Boston’s Freedom Trail

Boston is pretty smart. They built the Freedom Trail, a two and half mile meandering that leads from Boston Common past historic buildings of the Revolution, Paul Revere’s house, famous old churches and cemeteries, Bunker Hill and ends at the USS Constitution. The trail takes the guess work out of touring and provides incentive to finish the whole tour. We walked the entire route today and then some on our first ever visit to downtown Boston. Boston has been missing from our repertoire of Eastern Seaboard cities. We’ve done NYC, Philly, Providence and DC. And now Boston. It’s a bit difficult for Linda and I to do a long walking tour together as we have conflicting interests. I am an exterior tourist. She leans toward the interior. Today we were able to affect a compromise and strike a happy balance, enjoying the variety of architectural facades while also experiencing selected interiors—a Starbucks for soy chai, a Godiva’s Chocolate for the aromas, an Orvis to see if the clothes look as good in person as in the catalogue and a Crabtree and Evelyn “because I never get to go into one.”
I love public transportation, something the West Coast sorely lacks. It was a real treat, as we started the morning, to walk a block from N and K’s house to a train station and climb aboard. A real conductor wearing a blue conductor suit and a conductor hat with an old fashion coin dispenser strapped around his waste sold us our tickets ($3.25 one way). We had our choice of riding forwards or backwards as the train cars had half the seats facing one way and half facing the other. The seats were comfy vinyl with three on one side of the aisle and room for two on the other. There were coat hooks and luggage racks. The cars were clean but the windows appeared to have been sandblasted. It was hard to see. But then, train tracks never run through scenic areas. North Station shares space with the Fleet Center where the Celtics play. Very convenient to go to an event there when residing in Belmont or other towns along the MBTA line.
We took a right turn out of the station and headed for Beacon Hill where Senator Kerry lives. We didn’t see him but it’s a really nice neighborhood. Tight streets with brick row houses stacked against each other. Resident parking permits required from 8AM to 8PM. Parking is at a premium in Boston. On the backside of Beacon Hill is the Boston Common, a large park with squirrels, playground and ice rink. There’s a visitor information booth and a guy in a Colonial costume standing outside tried to convince us to take his 3/4 mile, 90 minute walking tour. Twelve bucks. He claimed it would be great. But we decided that he was moving too slow and might tell us more than we wanted to know. We pressed on, finding the red stripe on the sidewalk that led us towards the Old State House, the Park Street Church and the Old City Hall where Linda had her photo taken by a donkey statue.
The red painted stripe alternated with a double row of red bricks inlayed into the sidewalk. Boston is recovering from a long, snowy winter and the red line was obscured in places. Occasionally we lost the trail but soon picked it up again. We  arrived at the Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market, the historic Boston marketplace that has been revitalized into a shopping and food circus. It was lunchtime and it was busy. The food booths offered a wide variety of choices. Business people were there for lunch as well as tourists. We chose the Bombay Club and picked up somosas and masala dosa and admired the snappy red polos they wore with the Bombay Club logo, the head of a temple dancer offering a namaste. An excellent bargain a $13 which included a mango lassi. It was nice enough to sit outside and after lunch were pleased to find clean restrooms. We plodded on across a construction area that will be the Rose Kennedy Greenway. Boston has a huge public works project underway called the Big Dig. They are putting what was  an elevated highway cutting through the downtown completely underground. The space formerly occupied by the elevated highway will now become the Rose Kennedy Greenway and a 30 acre park will wind through the city. On the other side of the soon to be greenway is the Old North Church, Old South Church district aka the North End which based on the names of the restaurants there appears to be an Italian neighborhood. From here we walked across the Charlestown Bridge and the Charles River to Charlestown, sight of famous Bunker Hill where the Battle of Bunker Hill wasn’t actually fought.
It was fought on Breed’s Hill... too confusing. Read a book or something to get the details. However, there is an obelisk commemorating the battle operated by the National Park Service. It’s 294 steps to the top and we made it even after walking four miles to get there. Old Ironsides, the famous three masted heavy frigate—the USS Constitution—was closed, so I have to go back. We caught the 3PM train after hoofing it to North Station and by 3:20PM were relaxing at home. Excellent exterior touring with only just a touch of retail walking. A very satisfying day.

Comments

[Boston's Hidden Restaurants]

Glad you liked Boston! Our city is definitely a nice place to visit. All of the cities you have visited on the eastern seaboard are very nice. I especially love Providence. For those of you who are planning to visit Boston, try to make a side trip to Providence; it has really become a great little city.