West Barnstable is what Cape Cod looks like when it is not trying to be Cape Cod. It sits on the north side of the Cape, away from the beaches and the big resorts, among pitch pines, scrub oak and old cranberry bogs, and the road through it is Route 6A, the Old King's Highway. The highway follows the route that colonial travellers took from Plymouth along the bay shore, and the whole stretch is a protected historic district, with rules about the colour of paint and the size of signs that keep the roadside looking much as it did when sea captains built their houses along it.
The village itself is quiet. A meeting house of white clapboard, dating from the early eighteenth century and among the oldest on the Cape, stands near the road, and there are antique shops, an old brick store and a handful of farm stands. The wetlands to the north are a part of the Great Marshes, a wide expanse of salt marsh and creeks running down to Cape Cod Bay, with Sandy Neck, a long barrier beach, beyond. The air smells of salt and pine, and the light, bright and slanting, is why painters have been coming to the Cape for more than a century.
Route 6A is one of the loveliest roads in Massachusetts, and one of the slowest. It is narrow and winding, shaded by old trees and lined with houses close to the verge, and the speed limit hardly ever rises above thirty or forty kilometres an hour in the villages. In July and August, the traffic of cars looking for beaches, antiques and fried clams crawls along it, and a motorcycle spends a lot of time in a queue. Go in May, June or September, or on a weekday morning, and the road is a pleasure, with long runs between the villages and the marsh opening up to the right.
Barnstable and Marstons Mills, each about six kilometres away, have the fuel and services, and Hyannis, a bit further south, is the commercial hub of the Cape. West Barnstable has a general store and a couple of places for a bite, and you will find better and more choice a short ride along the road. In October, when the cranberry bogs are flooded and the berries float in a red carpet, the area is at its most photogenic.