Lesley woke early so went up top to watch the ship come into Boston. It
has its own place on the wharf, marked by a painted sign. There was a ship
already in [but we found out later that this was an unscheduled medical stop
for them]. This is the end of our east coast cruise.
Our group had a specific time to disembark, much later than some others.
We were taken by bus to our hotel (Fairmont Copley Plaza), who, bless them, had
our rooms ready for us even though it was only mid-morning!
We all dumped our
gear and headed out for sight-seeing. Gary had organised hop-on-hop-off bus tickets
so we all made good use of them. [We now have two days to ourselves (17 of us).
Scenic don’t organise anything for here because many people in the past have stopped
the tour here, however more and more are actually staying on to the end at New
York, so they’ll have to do something about this!]
Because of the other ship being in unexpectedly, and it also being a
Saturday in Boston, when lots of people come out to enjoy the city, it was
extremely busy. We all had some trouble getting the buses because so many were
full. The afternoon was better, but we two had already done our two-hour bus
ride by then. The day was cloudy, windy and cool, the locals saying it was unseasonably
cool. In fact, it was downright cold on the open-sided hop-on-hop-off bus – we had
jackets on and Lesley even put another layer on. Crossing the river (a couple
of times) it was very blowy!
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| Modern fire station in the original building |
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| Old police station next to fire station, now an architectural college |
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| baseball stadium, home of the Boston Red Sox |
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| The kettle steams |
Boston is the home of Harvard University, but we didn’t get out to see
it. It is also linked to events in the 17th century, such as the
Boston Tea Party, when two large shipments of tea were tossed into the harbour
so that the people didn’t have to pay tax on it. The cry was ‘no tax without
representation’ (the English were taxing, but the people had no representative in
Parliament in London). This event sparked the revolution.
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| Curved windows are a common architectural feature |
Lots of Boston is on reclaimed soil – swamp land filled in with soil.
Some old buildings are sinking, and apparently one recent building keeps
popping huge glass panes as the building settles! No one has been injured by
this – yet.
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| Set for Romeo and Juliet |
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| Saw this emergency station |
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| Boston Marathon finish line |
We had a late lunch (a shared affair again, as the meals here are so
large). Afterwards we walked to the Boston Common, a large park split by a road
(much like Hyde Park in Sydney). [There is a large car park underneath the park
it seems, though we didn’t see an entrance, only three places where people can
go down to get their cars.] Even in the cool windy weather there were lots of
people here. We watched squirrels run around and chase each other. One had a
lovely time playing on its own, rolling around and bounding about.
On the way
back we visited the large public library and the Trinity Church opposite the
hotel. The church is built on many large wooden poles into the soil below, and
these have to be monitored and kept wet so the timbers don’t dry out and rot, causing
the church to collapse.
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| The church is undergoing restorative work |
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| unusual architecture |
Four of our group went to a (night-time) baseball game, to watch the
Boston Red Sox play a home game after being away for a while. We thought about
it but decided it was too expensive. The Red Sox won by a run, apparently, but
our friends had already left because it went into extra time and it was already
late. Instead we went to a small Italian
restaurant and had a shared meal. We then went for a walk to enjoy the evening people
traffic, having an ice cream on the way back. The area around the hotel is full
of little restaurants, and high-end shops. Nothing for the plebs here.
Another number plate:
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| The plate has on it the rego due date! |
