BOSTON

'New England in the Fall' is something we've talked about for a couple of years, not least after hearing from friends who had been just how good it was. Add to that that we had a long-standing invitation from Jackie, Sue's cousin who lives in Ottawa, and increasingly this trip began to take shape.
We decided to join another Caravan Tours group as we'd been so impressed with our Grand Canyon trip with them in 2012. To help with the jet lag, and to allow us time to have a good look round, we flew to Boston a couple of days early. The weather wasn't the best, so wet even ducks would have complained, but we managed to pack a lot in.

BOSTON

Boston's first permanent settlement, then called the Shawmut Peninsula,  was started in 1625  by William Blackstone, who was rapidly joined by Puritan settlers to whom he sold most of the land he had claimed. It was soon renamed by the Puritans after their hometown in England: Boston.
After the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, and the appointment by the Crown of governors to oversee the colony, there were frequent clashes between the colonists and these appointees. Resentment grew as the English restricted civil and commercial liberties, culminating in such skirmishes as the Boston Massacre (1770) and the Boston Tea Party (1773) which, in turn, helped ignite the Revolutionary War (1775-83) which effectively started in Lexington, just outside Boston.
Post-Revolution, Boston emerged as a major port city bringing waves of Irish, Italian and Chinese immigrants in the 19th century.
Despite gaining a reputation as the centre of the American university system and despite having a strong history of progressive thought, 20th century Boston was frequently blighted by racial tensions, most notoriously in the 1970s over the policy of public school 'busing'. Race relations have improved from that low-point, as has the physical transformation of the city in 2007 with the completion of the Big Dig construction project (stowing underground an unsightly elevated highway) freeing-up 150 acres of land for park and recreational use. It cost an eye-watering $22 billion!

THE WATERFRONT:

Boston's urban renewal programme and the Big Dig has allowed the city to reconnect with the sea  through a series of projects such as the expansion of the New England Aquarium and the conversion of wharf buildings into housing.

Truly dreadful weather the day we visited!
The only happy ones were the birds.

Lobster, lobster, everywhere:

Rose Kennedy Greenway:

What was once a car-ridden stretch is now a 13 acre public park; a ribbon of greenspace, flower gardens and spouting fountains.
Nowhere near as impressive as New York's High Line, but pleasant all the same.

Rose Kennedy, mother of JFK, was baptised in this church:

Old City Hall:

On the site of the country's first public school - Boston Latin, founded in 1635 - this grand French Second Empire building was Boston's City Hall from 1865 to 1969.

Irish Famine Memorial:

This memorial, commemorating the Irish refugees who emigrated to Boston in the 1840s as a result of the famine that claimed one million lives in Ireland, has an unsettling pair of statues, one depicting an Irish family holding their hands out for food

the other a Bostonian family that passes them by.

Omni Parker House Hotel:

The oldest continuously operating hotel in the US and the legendary birthplace of the Boston cream pie in 1855. Bizarrely, Ho Chi Minh worked here in the kitchen!

Union Oyster House:

The oldest bar in Boston, we stopped off here for a clam chowder and corn bread.

Anyone for coffee?

Amazingly, there are 700 Dunkin' Donut outlets in Boston alone!! Bostonians aren't addicted to the donuts, they use the places to pick up their morning coffees.

Seeing is believing

Can't have come all the way from Suffolk, surely?

THE FREEDOM TRAIL

http://www.
thefreedomtrail.org/freedom-trail/official-sites.shtml

Marked by a 2.5-mile long red-brick stripe in the sidewalk stretching from Boston Common to Charlestown, the Freedom Trail links 16 points 'significant in their contribution to this country's struggle for freedom'. About half the sights relate to the Revolution itself.
We decided to walk as much of it as time allowed.

Boston Common:

Boston Common, at 50 acres, is the city's premier open space. Even before John Winthrop, Massachusett's first governor and his fellow Puritan colonists earmarked the land for public use in 1634, the Common was used as pasture by Boston's first European settler. Not long after, it disintegrated into little more than a town gallows. Newly-elected president, George Washington, made an appearance on the Common in 1789, as did the Marquis de Lafayette several years later.

54th Massachusetts Regiment Memorial:

This commemorates the first all-black company to fight in the Civil War. A bronze sculpture from 1897 names the soldiers killed in action at their failed attempt to take Fort Wagner from the Confederates in 1863.
Unfortunately for us, the memorial was being restored so photos did not do full justice to it.

