I wake up, expecting aches and pains, and am not disappointed. However, although my legs are shaky, I am pleased that my feet are sound – no blisters.
Robin cooks scrambled egg for breakfast and we drive into Boston. I am going to be staying at Victor and Lara’s tonight, so we have my luggage with me.
We arrive at Victor and Lara’s home in Harvard at about 11am. Victor is going to be busy today, but Lara is coming with us. We down to the visitor centre on Boston Common, and grab some maps.
Today we are going to walk Boston’s freedom trail, which is a city walk, marked by red bricks set in the sidewalk. We are not going to follow the trail exactly, but do the best bits. The first step is lunch, so we head through Faneuil Hall Marketplace to Quincy Market. This is an old market building, which has been restored and converted into a large food court. The whole market is not unlike Covent Garden in some respects. We all have clam chowder, which sets me up for the day.
We follow the trail past Paul Revere’s house, and up by the Old North Church and Copps Hill Burial Ground. We then walk north until we reach the water – the trail from there heads west and then north across the bridge. However that stretch of the trail is not particularly interesting, so instead we opt for a water taxi across the water.
The water taxi is inexpensive, and is a refreshing break from our walk, with a pleasant breeze. As we cross the water, we can look back and see the Boston skyline, with an interesting combination of old and new buildings. Ahead, we can see the USS Constitution – “Old Ironsides”.
Alas, we discover that tours of the ship are not available on Mondays, but we have a good look at it from a distance, and then head for the Constitution museum, which tells the story of the ship, and of the foundation of the US navy, dating back to times where merchant ships required protection from Barbary Corsairs.
Next, I am persuaded to head up to the Bunker Hill monument – my muscles complain that it is uphill again but thankfullly, Robin and Lara don’t want to ascend the monument itself. We listen to a park ranger give a very good talk on the monument – paradoxically, the Bunker Hill monument is not on Bunker Hill. The battle it commemorates is called the battle of Bunker Hill, but actually took place on Grebe Hill, the site of the monument. Furthermore, this American monument celebrates a battle won by the British, albeit at a great cost, in lives and morale.
Weretrace our steps and catch a water taxi back, and after a wander round, make our way to the T station, and head back to Harvard.
As arranged, Jonathon joins us for the evening, and the five of us all head out for dinner. We decide to go for Mexican food again, which I enjoyed last night, but when we got there I also see New Orleans cuisine on the menu, so I opt for catfish cooked in a cream and shrimp sauce, served with jambolia. The food is perfect and we have a great time.
We return to Victor and Lara’s. Jonathon had earlier told us about a B-movie called “Cannibal Women of the Avocado Jungle”, and Victor has it on DVD. We settle down to watch this unbelivably bad, yet funny, movie. Jonathon leaves after a while, as he has seen it, and has too work in the morning. Robin stays until the end, and then we say goodbye and she heads home. I chat for a while longer to Victor and Lara, while using their local WiFi connection to catch up a bit on email and journal uploads, then go to bed.
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