NewYork - First Day of Tour - Boston

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Sunday 10 October
Day 1 New York to Boston approximate 580km 360 miles 


I'm getting a little over these early starts. Checked out at the affina 50 at 630am for an double uneventful taxi ride to the  Sheraton New York the venue for our departure. This hotel at $500 a night looked like a great hotel but with another grumpy and inconsistent Starbucks. 

We met our tour host, a friendly Dutch guy by the name of Henk. The bus is somewhat comfortable and we were lucky enough to start the tour at the back ofnthe bus with 4 double seats between the 5 of us. We went through a relatively traffic free suburb of Harlem  as our journey headed North. The trip was a pretty drive. Through hilly country and well vegetated with pockets of water country, lakes and bayside areas. The buildings changed somewhat, many more A frame homes and much larger than what we have seen. I'm guessing the shape helps keeps the snow off the roof. The foliage on the trees was stunning, colours from brilliant greens through oranges and reds and all shades in between, Henk informed us it's called an Indian Summer, which apparently only last a few weeks, I'll have to google to find out some more.

We arrived in the southern suburb of Boston named Quincy and ventured to the packed markets. The 5 of us found different foods to have and after about an hour we started on The Freedom Trail walk. Buildings that were hundreds of years old, were scattered in between modern skyscrapers. As jumbled as that sounds, Boston is a very gorgeous city. The temperature was around 17 or 18 and in the sun was very nice, but in the shade the goosebumps arrived. It's amazing to hear the stories and see the sites of where the birth of many of Americas beginnings happened, the buildings around Quincy where the meetings about the Boston Tea Party and things like that. The walking tour lasted for about 2 hours and was great. The only thing was that Henk gave me the task of mopping up the tail of the group. This meant those stragglers were given a kick up the backside or a stern look, nah not really, but a few of them were always behind. 

We had the option of going to a dinner but we all declined, we needed to wash and at $57 a head it was a little steep. The rooms at the Marriott were nice, beds were ok and a decent bathroom, Carmel and Irena had a nice view over water and we had a nice view of a granite wall and carpark. The laundry took a few hours with a dryer that was so slow. We left the clothes in it and went to the hotel pub for dinner, ehzich I had steak strips and Chips, Teresa had a nice NY steak, keara a chicken caesar and Carmel and Irena shared their 590th chicken caesar and a serve of fish and chips.  The laundry was collected, showers and bedtime ready for tomorrows 6am wake up call.      

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