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The Berkshires

The Berkshires is a name given to an area of Western Massachusetts featuring some of New England's nicest rural scenery.  Picture perfect towns, rolling fields, dense forests (even before spring growth) and quality food makes for a great place to visit.  Maplewood bed and breakfast in Hinsdale offered a place to rest and explore the Berkshires. We found plenty of history and atmosphere, enhanced by our lovely hosts.



Maplewood is a 250 year old house which has had a few incarnations. It was originally built as a tavern. In the mid 1800s it was purchased by a colonel and his wife. She refused to live in an old tavern and her husband had to completely remodel the building before she would live in it.  At this time, the single chimney was converted to two and Italian fireplaces and Paladin windows were imported from Europe.  Fast forward to now and it is a lovely old house with creaky, sticky doors, unique character and beautiful rooms done up in old style.


What stood out for us though, was the wonderful hosts who used to run a restaurant and certainly applied this to the expansive, amazing breakfasts. What a delight to eat home cooked food, ranging from cobbler, sausage, smoked ham, waffles and local maple syrup, fresh homemade chip potatoes and much, much more (and that was just a 'taste' of what was on offer one morning). Eaten too fast to be pictured unfortunately.

Not only did we enjoy better than restaurant quality breakfasts, but Samuel enjoyed lots of playtime (after school) with the seven year old girl who lived in a flat in the house.

On the weather side, we had been transported back to very early spring, frosts and cold were not fully over for the year, our hosts called it the ''mud season''. Samuel did some tree climbing.



A walk in the forest exposed us to the slight green tinge of very early spring but the weather itself was jacket worthy, even out of the wind.

Hinsdale church

Williamsburg was exactly the sort of picturesque town you would expect to find in Mass.

The Stella and Bud were a bit out of place in Dewey's Public House and Restaurant! The Berkshire Steel Pale Ale got five stars.

Hinsdale was definitely a highlight, showcasing American hospitality and scenery at its best.


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