Oldies On Tour

Saturday 21st March 2026

Departure day has come around all too quickly and we have only really started to discover all the interesting facts about this historical area of Massachusetts.   The Puritans arriving in 1630 with their obsessive behaviour towards religion, even more obsessed than the early Pilgrim Fathers that came over in the Mayflower 10-years earlier in 1620, in fact they deliberately came to this area to get away from the Pilgrims Fathers.   Later (1640/50’s) the Quakers appeared and that set the “cat amongst the pigeons” and riled up their intolerance .   To highlight there intolerance to any other religion, there was the case of “Mary Dyer” (1611-1660), a Quaker lady that had been “thrown out” of Boston for her own religious beliefs previously, but on her third return the Puritans said “enough was enough” and she was hanged on Boston Common on June 1st.   Her Legacy today is a statute outside the new State House; she is also one of the four “Boston Martyrs” that were hanged around that time for their beliefs.

Then in the late 1700’s it’s all about independence and how the Boston tea party kicked things off for the “American War ofI independence”, though being here and looking at the history a little closer, I feel if the British Government hadn’t been so “pig headed”, they could have avoided it, after all they just wanted to be heard!!    Of course it doesn’t end there.   There was also the war of 1812 when we took-on the Americans again, and the main Boston “contribution” was the USS Constitution (launched in 1797), built here in Boston Harbour and she was the scourge of the Royal Navy during the war, capturing 5-British war ships!!!!  

Apart from the old part, “downtown” where much of the interest lays, it is a modern city with several “skyscrapers”, very wide streets when away from the old town and prosperous, no empty shops, very clean streets, no potholes and didn’t see any homeless people, a good visit but we’ve done it.

Dressing this morning was interesting, do we dress for this morning’s cold or dress for this afternoons hot???: a bit of both me-thinks!   Anyway an early breakfast followed by an uber to the airport for our flight to Florida.   (Note to self, use uber not a taxi from the rank, much cheaper and more  comfortable). Checking in was all bone by machines but Fortunately there was “another” kind gentleman to show us how to use the machines ( modern technology👹👹), we then headed to the gate and waited.  Our American Airlines was a little late leaving but a comfortable flight where he made up the time.  Looking out or the window was quite welcoming, clear blue skies and nice and warm as we found out whilst “trundling” through this huge airport.  First a shuttle train to the carousels, surprisingly our baggage arrived pretty quickly, then a long walk to another shuttle train to the main station. 

Earlier Christine has got onto her new best friend, “Issac”, though doesn’t like the name I gave “ChatGBT” or AI to everyone else.   He gave us step-by-step instructions how to navigate ourselves out of Miami airport including the signage to look for, what train to catch including time of departure and cost!!! Where to get off and advised us to  get an uber to our final destination, Boca Ratan, north of Fort Lauderdale. A big thank you to Roger for introducing us to AI.

Up to this point everything had been going swimmingly, we arrived and left the train and headed to the station car park where we were told there was a waiting area.   I organised an uber and waited, though where to wait?  There were bus stop waiting areas but that was all we could, see so we wandered about the massive car park, even going to the main road, nowhere we could see.  At this time I had noticed our uber (on the tracker they send) hadn’t moved!!!   The next thing I note that instead of the black Mercedes, we are now getting a red Nissan; oh well a car  is a car.   

The red Nissan arrived and off we went, eventually turning into the Woodfield Country Club and taken to the club-house; sorry Driver wrong place.   Now remember we have never been here so apart from an address, we had no idea what to look for.   The driver put the address into his car satnav that we had and off we went, round this huge complex with multiple sub sections all, all with names for the different areas, there is a big golf course and numerous lakes, but still couldn’t find it.   In the mean time Christine was furiously trying to get hold of Andrew, who was at an ABBA concert,  for more information as to where his house is!!!

After a lot of googling and WhatsApp’s between the driver, Christine and Andrew, we received the one piece of address information we needed, and once to hand, straight to the door.   We were getting a little panicky as well!!!

