeuch! The bedroom was shabby (but not chic) and, worst of all at a time when we couldn't afford the luxury of being completely away from it all, there was no internet or TV, our mobiles didn't work and the only phone was a very public payphone. Heigh ho.

New Hampshire itself was fine. The mountainous wooded scenery was superb (if a little samey), we liked the little town of Littleton with the world's longest candy bar, we enjoyed watching (but not riding) the Mount Washington cog railway, and we were very engaged at being able to walk unannounced into the governor's office in the state capitol building in Concord on the drive down to Boston.

All that said, the hotel spoiled our stay in Franconia, just as the superb location and magnificent view from our spacious suite in Boston's Westin hotel made our arrival in this fine city such a welcome return.