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Published: September 14th 2023
A touch of sun - 1
An early glimpse of the sun when we came down for breakfast. Surprise, surprise I was right..........jet lag did its' usual thing and Mandy & I were both, pretty much, wide awake at 5.00 am on day 2, but fortunately, the good news was that the bed was very comfortable and we had both slept really well. The sun was peaking through the clouds as it came up over the sea, when Mandy and I arrived in the lobby for breakfast around 7.00 am, but by the time Steve and Lily had joined us, about 20 minutes later, Mr Sun had disappeared behind a very gloomy looking sky, a sky that rather matched the look on Steve and Lily's faces when they arrived to join us. It was clear that Lily was struggling to walk and they explained that she had suffered a muscle spasm of some sort in her back this morning, as she was picking up something very innocuous and as a result, she could barely move. The poor thing was in a lot of pain and it was pretty obvious that there was no chance of her wandering round the city, sightseeing today and after much debate Lily insisted that the three of us continue with our plans for the
A touch of the sun - 2
And Mandy spotted it too! day, while she took the opportunity to rest up in the hotel, whilst dosing herself up with painkillers, thereby hopefully improving her chances of feeling better tomorrow. We were reluctant to leave her, but as I said, she insisted and after having some breakfast and making sure Lily had all she needed, Steve, Mandy and I were on our way. Before I move on though, unusually for the States, the hotel offered complimentary hot & cold buffet breakfast and whilst it definitely wasn't fine dining, it was pretty good and we were certainly able to stock up with 'fuel' for the day.
As the three of us left the hotel, it is fair to say that we were all a little deflated missing, as we were, a vital member of the Famous Four, but as they say, the show must go on and it was time to hit the city! We have three days in and around Boston and I have decided to cover this period of our trip in one blog entry, both to spare you readers and to make life a little easier for me as well and so here we go.
I mentioned in the
last blog that our hotel was very close to the Wonderland Station on the Blue Line subway and that was where we headed for our trip downtown. We picked up our $11 one day subway pass known as a 'Charlie-card' and apparently named after the lead character in a 1948 folk song called M.T.A protesting against fare increases at that time, on the Boston subway; quite ironic if you ask me, that the card is so named, when the price of the pass is now over 70 times higher than the fare that the protest was about way back then! However, that's progress, I suppose. We traveled 8 stops on the subway to the Aquarium stop (about 25 minutes) and the pick up point for our ride on the hop on/hop off trolley bus tour of the city. This tour is pretty good value at $80 per person for a two day ticket, with the route covering most of the major sights of the downtown area, with a live narration by the driver, together with the journey being in an old style trolley bus. We stayed on the bus for the whole route (taking about an hour and a half),
Charles Street - 1
A great sign for a leather shop! giving us a good feel for the city and then enabling us to work out which parts we would like to explore in more detail. It is possible, of course, to hop on and off the bus at any point on the route if you wish, although we decided to walk to the some of the places we wanted to see again, with the plan being to walk to some of the others the following day.
Boston is steeped in history, (at least in American terms!), the city dating back to 1630, with the Puritan founding fathers naming it after the English, Lincolshire town of the same name and from which they hailed. It was also the centre of a number of incidents (the most well known of which is probably the Boston Tea Party - the answer to the last blog's Countdown Conundrum by the way - and of which there is more later in this post) and various battles leading up to the American Revolutionary War in the 1770s and ultimately resulting in the American Colonists declaring independence from Britain in 1776. We were reminded of this fact when we boarded our trolley bus and our driver
Charles Street - 2
The quirky Old Post Office. ('Bunker') welcomed us aboard, asked where we were from and as a quick as a flash said, 'I'm sorry for your loss!' Personally, I think that's bordering on a 'hate crime' in this day and age (tee, hee), but we're made of stern stuff us Brits and just laughed along with the rest of the bus!
Getting back to Boston's history for a moment, there is an almost endless list of famous Bostonians from both the distant and, indeed, more recent past, people such as founding fathers John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and John Quincy Adams, famous revolutionary patriots such as Sam Adams, Paul Revere and James Otis, the ill fated Kennedy family (including JFK, Bobby and the more-troubled Teddy), some very famous inventors, namely Samuel Morse (Morse Code), Alexander Graham Bell (the telephone) and Tim Berners-Lee (the World Wide Web), the founder of one of the world's most famous universities, John Harvard, one of the best horror writers of all time, Edgar Allan Poe, one of the best composers of modern times, Leonard Bernstein and even the most well known Vulcan of all time, namely Leonard Nimoy (as Spock of course!). Quite rightly, the city is very proud of
its history and its connections to its famous alumni and the trolley bus tour provides lots of interesting info (to a history buff like me anyway!) to soak up.
