Boston

---

BOSTON

Day 1

The first leg of our American adventure is to Boston, Massachusetts. We flew out of Heathrow T5 at 11:20am on Saturday with British Airways, arriving 1pm local time. We had 23kg luggage allowance but mine was 13kg and Oli's was 12kg so we were well under. We were not overly impressed with BA (well the food was poor compared to China Eastern's constant stream of prawns), but Heathrow T5 was nice, especially the train between gates.

We quickly got through customs, where we had to give our fingerprints, and our luggage was amongst the first out. We decided against taking a cab and instead took their version of the tube, the T, as it was cheaper and we didn’t feel prepared to deal with our first tipping scenario yet. We caught the free shuttle bus outside the airport to the Airport Station and then travelled four stops on the blue line to Government Station and then three stops on the green line to Arlington station. This brought us out very close to our hotel, the Back Bay Hotel. At first we were too cautious when crossing the road as we didn’t realise the flashing white man on the crossings is equal to our flashing green man. This must have seemed amusing to some nearby workmen, we could not have looked more like tourists, carrying suitcases and looking at maps. We later found out that the others passed us in their taxi to their hotel that was about 1km away. The sun was shining and it was boiling. We checked in, and avoided a second tipping situation by taking our own bags to the room. Our room was lovely, we had a king size bed which was humungous. We got changed and headed out.

We came out of our hotel onto Stuart Street and headed west past the 63 storey John Hancock tower and then right onto Dartmouth. Boston has had a lot of rain over the last few weeks and this was one of the first sunny days in ages. We walked through Copley Square which has the beautiful Trinity church in it, our Duck Tour guide told us later it is one of the most significant buildings in early U.S. architectural history. We headed towards the water and walked along the Charles River Esplanade, which is a thin strip of land surrounded by water. Some people had tied stretchy ropes to the trees and were tightrope walking and doing tricks on them so we stopped to watch that for a bit then headed back towards the Prudential Centre. I got a slice of pepperoni pizza from Pizzeria Regina in the Prudential Centre which we ate out on the terrace in the sun. We booked on for a 6:30 Duck Tour with JJCB (Jack, Jen, Cara, Beano). A Duck tour is a 90 minute tour around Boston on a World War II amphibious landing vehicle with up to 30 other people which goes into the Charles River for 20 minutes. The tour guide gives you the opportunity to drive the boat for a few minutes if you wish and I was able to steer it along the river for a bit. Then we headed back to the Prudential Centre and this time we got a large garlic naan and a chicken tikka masala and another chicken curry from Gourmet India. We ate this in the Food Court then headed back to the hotel. Oli and I had a drink in our hotel bar then went up for showers and bed at 10pm.

Observations from Day 1:

Menu’s do not include tax and it is rather confusing (why wouldn’t you include tax, as people don’t know how much change to get out?).

Boston is a very nice city with lots of new skyscrapers sat next to old churches (but not as old as ours).

Large amounts of steam comes out of man holes.

I am going to eat a large amount of calories on this holiday.

It will take a while to get used to the driver’s seat being on the other side of the car.

Flying gives me chapped lips.

Day 2:

We were lucky with the weather again, although the forecast predicted rain, we didn’t see any and it was sunny all day. We met JJCB in their hotel, and headed towards the freedom trail after a fried breakfast in the Black Seed Cafe & Grill to set us up for the big walk. The breakfast contained a random collection of foods, bacon was sat beside fruit, and what tasted like Indian Bombay style potatoes. Cara asked for a poached egg, the chap serving in the cafe had no idea what this was, we eventually discovered they don’t do poached eggs, so scrambled had to do. We decided to walk the Freedom Trail without a guide as Jack knew enough about Boston history to talk us through it. We started off the trail up the hill and headed up the steps towards the State House, but soon got distracted and our Freedom Trail became more of a food trail. We walked through Faneuil Hall Marketplace and tried all the samples of food going, Oli got a corn dog. Then we continued the trail, until we got sidetracked by Mike’s Pastry. Jack made the best choice and got a peanut butter flavoured cannonloni. Jack let us all try some, most thought it was one of the best things they’ve ever tasted. Beano went for a strawberry cheesecake, it tasted fine, not much biscuit base compared to ours and made with whipped double cream on top. The remarkable thing about this cheesecake slice was the size of it, it was massive. Although, we came to learn massive portions are very common in America. Beano started subletting his cheesecake to us, for a dollar each, yet even with the help we couldn’t make much of an impact on the slice. We continued the Freedom Trail with the cheesecake, Beano encouraging others to try and finish it. Eventually Oli ate the last of it as he can’t bear to see anything thrown away. The tour took us over the river, towards the USS constitution; this was the oldest commisioned warship in the world. We went for a free tour of the ship, which took us down to the lower decks where we could see all the cannons and living quarters. Bells were ringing on the constitution, as the ship had a VIP visit. Later when we were having a drink the VIP went by, Jen gave him a salute, so he came to talk to us. After the ship, the trail took us to the Boston monument (294 steps high), as if we’d not done enough walking. We saw VIP chap again at the monument, who came and asked us if we were following him. We then made the most direct route we could to our hotel, which was still a few miles. The walk was about 20km in total.