By now we were weary so a quick bite to eat, an hour of American television and we were ready for our bed, tomorrow is another day.

Friday 20th March 2026h

A little earlier down for breakfast as we have a “plan”.  Today we will walk to stop seven, jump on the HOP ON bus and head to Charlestown naval docks then repeat the process for a visit to the Boston Tea Party experience.

One useless nugget of knowledge we were told is Boston has a nickname; “Beanstown” because of the historical popularity of Boston “baked beans”; a dish of navy beans slow-cooked with molasses.   This “moniker”  stems from the colonial-era tradition of cooking beans for long periods in molasses, a key commodity in the city’s early, intense maritime trade.  Today many locals consider it an outdated, touristy term. The name is also famously associated with the Beanpot hockey tournament, a Boston ice hockey round-robin for both men and women of all the Boston colleges.

Walking to stop seven we saw our tour bus depart, dam, now we have another thirty minutes to wait.   Fortunately it is a sunny day and not quite as cold as the last two days.   A reminder of the cold and of the big snow-fall they had about a month ago was the remains of a pile of (dirty) snow, no doubt left by the snow ploughs.   We have seen piles like this scattered all over the city.

Thirty minutes on and the bus arrived and it was one of our drivers from yesterday and to our amazement, recognised us; well he said he did!!   

Three stops later we arrived at the naval base to visit the USS Constellation, a Frigate and the oldest serving ship in the world, “still floating”.  She was launched in 1797 and is affectionally known as “old Ironsides” due to her very thick special Virginian hard wood hull.  Apparently during her first engagement the sailors watched cannon balls bouncing off with no damage and they thought she was clad in iron, and the name stuck.

For more detail click the link;    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Constitution

All the bus drivers seem to take great delight in telling there passengers about Charles Dickens’ visits to Boston.  Charles dickens visited Boston twice (1842 and 1867-68), famously staying at the Omni Parker House Hotel where He resided in a third-floor suite for nearly five months in 1867, practicing his “A Christmas Carol” performances in front of a mirror before he performed readings.  That mirror  still hangs in the hotel today.  This is the building that is also well known to be haunted!!!

Another famous building along the route is the old State House where The Boston Massacre (covered yesterday) happened right outside this building.  The Old State House in Boston is a historic building, built in 1713, that served as the seat of the Massachusetts colonial government and is now a museum on the Freedom Trail. It’s famous as the site of the Boston Massacre in 1770 and where the Declaration of Independence was first read in Boston in 1776 from its balcony. Today, it features exhibits on the American Revolution, period rooms, and is operated by Revolutionary Spaces.   One of the reasons it was superseded by the new State House was that the new independent Massachusetts government did not want anything that was British to dilute their newly gained independence.

Our second visit was back at stop nine, where the “Boston Tea Party” experience is, right in the middle of the river.  The Boston Tea Party was a political protest on December 16, 1773, where American colonists, disguised as Native Americans, dumped 342 chests of British tea into Boston Harbour to protest the Tea Act of 1773, which they saw as “taxation without representation” and a monopoly for the East India Company. Organised by the Sons of Liberty, led by figures like Samuel Adams, the event was a major act of defiance against British rule, leading to punitive measures from Britain, such as the Intolerable Acts, and escalating tensions toward the American Revolutionary War. Part of this experience is getting aboard a replica of one of the three ships that had carried the tea from Britain.   This replica was built to the exact size of the original, and I was very surprised at its size; so small!!!

This was a fun experience where the operatives were all in period costume and took us all back to the old meeting room  where Samual Adams sent the coded message to “dump” the tea.

For more detail click the link:     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party

More facts about Boston other than its part in the revolutionary war. Boston was Founded in 1630, by the Puritans and is one of America’s oldest cities.   It is home to the first public park (Boston Common, 1634), first public school (Boston Latin, 1635), first subway (1897) and the oldest restaurant, “Union Oyster House”. .” Boston was once a major Puritan colony where Christmas was banned for over 20 years, no work was carried out on Sundays other than travelling to church and back, twice a day.  Today Boston boasts 67 colleges/universities, including Harvard, and boasts to have the deepest US tunnel (90ft) and the oldest Major League Baseball Stadium, Fenway Park built in 1912 where the Boston Red Socks play.   

