Friday 26 May 1995 Boston
MA
Saturday 27 May 1995 Boston
MA
We flew on Delta from Bermuda to Boston.
There was a long wait for takeoff and although the staff were OK, they reminded
us somewhat of faded Southern belles – the chief purser even introduced herself
as Mrs Whoever – and the service and food, while nowhere as bad as
United was no great shakes.
Arrival in Boston
was something of a surprise because it was all a bit shambolic. But I must say
the luggage arrived fairly quickly and it is the only airport we have come
across yet where you can pay for your luggage trolley with a credit card. Very
useful if you don’t have local coinage or low value notes. We packed ourselves
into an awful old taxi which lurched its way in the fading evening light
through road works and traffic jams and hellish looking slums.
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| Rab at The Eliot |
But all this was forgotten when we got here to our hotel – The Eliot. A
lovely warm hotel with the same sort of feel to it as 22 Jermyn Street in London. Rab and I have agreed that this will
certainly be in the Top 10 of our all time best hotels and maybe even in the
Top 5.
I ran into more journal trouble here
because there was so much to do and no time for writing. I completed the next
part some days later when we were lazing around Bar Harbor.
It is inserted here to help with the continuity.
Boston turned out
to be a wonderful city as well. I guess we were fortunate that The Eliot is
handy to Newbury Street
which is a great mixture of fashion and eating. It reminded us of a more classy
version of Chapel Street.
In fact the whole of Boston had a Melbourne feel to it –
wide streets and trees everywhere. Of course the houses and buildings are so
much older but the feel is similar. We had very good weather and I think we
have never walked so much anywhere on any of our trips. We did a trolley trip
after we had done a bit of a walk down Newbury St which gave us a good feel for
the city and took a ride on the Blue Trolley. We had a good meal at one of the Italian restaurants and the
following day we caught the T, as the underground is known, down to Boston
Commons, were we had strolled the day before because that is where the Freedom
Trail starts. This is a tour of the city touching on all the main spots where
the Revolution started and to do with the main characters involved.
That is a pretty lousy sentence but
as I write the TV is blaring with some professional loudmouths all shouting
their ridiculous views on the OJ Simpson trial and anything else that pops into
their little egotistical minds. Rab and I have had a few interesting
discussions about her viewing habits. I still do not understand how someone as
intelligent as she is can be bothered to watch the dreck which forms so much of
what is broadcast. The worst of all, I think, are the chat shows especially
those that seem to endlessly repeat the never ending dramatics of mother and
daughter relationships and the dilemmas of the pregnant teenager. But I
digress.
We started off on the Freedom Trail. It is easy to follow because there is a big red stripe
painted on the sidewalk which leads you from place to place. We got sidetracked
into an Eddie Bauer store with a sale where I got some terrific bargains –
jeans for $15 for example – and then we got caught up in a festival near the Faneuil
Hall. It was Memorial Weekend and there was a fun atmosphere on such a sunny
day. We had very tasty grilled sausage and Rab was taking a bit of video of me
buying it. This caused a great deal of concern to the large, tattooed,
nose-ringed young woman who was serving me. We couldn’t make out if her
objection to being photographed was on religious grounds or whether she
featured in America’s
Most Wanted.
Rab had a rush of blood to her head when we were in one of the shops
around the square. She thought it would be nice to buy a lobster cooking pot
for Pad’s wedding present. So now we not only have another item to carry, but a
bulky one at that. (We were heading on to South Africa at the end of our tour
as my youngest brother Pad was getting married. The cooking pot was about
fifteen inches in diameter and about twelve inches high – you can get a lot of
seafood in that.) In addition to
this we had acquired another item at Filene’s Bargain Basement the day before –
a garment bag to take our suits etc which were getting pretty badly crushed in
the suitcases.
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| The fountain below The Hub Skywalk, Prudential Tower |
We had to abandon the Freedom Trail at that stage – we had seen most of
the parts I wanted to see – and hopped the T back to the hotel. It is a very
efficient transport system. We never waited long for a tram and in most cases
arrived at the platform simultaneously with the tram – for 85c a trip on the
inner city stages.
 |
| All our ducks in a row. |
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| More old ducks in a row -we always feel quite slim in the USA |
Having dropped off the parcels we spent the rest of the day walking the
streets and parks and admiring the views, revelling in the ambience.
Dinner
that night at a place called Giorgios was an experience – the servings were
huge. Rab and I reckoned we could have fed ten people with our two dishes. It
was reasonably priced, but what a waste!
All in all, Boston
was great and we loved it.
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