Saturday July 29 – Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. of A.

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!

Modern fire station in the original building

Old police station next to fire station, now an architectural college

baseball stadium, home of the Boston Red Sox

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 17^th 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.

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.

Set for Romeo and Juliet

Saw this emergency station

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.

The church is undergoing restorative work

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:

The plate has on it the rego due date!