After our experience of the “tea party”, we headed back to the hotel, walking of course, though by now the sun was all but gone and it was getting cold

Back in our room we enjoyed a cuppa before heading out again.  Our last night here in Boston so had to sample some of their local sea food, after all this part of the US produces some of the best.

We booked a “good-old Uber” to take us to a local place not too far from our hotel, somewhere we found on line with pretty good ratings for both quality and value for money.

Upon arrival we could see why it was good value for money, and it reminded us of the “Codfather” we visited near Cape Town with Margaret.   One queued up to give an order and paid for it at that time.   I also ordered two glasses of wine and that really set the scene, they arrived in two plastic generic containers, I can’t bring myself to say glasses!!!  To be fair the place was very busy but we took our “number” and we found a table to sit and wait, but not too long.   Our starters were Lobster bisque and clam chowder, both delivered in small polystyrene pots and naturally plastic spoon, but hey, they were very tasty but before we’d finished our mains arrived.    Christine had a mixed “Skippers Catch” and naturally I had a “Lobster”.  Christine’s was delivered in a basket and mine on what looked like an oven tray, oh yes plastic equipment however my luck was in, I had a pair of “metal” nut crackers to work with!!!

Well we “munched” our way through our dinner and we were very happy, far too much food naturally (but this is the US!) but really enjoyed what we had.   The ratings said good quality and value for money, they are right but perhaps a little too basic for a last night meal before leaving Boston.

Uber back to our hotel where Christine completed the booking-in procedure for our flights to Florida tomorrow morning.

Thursday 19th March 2026

Not such a good night, probably not as tired as the night before; though we are on the 9th floor, this time we heard the “underground trains” rumbling through!!!  No matter we had our objective and that was to get the Boston tour bus from the Boston common stop, a 25-minute walk.

After another interesting breakfast we headed out, yes we could have got a train or cab etc., but decided to walk to take in the atmosphere and we walked through Chinatown, old Downtown and onto Boston Common where we headed straight into the Information centre to buy our two-day passes for the hop-on, hop-off buses.   This office was at the bottom of the Boston common hill, the bus stop was at the top of the Boston common hill; that’s on top of the one + mile we had already walked!!!

Our stop was number 8 on the route so arrival times were quite dependant on traffic etc., but bus arrived around the appointed time and our decision was to stay on and do the whole tour.  We would then decide where we wanted to stop off and what we wanted to visit.  The whole tour took about two hours and again, was very informative but unlike the big red bus tours, where they give you earphones, here it was the driver who gave the commentary.   As the day progressed and we changed buses with different drivers, so the commentaries changed.  Not in the historical facts but pointing out different buildings, and reciting different facts; we suppose it boils down to their preferences.

There are three historic cemeteries in the centre of old Boston dating back to the early puritans, who arrived in 1630 following their “disgust” and “religious persecution” back in England.  Over the following 200-years, they filled their cemeteries, hence three, but the most significant is the  Granary one I mentioned in my last post. The Granary cemetery, called this as it was adjacent to the towns granary store and was established in 1660.   This is a historic cemetery famous for its Revolutionary War-era patriots, including Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, James Otis Jr, Robert Paine and John Hancock, as well as the victims of the Boston Massacre*.    Other notable figures include Benjamin Franklin’s parents, nine Massachusetts governors, and the first mayor of Boston.  This is a key stop on the Freedom Trail, known for its notable burials, unique headstone art, and apparently a site of local ghost stories.  It has an estimated 5,000 people buried there under about 2,300 markers. 