After a quick look at Quincy Market and Fanueil Hall (the latter famed for being the location of many famous speeches in the City over the years, but most importantly the speeches by the so called Sons of Liberty - such as Revere, John Adams and Sam Adams - opposing Royal rule from Britain), we retired for a quick snifter at the Sam Adams Brewey Tap Room ( nothing to do with THE Sam Adams by the way), and also take the opportunity to charge up our phones and check in on Lily, who was ok, but no real change. As we left the pub, the threatened rain had arrived and it was pouring down, warm but very wet and that's the way it stayed for pretty much the rest of the day! But we're nothing if not hardy and we donned our rain jackets and struck out to see what we could see; we also took a couple of subway journeys for the longer distances and when it got
The Cheers Bar
Steve poses with Diane Chambers. really wet.
We packed in as much as we could before returning to our hotel like drowned rats, late afternoon. There is so much to see in the city and it is very walkable, with the places we ticked off including:
• Beacon Hill;
• The very quirky Charles Street, with lots of independent shops, including a chiropractor who we thought might come in handy for Lil, in case of need!;
• The Cheers Bar, with its inevitable souvenir shop. To be honest, despite being a fan of the show, the bar didn't really float my boat, but Steve was able to pick up a Cheers' baseball cap, together with a bright yellow rain mac, because his existing rain jacket had started leaking! The good news.........we definitely weren't going to lose him in a crowd!
• Boston Common park, the oldest public park in the USA, dating back to 1634. There was a monument at the top of a hill in the park, which I was determined to climb up to and see - it wasn't really very far, but Steve & Mandy weren't keen. The monument was to the fallen of the American Civil War and after taking a snap,
Boston Common - 1
The memorial up the hill, but no Dancing Queens! I noticed that there was a path down the other side of the hill that we really could to with taking, but needed to let Steve and Mandy know what I was doing. I could see them down the hill (really not that far away), but they had their backs to me and shout as I may (together with waving my arms like a mad thing), I couldn't make them hear or see me. And then, to top it all, they started dancing about - apparently they could hear some music and a sandwich kiosk nearby reminded Steve of The Full Monty for some reason, so that's what they were dancing to.........fortunately, fully clothed!! I was about to give up and walk back down the hill to them, when I at last managed to catch Steve's eye and the two 'Dancing Queens' eventually got the message! There is also an unusual sculpture called 'The Embrace' in the park commemorating the first meeting between Dr Martin Luther King and his future wife Coretta in 1952 when they were both studying in Boston, with the design based on a photo of the two hugging when MLK won the Nobel Peace Prize in
Boston Common - 2
The Embrace, showing Dr King’s arms……. 1964. The sculpture has apparently attracted some controversy, but personally, I think it is very striking.
• Boston Public Garden, quite a bit younger than the 'Common', but literally just over the road and opened in 1837. This park was America's first public botanical garden and even this time of year, is very pretty and beautifully laid out. In addition to lots of lovely flowers, the garden is also home to the statues of a mother duck and eight ducklings, a tribute to a children's book called 'Make Way for the Ducklings' written by Robert McCloskey in 1941 and apparently enjoyed by children worldwide - no, I'd not heard of it either, but it was a lovely sight!
We had lunch at a lovely little eatery in Charles Street called Cobblestones, where Steve enjoyed his first ever bowl of Clam Chowder and Mandy and I shared a Turkey Club Sandwich and thank goodness that we shared, because it was enormous; delicious, but enormous! Prices generally have so far, been massively higher than we were used to in the past (particularly food), with that sandwich alone being a pretty steep $15 after tax, but like always, the portion sizes
Boston Common - 3
…….and from this side, Coretta’s arms. are huge and it definitely makes sense to share if you can.
Our last stop of the day was, somewhat surprisingly perhaps, seeing as it was at two nearby graveyards (!), the Granary Burying Ground where, amongst others, the revolutionary Sam Adams is buried and King's Chapel where a lot of the first settlers in New England are buried, including Mary Chilton who was said to be the first female setting foot in New England off the Mayflower, aged just 12. Opposite Sam Adams' gravestone in the Granary is a very old pub called the Beantown, where Bostonians like to remark that 'you can drink a cold Sam Adams, while looking at a cold Sam Adams!!'.
