A Day of Being The Bad Guys

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As with all our trips to America, it started with rain, but hopefully like the others it will improve as the time goes on. It wasn't ideal conditions, but we thought we would start with a guided walk along the History Trail. This started at Boston Common, covered Beacon Hill and the Massachusetts State House, the Old Granary Burial Ground, the Old State House, the Old City Hall (which is now a restaurant), the New City Hall (which is widely agreed to be the ugliest building in America) and ending at the site of the Boston Massacre.

History does not put the people of our home country in very good light, particularly a number of individual cases of injustice, which, along with the taxes, fueled the revolutionary spirt. There were several cases of crimes by the colonial authorities, either being ignored, let off by courts back in England, or tried, convicted and subsequently pardoned.

We spent a lot of time at the burial ground, where many of the key players from the revolution are buried, including John Hancock, who featured extremely heavily through out the walk. He was one of those involved in the Boston Tea Party where millions of cups worth of tea were dumped into the sea. Despite the shared objective, there was apparently no love lost between him and George Washington.

Boston also apparently used to be an island. Beacon Hill, where the State House is located, was leveled over time to reclaim the land to the west which is now known as Back Bay. When we eventually managed to work out the trains we headed there for some shopping. These are known as the "T" and, as usual, are extremely complicated (the Green Line particularly had different sub-platforms and coded trains all going to different destinations). The kids had had enough history for one day.

We are planning to go to a Red Sox game tomorrow, so we thought we would try and work out where to go and how to get there whilst in a station. There is again that massive difference between Americans and the British back home. A guy who was passing by explained it all to us and told us exactly which station to go to (not the one that we were expecting to go to).

After a massive meal at the Cheesecake Factory we walked back to the hotel. Boston does not seem to be as big as you would expect, at least in the central area. It is all very walkable, although you can tell that it is much older than most American cities and is a lot harder to navigate as it doesn't have the grid system.

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Photos

The Massachusetts State House
The gold dome of the Massachusetts State House.

Old Granary Burying Ground
Many of the main people from the revolution are buried here.

John Hancock
The memorial in the burying ground for John Hancock.

Old State House
The Old State House amongst the financial district buildings.

Night Shot
The Boston financial district at night.