Following the concert we travelled north for about half an hour to our hotel just outside Williamstown. I should mention at this point that Dougal is on holiday with us so all our hotel had to be dog friendly. We stayed for two nights at the Berkshire Hills Hotel which was friendly and homely if a little twee and had a very cold swimming pool.

This region of Massachusetts is known as the Berkshires and is a popular weekend bolt hole for Bostonians. Historically, rich New Englanders had country estates here so the region screams wealth. It's lush, leafy and very groomed with attractive rolling hills. Our nearest town, Williamstown, is a college town and it turned out our visit coincided with the start of the college term so the town was full of freshmen students and parents. Williamstown is little more than Williams College and a handful of shops and restaurants but it's a stunning little town with lovely buildings and extensive lawns. Our impression was that Williams College was a university for very rich students but there would be many worse places to while away a few years at uni.

From Williamstown we followed a winding road to the summit of Mount Greylock, Massachusetts highest mountain at 3,491 feet or 1,064 m - small by Alps standards but tall enough to allow fantastic views across Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York state and Connecticut. The monument at the summit commemorates Massachusetts armed forces who died in the First World War.