We got the subway back to our hotel around 4 pm and checked in on Lily, who was, fortunately, feeling a little better, but was also grateful for some medication that we had picked up for her including a couple of heat wraps. We then caught up on a couple of hours shuteye, before meeting up for dinner in the hotel restaurant (we didn't want to go far) and very good it was too. And then that was it; jet lag had
Boston Pubic Garden - 1
Steve trying his best to hide in the Cheers’ poncho! caught up with us and we crashed into bed, our first full day in Boston, done and dusted.
Day two began bright and early again, but with some good news. Lily still wasn't right and was walking pretty gingerly, but she felt well enough to join us today and after brekkie in the hotel, we ventured out into another overcast day and got the subway back to the city. We decided to rejoin the trolley bus so that Lily could experience some of what she missed yesterday, whilst for the rest of us, it was a new driver and lots of new information. In addition, we were able to enjoy a section of the route along Beacon Street (after the Cheers bar) that was closed to traffic yesterday, a street lined with beautiful brownstone-style houses, each of which was worth several million dollars. This is a very impressive, tree-lined street in an area known as Back Bay, where the houses also benefit from fantastic views at the rear over the Charles River.
Steve had a plan today and that was to leave the trolley bus at stop 10 (Copley Square), have a wander around that area and then
Boston Pubic Garden - 2
Robert McClosky’s ducks! walk the short distance to the swanky Fairmont Hotel, where he really wanted to try the legendary cocktails in the Oak Long Bar. We got to the Fairmont around noon and once there, decided to push the boat out and have lunch as well as cocktails - we had already decided that we would have our main meal at lunchtime, because Mandy and I were going to be out tonight, about which, more later!! It was a terrific experience and such a good idea Steve and whilst expensive, it wasn't outrageous and was definitely worth it.
At 3.30 pm this afternoon, we had tickets for the Boston Tea Party Museum, but we had a bit of time after lunch and decided to catch the subway up to Harvard Square to have a look at the university campus. The Red Line took us straight there (only 4 stops), but this line is a lot shabbier than the Blue Line and the train literally crawled along due to speed restrictions of some sort and by the time we got there, we only had about 20 minutes to have a quick peak at a few of the buildings. It is possible to
Beacon Street - 1
One of the expensive properties…… arrange a walking tour hosted by Harvard students and this would probably be well worth the $22 cost, but we simply didn't have the time, although a student did help us out by pointing us in the right direction to get the best out of our fleeting visit. We saw a few lovely buildings but, unsurprisingly, the campus is huge and we didn't even manage to scratch the surface.
Being at Harvard reminded me of one of my favourite TV Comedy shows of all time, namely 'Frasier', and Frasier was never slow to mention his time spent at Harvard. Well, 'Frasier Fans' may already be aware that a re-booted version of the show has now been made, that, apparently, focuses on the next stage in Frasier's, covering life back in Boston, after his years in Seattle and this is due to air in the States next month. There were digital billboards promoting the show all around the city and I took a photo of one, cleverly linking the new show, to the classic 'Cheers!', the show set in Boston that first introduced Frasier Crane to the world!
After Harvard, we headed south on the Red Line, 6 stops
to South Station and the location of the Boston Tea Party Museum. The Red Line was very slow once again, but nevertheless, we made the museum bang on time at 3.15 pm for a 3.30 pm start. As the name suggests, the museum tells the story of the famous (some say 'infamous') event on the night of 16th December 1773, when a band of revolutionary colonists, under the leadership of Sam Adams, refused to pay the tax imposed by the British Crown on the load of tea onboard 3 merchant ships, that was due to be imported into Boston. Over a period of 3 hours, all of the tea was dumped in the harbour, ruining the entire consignment worth £10,000 to Britain, or over one million pounds in today's money! Understandably, the King was outraged and sent thousand of Redcoat soldiers over to Boston to arrest the ringleaders and quell the unrest. As we all know, this led to the Revolutionary War between Britain and America, with the Colonists eventually triumphing, leading to America gaining independence from Britain in 1776. The Museum is a mixture of live action, holograms and exhibits, with plenty of audience participation both in the meeting
Beacon Street - 3
……..and yet another. room where Sam Adams spoke passionately to inspire the rebel crowd to action and then on board a replica of one of the ships, where we all had the opportunity to (a) see what life was like for the crew on these really rather small ships to cross the Atlantic and (b) to have a go tossing crates of 'tea' into the harbour! It was really pretty well done, although understandably told through very American eyes and although we explained that we were from the UK and had actually come to 'collect on the unpaid taxes', unfortunately the humour was a bit lost on our hosts! I think we paid about $30 a ticket for the visit and it was probably worth it in the end for a mix of humour and history!
