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Published: December 8th 2010
The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” – Samuel Johnson
Boston Cream Pie, Boston Baked Beans, Boston Tea Party, Boston Scrod and ……..Cheers!
It is sort of comical……and comfortable to be standing in Boston; one of America’s greatest historical cities and not be surprised by men and women who are dressed in historical costumes. For whatever reason it makes sense and does not seem out of place.
Having only a short period of time in Boston we started with a walking tour of the Freedom Trail. Well worth the time and money. Our tour started in the Boston Commons and ended in front of the Quincy Market. Although many of the tour guides are actors and their tour is more of a performance than anything we were quite pleased to find our guide was a history professor at Quincy College with a wicked sense of humor.
During the ninety-minute tour, we learned many facts about the American Revolution and he sorted fact from fiction. Many of the stories we learned in school contained a mere essence of the
real truth. For instance, why would one shout “the British are coming” when at the time the colonists were British! Did you know that Sam Adams really didn’t brew beer? You will learn a bit more about the Boston tea party.... it is a taxing story. Or that George Washington only won three battles during the Revolution? Hmmmm…..sounds like someone was taking liberties with the truth, no?
December in Boston can be bone chilling and as we stood in 39-degree weather with a slight wind- we noticed our fingers and toes getting cold by the end of the tour even though we did a pretty good job of layering to stay warm.
It was clearly time to warm up and have some lunch, so we headed to the Fairmont Hotel. Each holiday season we like to go to one swanky hotel for lunch or drinks and soak up some holiday ambiance. The Fairmont did not disappoint. We dined on a fine New England brew, an incredibly marvelous lobster bisque and the best Boston Cream Pie we have ever had. Add this to your list of things to taste in Boston.
You can’t come to Boston and not
Our guide
on the Freedom Traildrop by the Cheers bar. We were fans of the show and wanted to take a look at the bar that helped to create the popular TV series. Since Hollywood always takes liberties we needed to visit two locations to get the feel of things. When the producers of the show had come up with the idea for the show they were looking for a neighborhood bar in Boston. What they found was the Bull & Finch. The outside looks just like it did on TV. You travel down the staircase into the bar that created a lot of comedy. The inside of this bar is warm, cozy and comfortable. The actual bar does not look like the one on the show. To see that “bar” you will need to travel to the Fanueil Hall area to the Cheers replica—which we did. The bar is exactly like the one in the TV series. It makes you want to belly up to the bar and have a drink with Cliff and Norm and talk a little baseball with Sam.
America is a young country and when we talk about our old buildings friends in Europe laugh at us. Truth is
there aren’t many old buildings in America because of its youthfulness and the fact that most buildings in the early years were built of wood, which cannot stand the test of time. Castles were built of stone for a reason you know…..
Many go wandering The North End of Boston, famous for Paul Revere's home and the Old North Church. The charm of this neighborhood will find you exploring the many restaurants, pubs, cafe's and pastry shops. We'd been told by many, even some locals on Cape Cod to visit Mike's pastry shop while in Boston. We bought a slice of Boston Cream Pie and a chocolate chip cannoli. As we were leaving the store a local caught us looking at our map and provided us with some directions. While talking with him we learned that the "tourists" go to Mike's but the locals in the neighborhood go to Modern's Pastry shop. We walked across the street and purchased additional pastries at Modern's so we could do a taste test. As it turns out, we may not be connoisseurs of fine cannolis because we could not tell much of a difference.
As we were wandering the streets of
Boston we found an exhibit dedicated to the survivors of the Holocaust. It was sad and amazingly powerful. This exhibit was extremely well done and alone is worth the trip to Boston although it is quite sobering. We made an attempt to photograph the stories shared by holocausts survivors but it was difficult.
One passage took our breath away--
"They Came First for the Communists, I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communists. Then they came for the Jews, I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionists. Then they came for the Catholics, I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up.
Martin Niemoeller Lutheran Pastor
How does this kind of hatred happen?
Robert Mc Closky wrote a children's book called Make Way for Duckilings. It was a story about the ducklings making a home in the park in Boston, hence the reason for the brass ducks being donated to the park.
We plan to come back in
Old Granary Burial Ground
Sam Adams, John Hancock, Paul Revere and others the next month or so to do more exploration as there is much more to do and see. We brought our dog Miss Lillie with us again and she really doesn’t seem to mind the big city. Not to mention the fact that she simply draws people to her, being so cute and all which instantly translates into instant pets for her, which she never tires of.
History, fine Italian food, and of course Bostonians await us.
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mildred & hank
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dog
We are so happy to know and to see Miss Lillie she looks great THank you. Take care Love Mildred and Hank