Massachusetts State House:

Across the street rises the large gilt dome of the Charles-Bullfinch designed Massachusetts State House. An all-star team of Revolution-era luminaries contributed to its construction: Built on land purchased from John Hancock's estate, its cornerstone was laid by Samuel Adams and the copper for its dome was rolled in Paul Revere's foundry in 1802.
We went in by the Hooker Entrance, named after General Hooker who, in turn, lent his name to the women who followed his military camps!
We headed for the second floor but decided to skip the organised tour starting from Doric Hall,

opting instead to make our own way to the impressive Memorial Hall, a circular room surrounded by tall marble columns.

This Hall contains some fascinating transparencies of the original flags carried into battle by Massachusetts soldiers.

Upstairs in the public gallery in the House of Representatives

hangs a carved wooden fish known as the Sacred Cod.

 Massachusetts politicians take this so seriously as a symbol of maritime prosperity, when Harvard pranksters stole it in the 1930s, the House didn't reconvene until it was recovered.

Park Street Church:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Street_Church

Built in 1809, this is the site where famed abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison delivered his first public address calling for the nationwide abolition of slavery, and where the song 'America' ('My country 'tis of thee......') was first sung , on July 4, 1831.

Granary Burying Ground:

One of the more peaceful stops on the Freedom Trail, this is the final resting place for many Revolutionary leaders ( though 'the stones and bones may not match up'):

• boulder and plaque commemorating James Otis
• Samuel Adam's tomb
• group grave of 5 people killed in the Boston Massacre of 1770
• obelisk marking the grave of Benjamin Franklin's parents

• graves of Peter Faneuil, John Hancock and Paul Revere.

King's Chapel:

Founded in 1688, this is the first Anglican congregation in Boston, established on the orders of King James II: a move that did not go down too well with Boston's Puritan population. The current structure was completed in 1754 and its most conspicuous feature is the lack of a steeple: there were plans for one, but not enough money. The belfry boasts the biggest bell ever cast by Paul Revere.

The elegant Georgian interior is done up with wooden Corinthian columns and lit by chandeliers.

Old Corner Bookstore:

In the 19th century this area was Boston's version of London's Fleet Street. The publishing firm housed in the bookshop was Boston's hottest literary salon, with the likes of Emerson, Longfellow , Dickens and Thackeray among its list of authors.

Old State House:

For years the seat of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, its graceful three-tiered tower is now dwarfed by skyscrapers.

It has seen its share of history:

• • An impassioned speech by James Otis in the Council Chamber sparked the quest for independence from Britain 15 years before it was declared.

  • From the balcony overlooking State Street, on July 18, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was first read publicly in Boston.
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• a circle of cobblestones, embedded in a small traffic island marks the site of the Boston Massacre. 

Faneuil Hall:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faneuil_Hall

Although it doesn't look particularly majestic from the outside, this is where revolutionary firebrands such as Samuel Adams and James Otis whipped up popular support for independence by protesting against British tax legislation on tea. 

In the second-floor auditorium the focal point is a massive canvas depicting a version of 'The Great Debate' during which Daniel Webster argued against South Carolina Senator Robert Hayne in 1830 for the concept of  the United States as one nation.

Quincy Market:

Old South Meeting House:

Just outside is a statue of Paul Revere looking as if it depicts him on his famous ride. Only problem is that he is facing the wrong way! The explanation is that the then-mayor of Boston, when the statue was commissioned, was a regular worshipper at the Catholic church opposite the site of the proposed statue, and he decided to turn the statue round so that he did not have to view the backside of horse and rider each time he left the church!

Built in 1729, the church was another important venue in the movement against British imperialism.

• The day after the Boston Massacre in 1770, outraged Bostonians assembled here to demand the removal of the troops that were ostensibly guarding the town.
• On the morning of December 16, 1773, nearly 5000 locals met here, awaiting word from Governor Thomas Hutchinson on whether he would permit the withdrawal of 3 ships in Boston Harbour containing taxed tea.When a message was received that the ships would not be removed, Samuel Adams triggered the Boston Tea Party by declaring, 'This meeting can do no more to save the country'.

Old North Church:

Built in 1723, this is where the church sexton, Robert Newman, is said to have hung a pair of lanterns inside on the night of April 18, 1775, to signal the movement of British forces 'by sea' from Boston Common to Lexington and Concord at the same time that Paul Revere was galloping along on his famous ride.

The clock at the rear, made in 1726, is the oldest one still ticking in an American public building. The 8 bells inside the belfry were the first cast for the British Empire in North America and have since tolled for the death of every president.

Copp's Hill Burying Ground:

Ten thousand people are interred here, including nearly a thousand men from the 'New Guinea Community', a colonial enclave of free blacks. Many gravestones have chunks missing, the result of British soldiers using them for target practice during the 1775 Siege of Boston.

USS Constitution: