When we received our first offer to come to America, it was due to a job offer in Raleigh. Unfortunately, Covid struck and it was all cancelled. When the process resumed, Raleigh was slow to offer and we ended up accepting an offer of a job in Concord. So we were keen to visit Raleigh to check out the opposition, particularly the cycling in this area.
We chose to cycle the Neuse River Trail which is situated near the Falls Lake in Wake County. This 27 mile trail winds its way alongside the Neuse River through beautiful countryside. It was a lovely ride and the only thing missing really was a coffee shop. We now realise that most of the trails and state parks have no facilities except rest rooms. Obviously, we are grateful for these, but we do miss our coffee. Knowing this now, we do make sure that we are prepared with flask and sandwiches whenever we go out and this was no exception. After about 15 miles, we found a bench in a sunny spot and had lunch. It's always nice to have a rest!
Our cycle on the trail was fairly easy, but it was still good to get to the end and have enough water left for a final tea/coffee before we returned to our hotel for the evening.
On Sunday, we headed into downtown Raleigh to check the place out. Raleigh is the capital of North Carolina and with a population of 470,000, it is considerably smaller than Charlotte which has an estimate of 900,000. It felt very different to downtown Charlotte - more spread out and less high rise buildings.
We enjoyed a visit to the NC Museum of Natural Sciences and lunch at Morgan Street Food Hall - a bustling warehouse with street food, bars and food stalls. The museum was a cool place and the globe outside summed it up for us. The world is a cool place to explore and Raleigh was too!