Later that day we walked to meet JJCB, as we’d planned to find a nice restaurant we all liked. It didn’t take long as we ate in the ‘Rock Bottom’ about 20 metres from their hotel, this was perhaps because we were all tired from the walking earlier. However, this restaurant turned out to be a great choice as the food was amazing. I had a steak, not the most expensive on the menu yet it was all I’d hoped for. Oli slurped his way through the selection of local wheat beers. We felt more energetic after the food and drinks so we all went on to find another bar. This was harder than we expected as the first place we found didn’t let us in as it was just about to close. We were given directions to the Rattlesnake rooftop bar, and told if was a ‘block’ away. Using such an arbitrary unit of measurement did not help us, as we had no idea how far to walk. I would like the next directions in meters. When we finally found the bar, we all got ID’d (even Oli who’s 30). This was not like a bouncer in the UK looking at your ID, this chap made us all wait for a while, when he looked at us as if we were criminals and asked for passports and a credit card to back it up! It was worth the trouble as it was a nice night to sit on the roof top. We were confused by the service, as we were not allowed to go the bar and get our own drinks, yet had to wait for the waitress to come over with them, then tip her. We went back to our hotels after the drinks for a snooze.



Observations from Day 2:

Boston is a very walkable city.

Homeless people are crazy and/or angry.

People will do anything for a tip.

The police look much cooler than our police and travel by air land and sea. And they carry guns.





Day 3

We started this day with the same drill – meeting the others at their hotel, then breakfast at Emerson Cafe. I went for a granola yoghurt strawberry thing and Oli had a fruit cup. Then we went to the Boston Statehouse tour that I had booked us on in England. This (like the US Constitution) was another great free tour. We had a great tour guide, and a small group, with just us six and a few others, so we felt like we could ask lots of questions. The building looked really nice, as the photos show.

Oli and I wanted to try local Boston food, so we got a New England chowder, Lobster bisque chowder and a lobster pie from Boston Chowda Co in the Prudential Centre. They were all amazing!

JJCB had arrange to see the Boston Red Sox play baseball that night, so Oli and I walked back to the Faneuil Hall Marketplace as we like it so much. We went via China town as we’d not seen that before. We’d planned a no carb, light meal from the market. However, this plan went drastically wrong when we arrived. Oli went for scallops wrapped in bacon, but when he bought them the chap serving gave him a large portion of chips for free. In a moment of madness I went for a lasagne, the portion was of course enough to feed three people. Oli ended up eating most of it. Oli is going to have to stop finishing everyone’s food as the portion sizes here are far too big for that.

This took the total walking on this day to about 25km (Oli is tracking it on his GPS) like the previous day, my feet won’t like me if this continues for the whole holiday.

Observations from Day 3:

They really do drive yellow school buses.

I haven’t packed enough socks.

The bed in our hotel room is the best bed I have ever slept in and I am going to miss it.

---

Photos

Photo 23
Lisa driving the duck

2012-05-13-210
walking up Boston monument

Photo 28
Quincy market

GPS
Our freedom trail walk

Comments

[Mum]

Hi guys.Nice photos. Food sounds bril. Hope I am doing this right. Byeeee. XX

[Phyllis Farrand]

America!!!!
So good to hear from you both. Sounds as if you are really having a good time. Absolutely love reading everything. Now what did I do? Wrote quite a bit and now it is gone!! Never mind. So glad you are having so much fun and we are looking forward to seeing you next week.