Boston – The Walking CityFirstly, if you have ever been to the States before, and I am talking the usual haunts for British tourists, Florida, California, Las Vegas etc, Boston will come as a complete surprise to you.
Firstly, upon arrival, I have never cleared a US airport so quickly, and keep it to yourself, but the officers on immigration and customs where pleasant, one even smiled! The airport also has several little extras that I have not noticed in many international airports, like Free Wi-Fi, which if you are like me and just can’t wait to update your facebook page is great!
The city itself is very compact of an American city, and I must say, when ever we felt ‘lost’ as you often do in a new city, we where never more than a $15 ride in a cab from the hotel. The public parks are a fine attraction, as is the impressive harbour (Do treat yourself to a dinner cruise, its well worth it!)
The City has a number of hop-on hop-off trolley tours, and they all represent excellent value for money, some even offer a harbour cruise as part of the ticket price, I would suggest you grab one of these for the first day, it gives you a great overview o the city and orientation.
The one thing I really wanted to see was the world famous bar, featured on TV ‘where everyone knows your name’ – Cheers! The part you see on the TV outside is just like it looks on TV, but when you go inside, it really is different! However, this is America, where they always like to please, so some clever person has opened up a bar in a nearby shopping area that looks exactly like the TV set inside! So you can take your picture outside one, and inside the other! (A bit like what they did for the TV series!)
Shopping in Boston is a pleasure, there is such variety, and also the one thing I loved most, a sense of history. This really is the birthplace of the modern America, this is where the New World as really found, and there are buildings that look not dissimilar to any major European city in style.
And unusually for America, it has a sense of history, and I am not talking going back 20 years! You can stay in the Omni Hotel, the same hotel Charles Dickens stayed when he wrote ‘A Christmas Carol’ it was also the first city in America to have an underground rail system.
The City can have very different climates, I was there in early June, and one day it was 90 degrees then next day it was high 60’s, and in the winter the snow can really fall. With this in mind, you find many of the buildings have an ‘inside’ mall type system that links them, so you can go from building to building without leaving the climate controlled space! Cool in the summer – warm in the winter!
Close by there is so much to see and do, as the capitol of New England, it naturally goes without saying in the fall, this is the place to see! It is also close to Harvard the American university town, that is the equivalent of Oxford & Cambridge, you are also abut an hour or so from Cape Cod, with all it’s great beaches, and ports, and of course you can also visit ‘Martha’s Vineyard’ playground of America’s rich and famous. When I visited, I found the hospitality wonderful, and the island life relaxing, it is also the place they filmed the movie ‘Jaws’ although we where assured there are no massive man eating sharks in the area!
Another fine place to visit is Plimoth Plantation, which has life size working villages, showing how the Native Americans lived when the ‘New World’ was found, and how the new settlers lived, complete with cast members who never come out of character.. It really is something to see and hear. They also have the Mayflower 2, an exact scaled replica of the very first ship to bring pilgrims to the new world, which was built in the UK and sailed to the port taking nearly 6 weeks to get there by sail! And once again you can climb aboard and see how they crossed the Atlantic back then, a far cry from the luxury cruise liners of today.
In Conclusion, when ever you go to Boston, make sure you take a camera, and starve yourself for a week or 2 before, as the food is wonderful, and they are very generous with the portions!
