Escape from the big city...

Weekend is a good time to relax and to go somewhere... somewhere far away from the busy city... somewhere where... you can spend your weekend, I guess ;) Where you can walk along the streets and hear not the noise of the cars passing by but the dry leaves rustling. That is why one Sunday we got into the car and drove South towards Colorado Springs. But Colorado Springs wasn't our destination, we thought this city is still way too big for us...

 

We made our first stop in Old Colorado City, the nice and old, quiet and old fashioned... We always liked this town where you can walk and enjoy the fresh air and silence. Yeah, to hear the rustling of the leaves you need to get there really early, but it's worth doing that...

 

Especially if this happens in mid-October, when the sky is blue, the leaves are yellow and the scarecrows are everywhere...

We walked the streets without any good goal and just... looked around and enjoyed being there...

Some trees already lost their leaves and some didn't... And those leaveless were waving the branches and trying to tell us something, but I am afraid we weren't listening. That wasn't our first visit so we knew where to have a good breakfast (huh, probably we had a purpose coming here - the omelets!). So we stopped at Bon Ton's Cafe and enjoyed fresh eggs of different styles.

We love Old Colorado City, but it is really small. Just a few blocks up and down the main street and we got bored and decided to drive further... To its twin brother - Manitou Springs.

We dropped our car and first stopped to say 'hello' to the corner house we always liked to see. The pale gray/blue color and not very usual styling. Reminds us of Italy...

Another place I always admire - "40 years of making a joyful noise" - I like this motto. I guess you cannot see this sign here anymore, probably they stopped making noise and the last time I was there something different was painted on the glass. Pity...

If you climb up these stairs you end up on the roof of the small cafe (and you can join the dog, sitting on the edge), but if you come inside, you can have some falafel (very good one) or, if you are not hungry yet, a cup of coffee. Real Turkish coffee - hot, strong and aromatic.

And once you have the coffee and are ready to look at the world with your eyes wide open you can just walk here and there, enter the small stores and buy something you don't really need ;)

We were turning back to the car when we stopped, surprised... The Fall flowers weren't uncommon to see there, but irises? Are you kidding? Irises are really Spring flowers and hardly can be found after the beginning of the Summer, but here they were. Blooming in October! No complaints though, always like irises so...

We walked along the creek, passed by the magic store and... returned back to Denver. We were ready for a new week to survive...

Click here if you are interesting to see how Manitou Springs looked like a week after - Knock on wood, it's Halloween

And click here if you want to see Manitou Spring Coffin Race ;) - Touch not me...

 

Pictures were taken on October 24, 2010.