I’d never had chillies in my breakfast before. I did think it was perhaps a good thing my body thought it was lunchtime! The breakfast menu was quite extensive, and a good chance to try some of the things that I’ve heard about on TV (or in country songs) but have absolutely no idea what they taste like.
Breakfast was called 3 little pigs. Ham, bacon and a sausage patty and scrambled egg (or what I would have called omelette) sandwiched in 3 small cheese and garlic biscuits (which turned out to be quite like cheese scones) and a pico sauce which is salsa of chopped tomato, chilli, onion, coriander and lime juice. I had the salsa on the side; very When Harry met Sally. There was also a small mountain of hash browns (potato rosti) and toast or “Breakfast Breads”. The salsa I loved. All my favourite ingredients, and almost nothing in there that Stephanie would eat. All followed by French toast with lashings of maple syrup. Yum.
The hot theme continued for the rest of the day. It was a scorcher. Well over 30 degrees, and driving a left hand drive car for the first time in America didn’t make us chill out much! The condition of the roads is even worse than West Berkshire’s country lanes and it would appear from watching the other drivers that it’s perfectly acceptable to ignore a red light if you’re turning right and there’s nothing coming. I was also pleased that someone had warned us that indicators are red not orange.
16th Street Mall
We left the hotel for Denver in our rental car in the direction which looked on the map like it would take us to the main road. However, 10 minutes later we found ourselves in Reunion. Way off the map and guessing that a couple of left turns might be nice, if ever we saw another road.
I was also confused by the frequent signs saying “no double turns”. Still haven’t figured that one out.
An hour later, once we’d got the Samsung tablet out and setup our makeshift GPS (being from Yorkshire there’s no way I was paying to rent a sat nav), we had passed a couple of trailer parks and were admiring the incredibly intricate and individual houses in outer Denver. And then, up close, the amazing modern tower blocks which we’d seen from afar against the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains.
Downtown
The waitress at breakfast had recommended the 16th Street Mall as being the place to go in Denver. So we found an underground carpark, (the only place to park in that heat) at one end and walked down the long pedestrianised street. It’s novel in that there is a free shuttle bus which runs constantly, and there must be about 20 busses as you’re never more than 1 block (50 yards) away from a bus. They’re on an endless loop. The drivers will get off to put the wheelchair ramp down if necessary, and like everywhere so far in America, the service is more helpful, pleasant and extra mile worthy than anywhere in England.
State Capitol Building
Across the road from the bottom of the Mall is the state Capitol building with its gold leaved roof. Up 2 flights of stairs is the step which marks 1 mile above sea level. Although it was very, very hot, I couldn’t let the opportunity pass, so I climbed the stairs and stood on the 1 mile stone while Stephane stood under a tree at the bottom and took photos with the zoom lens.
We took the shuttle back and were quite surprised at just how far we’d walked. By the car park was the Cheesecake Factory, as recommended by Caroline. It was indeed excellent. And just like the breakfast menu, almost all the savoury items contained chillies. I had the most gorgeous sweetcorn tamales (another thing I’ve never tried before) with more pico sauce and a hot salsa verde. We also shared some deep fried crispy avocado – which I’ve never even heard of let alone eaten, but it was very good.
And then we had to brave the traffic and see if we could find our way home.
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