Boston in 2 days

After arriving in Boston at midnight, after 16 hours of travelling on an Amtrak train that was 4 hours late we jumped a taxi to our accommodation, got checked in and went to bed.

That gave us 2 full days in Boston - here's what we did....

Day 1

Ambled over to Boston Common

and picked up the start of the Boston Freedom Trail. For those who don't know Boston was the starting place of the American Revolution which led to it's independence from Britain. The city is full of historic buildings and links with people pivotal in the revolution and The Freedom Trail is the way to discover it all.

Here's a link that explains it all better than I can

http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/ 

It's really easy to follow the trail - it is literally set into the pavement as a line of red bricks

On the morning of Day 1 we followed part of the trail and lasted until lunch time. It was very hot and for those of you who know me or have read my blog you will know that I have some problems with my joints so we decided to try one of the Hop on hop off tours. This turned out to be a brilliant idea. First of all we just sat on the trolley for one loop of the tour so we could see all the sights then we got off it and took the included harbour cruise - a really good way of checking out the Boston Harbour and see where all the Irish Immigrants landed during the potato famine - Boston has a huge Irish population. From the boat you also get a great sense of the old and new buildings that make up Boston today.

I would highly recommend the tour people we used. The staff we met were all very knowledgeable, friendly and proud of their city. The tour was really good value too, it included a 45 minute harbour cruise as well as unlimited use of the trolley all day (it ended at 5pm - we were on the last trip of the day and the guy even dropped us off outside where we were staying!) We used http://www.cityviewtrolleys.com/

That night we ate out in the bar that became the inspiration for the TV series "Cheers". They did good cocktails!

Day 2

We hadn't seen the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) the day before so got the Subway over to where she is currently dry docked to check her out. As Wikipedia explains 

"USS Constitution is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy, named by President George Washington after the Constitution of the United States of America. She was launched in 1797" 

The evening of Day 2 was spent at a baseball game at Fenway Park - for a number of reasons.

• It is the oldest baseball ground in the US so historically significant
• We'd never been to one before so it was a new experience
• Fenway Park has links to the football (soccer) team hubby supports - Liverpool FC

It was a lot of fun - we saw the Chicago White Sox play (and beat) the home team Boston Red Sox. Friendly, safe atmosphere, very family focused.

Got there via the subway - really easy to do.

And there ended our 2 days in Boston. We felt like we'd seen and experienced everything we wanted to but you could easily spend longer there and it would be great for any history buffs.

Next up New York in one day!