Over memorial day weekend we finally made the not so long trip to Boston (less than 3 hour drive). We arrived Friday night, grabbed some food at a little Thai place by the hotel and got up early Saturday morning ready to go.
We stayed at a hotel just across the river from downtown Boston in Cambridge. It turned out to be a good decision balancing price, location, free parking and free breakfast. Although we were right next to a subway station we ended up walking into downtown on Saturday morning. We headed to Boston Common (the large downtown park) and wondered around there for a while. As it was memorial day weekend they had 33000 American flags out in one part of the park.
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| Memorial day at Boston Commons |
We then started following the Freedom Trail. It's kind of like a self guided (although you can get a guide) walking tour of all the historical buildings and locations in Boston. The trail is marked by a red line in the sidewalk/pavement so it's really easy to follow. We stopped at a few places on the Freedom Trail, including the cemetery where a lot of famous people are buried, the old city hall and Fanueil Hall (kind of like the Covent Garden of Boston).
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| Start of the Freedom Trail |
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| Wow the government is getting hi-tech! |
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| The old and the new in downtown Boston |
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| Mr Adam's grave |
We left the Freedom Trail down by the water and wondered around the Marina looking at the boats before grabbing some lunch at a little Irish pub. After lunch we went to the aquarium. I have a problem with not going to aquariums... they always make me happy!! As it was a long weekend and great weather the whole town was packed with tourists and the line for aquarium tickets was enormous. We decided to be smart and sit next to the line, buy tickets online on my phone and then get in the non-existent will call line and bypass all the queues. Success us! The aquarium was good, not the best one I've ever been to (I think Sydney takes the cake on that one) but I could have watched the penguins all day.
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| Lionfish at the aquarium - just like the one I saw snorkelling in Jamaica! |
After the aquarium we walked to Chinatown and wondered around all the little supermarkets and shops. It still wasn't time for dinner and we had walked miles and miles by this point so we stopped for a beverage at a little whole in the wall Chinatown pub with some very eccentric characters!
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| Chinatown gate |
We thought about getting Asian food for dinner, but seeing as we had Thai the night before we ended up at a Mediterranean place in the theatre district. We had a few small plates of tapas and desert and it was exactly the right amount of food, and delicious too. Rather than doing a regular tour of the city Matt had booked us on a "ghost tour" that evening. So after dinner we went back down to the wharf with a quick stop at a little outdoor bar, and got on our ghost tour. It was actually a lot of fun going to some old graveyards off the tourist route and learning more about Boston history and spooky stories. I was almost strangled by a ghost but was luckily saved by our guides :-) As it was a night tour I couldn't really get any good pictures but this probably sums it up.
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| Spooooooooookyyyy |
After the tour it was finally time to head back to the hotel. Did we get the subway or taxi? No, we walked all the way back to our hotel. I don't know how many miles we walked that day but my feet told me it was a lot. So glad I didn't wear my flip flops! Our route back went past the stadium where the Celtics play basketball and apparently a play off game had just finished when we were walking by so the streets were filled with green. No one seemed particularly happy so we assumed they had lost but turns out the Celtics won... maybe everyone was as tired as we were?!
Day 1 = success!!
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| Don't be scared - it's ghost time! |
