Road Trip round New England in the Spring, not the Fall! Day 15 - Memorial Day - Cape Cod to Boston

[anji]

Day 15 – Memorial Day - Cape Cod to Boston

Coffee and pastries in our room, packed the cases in the car and checked out the hotel. We’d loved our stay here with such a wonderful view and would highly recommend it. We never did get round to using either of the pools!

As we left Hyannis we drove along the coast towards the Kennedy compound. We knew we wouldn’t be able to see much, if at all, but still had a go. Yes, you can’t see anything!

We headed off northwards and stopped of in Barnstable village at a lovely café called Nirvana. Here we had more coffee and croissants. We had a walk around the village before setting off again. The church had lots of little flags for Memorial Day.

There was heavy traffic and jams. I expected all the traffic to be coming towards us onto the Cape but it was almost as bad going north.

Eventually we arrived at Plymouth, which was heaving. We drove past the Rock, surrounded by people, and managed to park up a side street for free a bit further on. Lucky! We walked back to the shoreline and saw the Plymouth Rock. A bit underwhellming to be honest!

This was where the pilgrims first settled, rather than first landed (which was at Provincetown). Coming from Southampton we do get a bit annoyed that it’s largely ignored as the starting place, before Plymouth, for the Mayflower journey. There’s a lot of Mayflower stuff in Southampton, and Titanic!

Obligatory ice cream from Pebbles café and I bought a good T shirt which said ‘All I care about is my cat and like maybe 3 people’.

Back on the road again with more heavy traffic and jams. It seemed a very long journey (although it wasn’t in distance!) but eventually we arrived at Logan Airport and handed the car back at Budget. All OK and very straightforward. We’d driven 1612 miles altogether and the car had been brilliant.

We got a taxi from the airport into Boston. We were going to get the subway but thought better of it. We arrived at The Boxer Hotel and were quickly checked in by very friendly and helpful staff. Our room was on the 8th floor. The building is like the Flatiron in New York in shape.

The room was fairly small (city size!) but had a good view, a great bed and everything we needed. I saw recently that it’s been voted a top Boston hotel by Conde Naste Traveler and I can see why. Ideally placed, near subway, walkable to most things. They also do free bike rental, although we didn’t take advantage of it.

Tonight was the first of the Stanley Cup Final matches (best of 7) and the area was getting busy. We watched cars getting towed away from outside the hotel as it was a no-park zone on event days. Lots of fans were out and about, making their way to the stadium.

We went out of the hotel and could hear music coming from down the street. We walked down to the nearby City Hall Plaza and found there was a fanzone with a free concert for the Boston Bruins fans. There were 5000 people here and we listened to Chase Rice for a while. Lil Nas X was the headliner but we’d gone by the time he came on. Everyone was excited and in good spirits.

From here we walked to Boston Common as I wanted to see the ‘Field of Flags’ before sundown. These are thousands of small flags planted just for the day and removed at sundown on Memorial Day. We arrived just in time as people were already gathering them up. You could see what an impressive and moving site it must have been when they were all there though for the Memorial Day celebrations.

We visited the bronze ducks statues, which had Bruins attire (as did lots of town statues – here they wouldn't have lasted for long!).

From here we decided to eat at the Cheers Bar. This was the original Cheers Bar at Hampshire House but there are now 2 in Boston. Firstly called the Bull & Finch, it was the inspiration for the TV show. It was obviously busy but we got a table fairly quickly.

Back to the City Hall Plaza after our meal. The roads between here and the Common are steep so gave our legs a good workout! The ice hockey was on the big screens and we watched for a while.

Back at the hotel, we watched the end of the match. The Boston Bruins beat the St Louis Blues 4 – 2. One of the Bruins was tackled by a St Louis player and wrestled to the ground, losing his helmet in the process. He saw red and raced up the pitch, no helmet, and took out the guy who had wrestled him. He totally upended him from waist level. The commentators called it ‘old school’ and he was a hero for days following in the media!

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[Melbatb]

I agree about the Plymouth Rock 😉

The hotel looks amazing and the atmosphere must have been brilliant with the ice hockey final!

[anji]

Originally Posted by Melbatb

I agree about the Plymouth Rock 😉

The hotel looks amazing and the atmosphere must have been brilliant with the ice hockey final!

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It was! We got very into the ice hockey over the next few days 😁