Friday 20 June – The “rail runner” to Santa Fe

We're catching the 9.35 am “rail runner” train from Albuquerque, where we're staying, to Santa Fe, a distance of 63 miles. The journey is about 1½ hours. The “rail runner” isn't an Amtrak (National Railroad) train – it's a local commuter service between Albuquerque and Santa Fe which has only been operating since July 2006. It operates on a completely different track to the Amtrak trains. There was a lot of controversy at its launch as to whether the service would pay for itself; its extremely well-used during the summer months, not so much in the winter.

The train takes us through desert scrubland, although it's greener in some areas than the desert around Flagstaff. At one of the stops along the way, 2 American women get on the train and sit opposite us. We get talking; they are old college friends, and now live far apart; however, one has come to stay with the other, and they are going to Santa Fe with their teenage children.

One of the women, Charla, home schooled both her son and daughter for a while ; we're interested to hear that most of the learning was done through on-line schooling and is government funded. Her son then went on to private school, and her daughter Kaileah is about to do the same. Charla did this because they had to move to New Mexico and state schooling there is not good, apparently.

Kaileah is 14 and loves everything English, including Doctor Who, and Harry Potter. She comes to talk to us for a while, as she really likes the English accent! We talk about how she feels about home schooling and she mentions she has friends from church and elsewhere and has built a social circle. We then talk about church and I say how much I hope to go to church this Sunday before we catch our train from Albuquerque to Chicago at 12.10 (lunchtime). Charla offers to pick us up from our hotel at 9.00 am on Sunday and take us to their church, which is a modern contemporary one, and to bring us back to our hotel in time to collect our luggage and make our way to the train station! I am quite overwhelmed with this wonderful offer, and Reg says he is happy for us to go. This feels like a God-incidence, as we haven't managed to go to church since 18 May, in Charlottesville. We know that Kaileah will want to come to England one day and have offered for her (and Charla) to come and stay for a few days in Bristol.

We love Santa Fe; it's the capital of New Mexico, and the oldest capital city in America, There are many beautiful adobe (mud brick) buildings; it is built around the square (piaza) which is 400 years old. According to “The Rough Guide to the USA”

“Since the early 1980's, Santa Fe has been the chic-est destination in the US, consistently voted the country's most popular city by upmarket travellers.” (Which we're not!) We have been told though that several famous people live in Santa Fe, including Jane Fonda, Kenny Rogers, and Ali MacGraw. It is also famed for being one of the art centres of America, with numerous art shops and galleries. Not only that, there's a proliferation of shops, market stalls and street traders selling Native American goods.

Near to the station we find a little café that that sells French pastries and cakes. We enjoy a cake (a cream slice for me and fruit tart for Reg) with our latté and green tea, and are able to peruse artwork on the walls, which is for sale.

There is so much we want to do in Santa Fe, but we only have one day here – we wish we had more time! We enjoy browsing in a few art shops, and of course the inevitable happens – Reg sees a painting he really likes! It's a people-painting, called “kick-balling” and portrays an American childhood scene of children playing long ago. We says we'll have a think about the painting, and make our way to the piaza, with me enjoying all the shops along the way, selling Native American (Indian) crafts and jewellery, and Reg not enjoying it but suffering it without complaining. We also view Loreto Chapel, famous for its spiral staircase which was built without any “supports” and supposedly defies engineering logic. There's also a mystery about the carpenter who built it, as he left without the nuns being able to pay him for his work.

The gallery with the painting Reg likes is open until 4.30 pm; the woman in the gallery has put the painting aside while we make a decision. The painting can be taken out of its frame (which is ornate gold coloured, and we don't like anyway) – so it would fit if well wrapped, in my large suitcase.

“If you want the painting, why don't we go back and get it now?” I say to Reg. “Then we haven't got to spend all afternoon watching the time.”

We return to the gallery and buy the painting. The woman isn't there, but her husband knows all about it. He talks about his stay in Exeter in 1968, when he was 17. The man slowly bubble-wraps the painting and talks and talks – he's a lovely man, and Reg is really enjoying the conversation, but I am conscious that we only have a little time in Santa Fe, and there's so much we want to see.

As we approach the “piaza” again, we notice there is a rally taking place of old cars, predominently American – all in pristine condition. We have a plan – we look at the market together and I buy a few gifts; we stop in a café for a much-needed cold drink, then Reg and I split up. He's in his element taking photos of all the old cars (including an English Land Rover made in 1965 in mint condition) and chatting to the car owners; meanwhile I look in a few more shops and peruse the stalls of the street-traders, and make a few more purchases.

Santa Fe is one place where we really wish we could spend more time; there's Canyon Road to see, with its numerous art galleries, and lots of narrow streets and historical nooks and crannies to explore. Once again, however, there's only so much you can do in a day; time and energy has run out, and we're ready to catch the 5.30 train back to Albuquerque, licking our ice-creams on the way.

Back in Albuquerque an hour and a half later, as we walk along the main road (part of the famous route 66) back to our hotel, there are several homeless people wandering about; once again we are surprised at how quickly the “feel” of an area can change from street to street.

After a pizza, a beer and a lemonade, and a chat with the student waitress in a pizza place along the way, we're back in our hotel. It's been a brilliant day, in Santa Fe.