Sunday, July 03, 2005

Weekend on the "Front Range"

My wife and I spent the past three days on what is referred to in Colorado as the "Front Range", specifically in downtown Denver and Boulder. We needed to collect Marie's sister and mother from DIA on Friday and we wanted to attend a performance at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival in Boulder on Saturday night, so we decided to make a weekend of it.

On the recommendation of my neighbour Dave, we checked in to The Brown Palace, one of Denver's most famous landmark hotels. Built in 1892, the hotel has preserved the best of Victorian style and hospitality. I stay in way too many hotels and have become very jaded by the whole experience, but I'd very happily spend a weekend at The Brown Palace again. The weekend rate of $169 a night for a queen room is less than I've paid many times for hotels with a fraction of the character, service or amenity. We at least need to return to try the traditional English style high tea. Thanks for the recommendation Dave!

We arrived in Boulder a couple of hours before the performance, so we decided to eat at Boulder's Dushanbe Tea House. The building was a gift from Boulder's sister city of Dushanbe in Tajikistan and is elaborately decorated in the traditional Tajik style. The setting is amazingly tranquil and the food is a varied mix of exotic ethnic dishes and totally delicious.

As for my impression of Boulder, well if I had gone to college there, I don't think I would ever have wanted to graduate!

The Colorado Shakespeare Festival performances take place at the University of Colorado's Mary Rippon Theatre which is outdoors. After a one hour delay while a thunderstorm passed over, we spent a very enjoyable night under the stars on a lovely cool summer's evening.

The Winter's Tale is not one of Shakespeare's more popular works. Having seen it performed I don't understand why. It combines the best of both Shakespeare's tragedies and his comedies in one fast moving story. What a wonderful night.

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