Dover, Delaware

Located in Delaware's mostly agricultural center, just west of US-13, the capital Dover is a small town hemmed in by suburban houses. South of Lockerman Street, the main route through town, the 1792 Old State House, 25 The Green, is the state's onetime judicial and legislative chambers, now a museum furnished with early American antiques (Mon– Sat 9am–4.30pm, Sun 1.30–4.30pm; Tel:302/739-4266; free).

In the same building as the visitor center (Mon– Sat 9am–4.30pm, Sun 1.30–4.30pm; Tel:302/739-4266), at the corner of Duke of York and Federal streets next to the Old State House, the impressive Biggs Museum of American Art (same hours; Web: www.biggsmuseum.org ; free) has historical and decorative art. The Delaware State Museums, 316 S Governors Ave (Mon– Sat 9am–4.30pm, Sun 1.30–4.30pm; Web: history.delaware.gov ; free), comprise a quaint trio just west of the green: the Archaeology Museum traces the area's history from the end of the Ice Age; the Museum of Small Town Life is a pleasant hodgepodge of century-old mementos and relics; and the Johnson Victrola Museum, dedicated to the inventor of the Victrola, has dozens of "talking machines," from early wind-ups to prototype jukeboxes.

For more than fifty years, Spence's Bazaar, two blocks south on Queen Street at 550 S New St (Tues & Fri 7.30am–6.30pm; Tel:302/734-3441; free), has hosted a flea market that all of Dover turns out for, including dozens of local Amish, who ride here in their old horse-drawn buggies to sell home-grown fruits and vegetables.