Once we finished at the museum, we dashed back to our hotel as fast as a could for a quick wash and change before Mandy and Paul headed back into the city on the subway, for a really special treat. As is my want, when we go on holidays abroad (particularly to the States), I always have a look to see if there happens to be
The Fairmont Cocktails-1
Steve with a blue cocktail (with a name I can’t remember!) and Lily with a Bee’s Knees. any good music events on in the area, while we are there. Well, we truly struck gold this time when I found that The Eagles, supported by Steely Dan were performing tonight at the TD Garden (a massive O2-like venue), as part of The Eagles' 'Long Goodbye' final tour. This was too good an opportunity to miss and although the tickets were outrageously (and I do mean 'outrageously'!) expensive (and these were standard tickets, not black market!), my lovely wife kindly decided to pay for the tickets as an early 70th birthday present for me - what a little darlin' she is! We had, in fact, booked to see The Eagles at Wembley Stadium in both 2020 and 2021, but the concerts were cancelled on each occasion due to Covid and so we were super excited to see them this time in Boston, with the massive added attraction of seeing Steely Dan as well.
This wasn't really Steve and Lily's thing, but they were very happy for Mandy and I to go and so, as we made our way to North Station on the subway (close to the TD Garden and very much in the centre of the city)
The Fairmont Cocktails-2
Mandy and Paul, both with Espresso Martinis. there was a growing sense of anticipation and excitement. When we booked the tickets, we knew that we were in the Balcony area, nicely positioned, but fairly high and my goodness, we really were high and a bit like the O2, the seating was very steep indeed. As a matter of interest, if we had gone for tickets in the level below the Balcony, the price would have been double our already 'outrageous' figure, and so, the Balcony it was and as it turned out, the view was excellent. Talking about price again for a moment, we decided to grab a bottle of water once we got inside the arena, but as they didn't have smaller bottles, we had to buy a bigger, half litre bottle and guess what, it was a touch pricey! Including a 'compulsory' tip, this bottle of common or garden water was a mighty $13 or over £10! I was so stunned that I handed over the 'booty' without really thinking, especially as one of the staff had opened the bottle and had poured the water into two plastic beakers, because it seems that we were not allowed to take a plastic bottle into the arena
Harvard - 1
John Harvard, the founder. (even with the cap off), but plastic beakers were clearly ok; one of life's enduring mysteries that one!!
But enough of money, what about the concert, I hear you say? Well, I can tell you this..........it was absolutely stunning! We have been to a lot of gigs over the years and this one was right up, near the top of the pile and worth every cent that we (sorry, I mean Mandy) paid. Steely Dan were on for an hour and a quarter and whilst the great Donald Fagen's songwriting sidekick Walter Becker, sadly passed away a few years back, DF was supported by a sizeable and really tight backing band, performing a great selection of their repertoire. If you love Steely Dan, which we both do, this set was a total joy!
And then came The Eagles for two and a quarter hours of absolute heaven. The sound quality for both bands was probably the best I have ever heard at a concert, but the vocals in The Eagles' set were absolutely sensational and the sound from their multiple guitars, just stunning. They performed all their most well known tracks (including New Kid in Town, which was,
Harvard - 2
One of the principal buildings. of course, the inspiration for the title of this blog entry) and finished a three song encore with, as you would probably guess, the epic Hotel California! Like Steely Dan, The Eagles have lost one or two of their line-up in recent years, with Don Henley's on/off best pal and co-songwriter Glenn Frey passing away a few years back, although Glenn's son Deacon, has joined the band for this final tour and his voice could easily have been that of his father's. If this wasn't enough, legendary country singer Vince Gill was also in the line-up (sharing lead vocals with Deacon on Glenn's old songs) and he also aced every song he sang. Don Henley was his usual class act and as for Joe Walsh, he was as crazy as ever! We had a truly, great time and came away, absolutely buzzing, caught the subway back to Wonderland and fell into bed about half past midnight. Whilst we knew we had to be up again at 5.00 am for our day trip to Martha's Vineyard tomorrow, we didn't care; we were on cloud nine!
Our alarm seemed to go off mere seconds after we closed our eyes, but somehow
Harvard - 3
Frasier is back! we were both still humming Eagles's songs as we got ready for today's outing, booked through TripAdvisor with New England Trips; a full day's excursion to Martha's Vineyard, one of the island's off of Cape Cod, at the south east corner of Massachusetts. We needed to be at the pick up point, close to the Aquarium subway stop (where we had previously joined the start of the trolley bus tour), by 6.15 am and whilst we could have taken the subway down, we couldn't take any chances on being late and decided to have a taxi pick us up at 5.30 am instead, which it duly did. Our bus driver, Jennifer, actually arrived at about 6.30 am and whilst a little late, this did give us a chance to grab a coffee and some breakfast at a close by Starbucks. The excursion cost about £90 each, but included the four hour round trip bus journey to and from Falmouth at the western end of Cape Cod and the point where we caught the Island Queen ferry (included in the cost) to Oak Bluffs on the island of Martha's Vineyard.
