New England Road Trip - Days 11 & 12 Boston

Libby · 12 Jan 19, 05:15 PM

I’ve now reached the Boston part of our New England holiday and my trip notes have petered out and our plans were rather sketchy to say the least. So I'm going to combine the last few days into a couple of posts.

Living so near London, and having visited Paris many times, I’m beginning to find cities a little disappointing. That combined with leaving the city to the end of our hols when we were tired means that I don’t think we made the best use of our time in this city.

Ok, enough waffle I’ll start with leaving York Harbour.

Monday 20th August

The guest house owners provided fruit, muffins, coffee and tea so we had a mini breakfast at our guest house before leaving for Boston.

A last look at York Beach Seafront.

The drive was easy and we stopped for a second breakfast on the way.

On arriving in Boston the traffic was a little confusing but DH made the mistake (despite my protests) of trusting the maverick satnav over the road signs.

Thank goodness we weren’t in a hurry to return the car or catch a flight. We spent about an hour driving around small, quiet streets before the satnav announced, “you have arrived at your destination now drive off road!”

We had a mega row at this point before calming down and assessing the situation. We believe that the car hire return was just a few hundred yards away but on the other side of the airport perimeter wall. DH could see a flyover behind us so turned around and headed for that. As soon as we saw a large hotel we pulled in and asked for directions and were soon heading to the car rental return.

I can only assume that with all the problems we had this holiday the satnav needed a map update. We tried to mention the problems when we returned the car but they weren’t interested.

Now we headed for the free bus to the T. At the station we bought 7 day Charlie tickets from a machine. We only needed 4 days but the 7 day tickets worked out much cheaper than 4 one day tickets and as they included the airport we were very happy.

The journey seemed very easy even with luggage (it was not rush hour and we are used to the London Underground) and we were soon checking in to the Lennox Hotel. A quaint but rather old fashioned place but we had a big room overlooking the Boston Library. (It could have done with some drawer space.)

Once rested we decided to look for the Independence Trail and walked to the common. I can’t remember what we did for lunch.
It was very hot and we noticed free sunscreen stations at the park entrance.

We bought a guide book and walked some of the trail stopping to look at the buildings but not going in.
That evening we had pizza and then watched baseball on TV to try and see if we understood enough of the game as we had tickets for a game on Tuesday.

Tuesday 21st August

There was coffee in the lobby only in the mornings at the Lennox so I collected some for us all. We ate breakfast at a nearby Starbucks.
We spent the morning walking the trail to North Church (I was impressed with DH’s history knowledge until he admitted he had learnt it all from National Treasure!)

We had lunch at a Chipotle (much discussion over the pronunciation and if it really is Chi-pot-lay then should Smiggle be called Smig-lay ?)
In the afternoon we visited the duck statues in the park and did some shopping in the nearby Prudential Center.

We had bought tickets for that night’s baseball game back in June. Although it looked a walkable distance to Fenway Park we took the T as we didn’t want to get lost.

(A picture of the Green Line I took sometime that day.)

It was a really lovely evening – we just about knew what was going on and the atmosphere was amazing. We bought snacks before finding our seats and enjoyed them while watching the pre-match goings on. I am so glad we got there early.

(Be aware it is an old stadium and there are pillars that may block your view – we didn’t find this too bad but might have been cross if we hadn’t known beforehand.)

Eventually a woman came on to sing the national anthem. She had been through quite an ordeal, losing family members to cancer and then having to be treated herself. The whole crowd were behind her and cheered as she reached the high notes (I was in tears it was so moving.)

The game score could have been better as the Red Sox had been having a winning streak but lost this game.

We are not sports fans at all but that evening was one of the best I’ve had.

disney owl · 20 Jan 19, 08:45 PM

A good Boston day

12 Jan 19, 05:15 PM	#1
	12 Jan 19, 05:15 PM Libby Imagineer
Libby Imagineer Join Date: Nov 03	New England Road Trip - Days 11 & 12 Boston I’ve now reached the Boston part of our New England holiday and my trip notes have petered out and our plans were rather sketchy to say the least. So I'm going to combine the last few days into a couple of posts. Living so near London, and having visited Paris many times, I’m beginning to find cities a little disappointing. That combined with leaving the city to the end of our hols when we were tired means that I don’t think we made the best use of our time in this city. Ok, enough waffle I’ll start with leaving York Harbour. Monday 20th August The guest house owners provided fruit, muffins, coffee and tea so we had a mini breakfast at our guest house before leaving for Boston. A last look at York Beach Seafront. The drive was easy and we stopped for a second breakfast on the way. On arriving in Boston the traffic was a little confusing but DH made the mistake (despite my protests) of trusting the maverick satnav over the road signs. Thank goodness we weren’t in a hurry to return the car or catch a flight. We spent about an hour driving around small, quiet streets before the satnav announced, “you have arrived at your destination now drive off road!” We had a mega row at this point before calming down and assessing the situation. We believe that the car hire return was just a few hundred yards away but on the other side of the airport perimeter wall. DH could see a flyover behind us so turned around and headed for that. As soon as we saw a large hotel we pulled in and asked for directions and were soon heading to the car rental return. I can only assume that with all the problems we had this holiday the satnav needed a map update. We tried to mention the problems when we returned the car but they weren’t interested. Now we headed for the free bus to the T. At the station we bought 7 day Charlie tickets from a machine. We only needed 4 days but the 7 day tickets worked out much cheaper than 4 one day tickets and as they included the airport we were very happy. The journey seemed very easy even with luggage (it was not rush hour and we are used to the London Underground) and we were soon checking in to the Lennox Hotel. A quaint but rather old fashioned place but we had a big room overlooking the Boston Library. (It could have done with some drawer space.) Once rested we decided to look for the Independence Trail and walked to the common. I can’t remember what we did for lunch. It was very hot and we noticed free sunscreen stations at the park entrance. We bought a guide book and walked some of the trail stopping to look at the buildings but not going in. That evening we had pizza and then watched baseball on TV to try and see if we understood enough of the game as we had tickets for a game on Tuesday. Tuesday 21st August There was coffee in the lobby only in the mornings at the Lennox so I collected some for us all. We ate breakfast at a nearby Starbucks. We spent the morning walking the trail to North Church (I was impressed with DH’s history knowledge until he admitted he had learnt it all from National Treasure!) We had lunch at a Chipotle (much discussion over the pronunciation and if it really is Chi-pot-lay then should Smiggle be called Smig-lay ?) In the afternoon we visited the duck statues in the park and did some shopping in the nearby Prudential Center. We had bought tickets for that night’s baseball game back in June. Although it looked a walkable distance to Fenway Park we took the T as we didn’t want to get lost. (A picture of the Green Line I took sometime that day.) It was a really lovely evening – we just about knew what was going on and the atmosphere was amazing. We bought snacks before finding our seats and enjoyed them while watching the pre-match goings on. I am so glad we got there early. (Be aware it is an old stadium and there are pillars that may block your view – we didn’t find this too bad but might have been cross if we hadn’t known beforehand.) Eventually a woman came on to sing the national anthem. She had been through quite an ordeal, losing family members to cancer and then having to be treated herself. The whole crowd were behind her and cheered as she reached the high notes (I was in tears it was so moving.) The game score could have been better as the Red Sox had been having a winning streak but lost this game. We are not sports fans at all but that evening was one of the best I’ve had. Edited at 04:28 PM.