lgbTravel: A Day in Old New Castle, DE

By Mark McNease Yesterday Frank and I spent an afternoon in New Castle, Delaware. It’s a lovely town not far from Wilmington, about two hours from our house in Stockton, NJ. Once a year they have a homes and gardens tour, the oldest in the country, with some of the residents opening up their historic old homes and their still-immaculately kept gardens to the public. Frank had been there before but this was my first, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. There are cobblestone lanes, the Delaware River to one side of the town, and a dozen or more very old houses. The first one we toured (a brief tour since it’s a small house) was owned by a black man whose family had lived in the house for generations. His great-great aunt was a freed slave whose attempted kidnapping for return to slavery caused the townspeople to arrest and convict the kidnappers. It was quite a story, and quite a man – he told us that he was the only African-American who opened his home for the tour, because he thought the history was important. You’re supposed to buy tickets for the tour but no one stopped us. We walked through several of the gardens, the local cemetery (I have a thing about visiting cemeteries when I’m travelling) and enjoyed all the people in period costumes. You can spend the day there, or, as we did, a few fun hours. “A Day in Old New Castle” is worth the drive and highly recommended for a spring day’s outing. See a slideshow here.]]>