Historic Triangle

We left Washington on a wet day and headed south, by train, to Williamsburg. Williamsburg is one of the three towns that form what is known as 'the historic triangle'. We departed Union Station in DC at about 3pm and arrived at our motel about 7pm.

The next morning we headed to Colonial Williamsburg which is simply the older part of Williamsburg. You have to a pass to get into a number of buildings but essentially you just wander the streets and enjoy. It is a beautiful town and the day was made all the better by watching a film at the Visitor Centre that explained much of Williamsburg's early history which is the history about colonial life in Virginia and the period in which the 13 colonies were in dispute with England leading to the union of the colonies and the establishment of the US as a country independent of England.

They also have street performers who play the role of people in the 1600s.

On our second day here we went to Jamestown. This is where the English first landed in 1607 to establish their first colony in the 'new world'. Historic Jamestowne is the actual site where they established their settlement and Jamestown Settlement is a reproduction where you see a representation of the fort and an Indian village. Again, a movie at the Visitor Centre gave as an explanation of the history of Jamestown.

Once the English were finally established, in the 1700s, after many years and many deaths, they moved their administration from Jamestown to Williamsburg.

The third town in 'the historic triangle' is Yorktown. Being somewhat overdone with history, we didn't get to Yorktown which is the site of a battle in 1781 when the American's won independence from England.

It is a beautiful part of the world and it was good to escape the big cities, which we are about to re-enter tomorrow when we get the train from Williamsburg to New York.