The omens were not good when we started the bus
The Tea Party Museum - 1
The replica ship at the museum. journey and it poured with rain most of the way. Jennifer kept us entertained, but it was very grey and very miserable. However, as if by magic, the rain stopped as we entered Falmouth, with even some patches of blue sky and sunshine appearing during the ferry crossing. In fact, other than a biblical downpour for about 15 minutes while we were on a bus, the weather was beautiful while we were on the island and continued to be so for the journey back to Boston; in fact, this was the best weather of the holiday so far. Martha's Vineyard is really pretty and is one of the summer playgrounds for the wealthy residents of the north east coast of America and was a particular favourite of the Kennedy Clan, at least until Teddy Kennedy's tragic Chappaquiddick incident back in 1969 when a lady friend (Mary Jo Kopechne) drowned after a car he was driving crashed off a bridge on Chappaquiddick, a smaller island off of Martha's Vineyard. For most people of a certain age, 'Chappaquiddick' will only ever be remembered for one reason and that is Teddy Kennedy.
MV has three main towns, namely Oak Bluffs, Edgartown and
The Tea Party Museum - 2
The bow of the replica ship. Vineyard Haven and we visited all three. We could have added a 3 hour tour of the island to our excursion, but at $60 each, felt this was a bit steep and so instead we used the local bus service (route 13 in fact, which runs between all three towns) at a much friendlier $5 each for over 65s! Edgartown is definitely the prettiest of the towns, with loads of beautiful and typically New England, clapper board homes and lots of lovely independent shops and eateries, including the Ice Cream and Candy Bazaar near the harbour, where we had some cracking ice creams, albeit on the rather expensive side! We spent a fair bit of time in Edgartown and while Mandy and Lily perused some of the shops, Steve and I went in search of the lighthouse (which we found), following which we made our way around the residential streets (full of very expensive looking homes) on the other side of town to the shops, back to the bus stop to meet the girls and there to be met by a torrential downpour as we tried to board the bus.
We then took the bus on to Vineyard Haven,
which is similar, although nowhere near as pretty as Edgartown and after a quick stop here, it was back to Oak Bluffs to have a look around the quaint, if rather twee, 'gingerbread homes' as they are known by the locals - small and highly coloured homes, clustered together behind Main Street and owned in the main by Wesleyan families, living a certain religious lifestyle. Oak Bluffs is a similarly pretty town to Edgartown and is also, of course, home to the ferry terminal. After a very pleasant lunch in a cafe called Biscuits, run by a Liverpool supporting, Novak Djokovic fan from Serbia (!), we wandered back to the harbour for our ferry back to Falmouth, our bus ride back to Boston and another subway ride back to our hotel, arriving at about 7.15 pm. This was a good albeit, tiring day out and Martha's Vineyard is definitely worth a visit. The excursion was well organised and we would have no hesitation in using this firm again. Pizza and beer in a restaurant close to our hotel, rounded off the day perfectly.
Tomorrow, we pick up our rental car and start our road trip in earnest. We will
The Show - 1
The Td Garden from the trolley bus. be sad to leave the beautiful city of Boston and with so much to see here, we could have easily made use of another day of two. We have packed in a massive amount (with last night's concert being a major highlight) and with the late night, last night and very early start today, I am sitting here barely able keep my eyes open at 9.30 pm as I try and type this blog. The location of our hotel has been perfect for our stay, being close enough and convenient for exploring the city, whilst at the same time providing a relaxed resort style feel. We would have no hesitation in recommending this location for anyone thinking of visiting Boston.
Before I finish this episode of the blog, we must, of course, have today's Countdown Conundrum, which is:
On deaf gland And the clue is:
This man is definitely no 'Trump'. By the way, don't forget that there are more photos at the end of the blog.
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Derek French
non-member comment
Memories
Very much enjoyed episodes 1 and 2. Boston was the first city I visited in the US after NY which in those days was steamy and dirty so I always said Boston redeemed the US for me. I visited subsequently, for the bank. several times and always enjoyed the city and all it had to offer. Never got to hear the Boston Symphony in their home venue, though. Chris and I subsequently visited on our New England coach tour and repeated some of the experiences. Boston will always be a favourite of mine. Looking forward to the rest of your tour and the blog!