Boston again...

April 2005

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As it is a city we enjoy visiting so much, Annie and I decided to go to Boston with our friends Julie and David for a long weekend. Like us, Julie has been to Boston a number of times before but it was David's first visit.

We arrived in the middle of a gloriously sunny day so, rather than catching a cab straight to our hotel we took a water taxi across the bay, a great way to start our weekend. We left our bags at a hotel for a few hours and wandered around Faneuil Hall Marketplace stopping for a coffee in the sun and just generally enjoying being there. The rest of our weekend was more of the same, wandering around new areas, walking along the Charles River, doing a bit of shopping, eating really well and generally having a fun weekend away.

One really fun experience Annie and I had was on an afternoon when we all went off on our own shopping adventures. Annie and I went for a walk through a park we have not seen before en route to a computer shop (computer shopping has to be done while in the USA). Next door to the computer shop was the Cold Stone Creamery, an ice cream parlour as never seen before or since. We stood in the queue for a good 20 minutes and enjoyed every minute of it. The concoctions that came out were amazing, some huge, some enormous, all filled with all sorts of toppings, many in edible bowls rather than just cones and so it went on. Every now and again someone would order something special or leave a tip and the servers would break into song! We asked our server and, as part of the interview to work there they have to sing. When it got to our turn we just wanted a small scoop of ice cream to taste. Not possible! One scoop, yes, but it is a large scoop and HAS to have one or more toppings ranging from chocolate chips to bananas, hot fudge to strawberries and everything you can imagine in-between. Then there is the most important part, the ice cream is put onto the frozen granite counter along with the topping and "mashed" together with two special ice-cream creamer-paddles before being put into the cup. We duly left a tip so we could hear one more song.

On the Sunday we went on a day-trip to Salem, where they put the Witches to death in 1692 and now honour them with all sorts of monuments and museums, even the police cars have a Witch as part of their emblems. As we were out of tourist season, most of the places were closed but still worth a look around. The one museum that was open had a power failure so we could not go in. That one was built on the site where one of the Witches was PRESSED to death!!!! A number of the gift shops were open and filled with the most amazingly kitsch stuff.

Although Salem is famous for the Witch killings it also has a few other sides to it; it was one of the first major ports with shipping routes around the globe. There is a beautifully restored old sailing ship in one of the docks and the magnificent Governer's House looking out towards the ocean; It has an area on the water's edge with a whole lot of very trendy restaurants. We had a snack-style lunch in one; There is a sweet shop, "Ye Olde Pepper Companie", which had Julie in raptures as it has every imaginable flavour of fudge including her favourite, Snickers; There are all sorts of weird and wonderful signs and shops filled with everything from army fatigues and knives to airport friendly shoes; And, most importantly, there is a pub with a brewery on the premises. This was our last stop in Salem where we had sample size glasses of a number of the different beers they brew which ranged from real cask ale, my favourite, to blueberry beer with blueberries in it, Annie could not resist.

Our last day in Boston started off with an American institution, the Breakfast Diner where we all had pancakes with various accompaniments. Then time for a spot of last minute whirlwind shopping and ending with a last bit of culture. In one of the financial buildings there are a whole series of murals depicting the early history of Boston, really beautiful and quite fascinating. The building they are house in is also really beautifully ornate.

As you can tell, we had a really fun weekend. Boston is definitely a place worth visiting. It has all the trappings of modern America combined with the gentility of England, hence it is in "New England".