Boston: Home of the Red Sox

Happy Birthday for Friday Neri! We thought of you while we were in Boston!!

So, as mentioned previously, we took a train from Union Station in Washington in order to get to Boston. To save a few dollars we opted for a train leaving at 3h15 and also one that didn't go directly to Boston. We went instead to Springfield, which is a small town about 90 minutes from Boston. Springfield happens to be the home of Dr Seuss! So Mairi and James picked us up at Springfield station and then we drove to the Springfield Museum where there is a Dr Seuss Memorial Garden. Of course the garden was filled with visitors a little bit younger than we were, but we didn't let that stop us from bonding with Dr Seuss and the Cat in the Hat!

Hash sitting next to Dr Seuss

We arrived in Boston in the afternoon and checked into The Radisson, right in the centre of town. The reason we could afford to stay at such a cool hotel, is that James is a genius! He went onto a website called Price Line. Here you enter the area you want to stay in, the price you're willing to pay to stay and the number of stars you'd like. They find a hotel willing to take you for that price! So we ended up paying $90 a room instead of $300! It's just amazing!

After checking in we washed the dirt of the train off of us and went exploring Boston on foot. We had only one night in Boston so we decided to make the most of it and squeeze in as much as possible.

One of the first things I noticed about Boston is that there is music in some form or other everywhere you go!!!

One of the first places we visited in Boston was the Boston Public Garden. We went in search of the bench that Robin Williams and Matt Damon sat on in "Good Will Hunting". After much speculation we decided that it was the bench next to this one below. But there were two ladies sitting on the actual bench already, so we sat had to sit on this one. It had the same view that they had anyway. Check out the clip if you like, see the statue of George Washington on his horse in the background.

After the Boston Gardens, we went looking for the bar which was the inspiration for the sitcom "Cheers"starring Kelsey Grammar. The sitcom wasn't actually filmed here, but there is a replica of the set inside, you can actually sit around the same bar and have drinks. On the bar are silver plates saying who sat where. We happened to sit at the same spot where Tom, the lawyer in the show, usually sat.

After leaving the bar we headed for the Skywalk Observatory in the Prudential building. It's on the 50th floor of the building and gives an amazing view of Boston. On the way we marveled at the contrasting architecture in Boston, old meeting new.

The Skywalk Observatory did not disappoint. It's the perfect way to get a quick tour of Boston and get an overview of where everything is. There are multi media devices available, with recordings telling and showing you what to look out for. The two pictures below are taken from the Skywalk. The first is of the Christian Science Plaza. Boston is also the home of Christian Science! Who knew?!

On the 52nd floor of the Prudential is a beautiful bar and restaurant with the same awesome view as from the Skywalk Observatory. We sat around the bar and drank mojitos and enjoyed the live music before dinner. The mojitos were really good! So was the music. We didn't have dinner at the restaurant, we decided to head for Boston's Little Italy.

Little Italy lived up to it's name. The only problem was that we arrived a bit late, so many of the kitchens were closed already. We had to settle for a place that kind of specialised in pizza and that sort of fare rather than good Italian home cooking. It was still good, and everybody was watching the basketball: Boston Celtics playing the Cleveland Cavaliers in TD Gardens which was just down the road. Happily the Boston Celtics won and everyone was in a very good mood. To end off the evening we went into the infamous Mike's Pastry and ordered Oreo cheesecake which we devoured when we got back to the hotel. It has got to be the best cheesecake ever! The texture... the taste... I just can't describe it!

In fact, Hashanti does not like cheesecake, but I had to fight her for the last bite!

The next morning we went off to Quincy Market for brunch. The amount of food available was mind boggling! And of course in America everything is bigger, not sure if it's actually better as well, but just take a look at the size of the turkey and beef!

It took us a while to decide what to eat, because there was just so much. I decided to steer clear of the turkey, not sure if there were steroids in the diet!

After brunch we walked around Quincy Market for a bit. There are lots of little designer shops. I found myself a nice pair of shoes. Who would've thought you can find designer shoes and a fresh food market right next to each other.

From Quincy Market we headed for the Museum of Fine Art. We were surprised to find that there was an entry fee of $20! After the amazing art we got to see for free in Washington, we decided (after using James' iphone to Google the contents of the Boston Museum of Fine Art) that there was nothing inside worth paying $20 to see. So instead we sat outside on the steps, cos that was free, and contemplated a map of the USA and spoke about all the other places we'd like to see.

We could not leave Boston without visiting one of the best universities in the world: Harvard University. Just outside the university in Harvard Square, is a book shop called The Coop. It was difficult for us to leave, we spent a good part of the afternoon there. I walked out with 4 books: Complications by Atul Gawande (Atul Gawande is a surgeon and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School), a Sylvia Plath anthology, an e.e. cummings (my favourite poet) anthology and The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens (my favourite author), apparently it's the first novel that made him famous and I've haven't read it! Hashanti walked out with 2 books: Tinkers by Paul Harding, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner 2010 and Oh The Places You'll Go by Dr Seuss.

We finally managed to leave The Coop and took a bit of a scenic drive through Cambridge before heading for Amherst, the little town that Mairi and James live in. On the way to Amherst we stopped for dinner in North Hampton. It's known as the lesbian capital of the USA. There are two "all girls" colleges in the town, the rest is history.

In North Hampton, there happened to be a Dr Seuss exhibition at one of the galleries. Quite appropriate we thought!