Sunday, 29 November 2009

• Day 5 of 6: Boston, MA Part One

  Today I walked the 2.5 mile Freedom Trail in Boston, continued to walk in the area of Boston known as Beacon Hill, and then tubed across the Charles River to check out Harvard's campus.  I have 54 pictures to share so strap yourselves in.
  

  
  After figuring out the subway system, I emerged on Tremont Street in downtown Boston on the edge of Boston Common, one of the country's oldest public parks:
  

  
  

  
  

  
  The trail begins at the visitor's center...
  
  

  
  

   
  ...and is marked by a red line:
  
  

  
  

  
  Yup.  Here we go:
  
  
  
  To the Massachusetts State House, the state capitol and seat of government:
  
  
  
  Around the corner, the Granary Burying Ground.  Cemeteries fascinate me, and so I squealed with glee upon seeing the oldest headstones I've ever seen in the USA:
  
  
  
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  They all look like they're made of slate:
  
  
  
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  There are some famous people buried here, like Paul Revere...
  
  
  
  ...Thomas Paine, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence (the fact that Paine is buried here makes common sense)...
  
  
  
  ...Samuel Adams, patriot and brewer:
  
  
  
  I'll raise my pint glass to you, Sam:
  
  
  
  Also the five victims of the Boston Massacre of 1770 (I should have paid more attention to US history lessons in high school):
  
  
  
  The oldest stone here goes to John Wakefield, who died June 18, 1667:
  
  
  
  Follow the yellow br...No.  Wait.
  
  
  
  The clouds are starting to get cloudier and the temperature is dropping.  No!
  
  The Old State House, which was the seat of British government before the Revolutionary War and later became the first state capitol:
  
  
  
  The brick ring, about where I'm standing to take the picture above, marks the site of the Boston Massacre:
  
  
  
  At least she's honest:
  
  
  
  The Blackstone Block, a historic district, is a 17th century fragment of Boston's original street plan:
  
  
  
  Ye Olde Union Oyster House is apparently the oldest continuously operated restaurant in the country.  From the street, you can see the employees shuck oysters with deftness and rapidity.  John F. Kennedy used to sit in booth 18 and read the paper:
  
  
  
  Now I'm in the North End, which is Boston's Little Italy:
  
  
  
  Taking a right and then a left from this site, I see Paul Revere's house.  Dating from 1680, it is Boston's oldest building:
  
  
  
  Paul's front door:
  
  
  
  A nearby statue of Paul Revere with the Old North Church in the background.  The church's sexton, Robert Newman, following orders from Paul Revere, once hung two lanterns that signaled to the soldiers in nearby Charlestown that the British were advancing by boat along the Charles River, an act that was immortalized in the phrase one if by land two if by sea.
  The lanterns heralded the battles of Lexington and Concord that ushered in the American Revolution:
  
  
  
  

  Stay tuned later in the day for more pictures of the Boston trail!
  

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