Another important site on the route is The old South Meeting house.    This is a historic landmark and museum, famous as the site where the Boston Tea Party began in 1773, when thousands gathered to protest British taxation before heading to the harbour. Built in 1729, it was the largest building in colonial Boston and served as a crucial meeting place for public protests against British rule, making it a hotbed for the American Revolution. Today, it’s a museum operated by Revolutionary Spaces, featuring exhibits on its revolutionary history and serving as a symbol of free speech.   It was in this meeting that James Otis spoke those famous words, “No Taxation without Representation” (allegedly).

On our first tour we changed to a different bus route that took us around the “Back Bay” area.  This whole part of Boston is on re-claimed land, rather strange when you think of the size of the USA! The reason the council went ahead with this very expensive scheme was really due to blackmail.   All the wealthy traders wanted to build nice properties but stay in the Boston area as well, so they threatened to leave and take their business with them, thus depriving the town of much needed local tax revenue.   The result is the Back Bay Area, backing onto the Charles river.  This tour also took us through theatre-land, here in Boston many of the Broadway shows are premiered to iron out any issues before it heads to NY.

At the end of this we stopped for a little “nosh” and planned what we wanted to go and see/do.  By now it was around 1400hrs and the last bus leaves stop one at 1600hrs and we didn’t fancy being stranded the other side of town so got back on the bus and headed to stop eight to look inside the “new” Massachusetts State House.

By the time we got off it was 1600hrs and the last bus at this stop was 1700hrs so we could only spend about 50-minutes inside.   Fortunately the entrance is virtually opposite the bus stop.

What a magnificent building.  The Massachusetts State House in Boston is the seat of the state’s government, housing the Massachusetts General Court (legislature) and the Governor’s office, and is known for its distinctive gold dome covered in “gold leaf” and Federal architecture designed by Charles Bulfinch. the building is Located on Beacon Hill, at the top of Boston Common, it’s a historic landmark on the Freedom Trail, featuring numerous statues, murals, and art that reflect the state’s history, and is open to visitors, no entry charge!!   The amount of marble inside is incredible, massive pillars, huge wide staircases beautifully decorated ceilings; one could spend a whole day here, but alas we had less than an hour👹. 

One intriguing area is Memorial Hall, also known as the Hall of Flags, it is a very big room that sits central to the state house’s second floor. The room displays regimental flags of returning Massachusetts soldiers from various regiments across “every” war since the Civil War, the stained glass skylight above contains the seals of the original thirteen colonies of the United States, with the Massachusetts seal in the centre; very spectacular.

The inside of this building is enormous and we were totally disoriented and left via the wrong exit, we came out at the rear and now had to “hot-foot” it back to the bus stop and hope the bus hadn’t gone through!   We stood waiting and wondering and then, out of the traffic we spotted it heading towards us, thank goodness as we didn’t want the long “march” back.   We had discovered that stop nine was much closer to our hotel.   There was only one other passenger and apparently she was heading back to the start point and whilst talking to the driver, he asked where we are staying.  As we got to stop nine and as there were no passengers waiting to get on, he announced he’d take a detour and drop us even nearer our hotel, wow!  And he did, what a kind driver, we hope we see him again tomorrow.

Back in our room we finished off the second part of last nights dinner and headed to bed later.   Tomorrow we are planning to do the naval docks area and the tea party experience.

• The Boston Massacre, known in England as the Incident on King Street, was a confrontation on March 5, 1770 during the lead up to the American war of independence. 

In this confrontation 9-British Soldiers shot several5 in the crowd, estimated to be between 300 & 400 who were harassing them verbally and throwing anything they could get their hands on.   Five American colonists were killed.   The event was subsequently described as a massacre by Samuel Adams and Paul Revere (see the etching below; Propaganda or what?) and other leading Patriots who later became central proponents of the revolution.   British troops had been stationed in the Boston Bay Area since 1768 to support the Crown-appointed officials to enforce unpopular legislation imposed on them from the British Government 

Amid tense relations between the civilians and the soldiers, a mob formed around a British sentry and verbally abused him. He was eventually supported by seven additional soldiers, led by Captain Thomas Preston, who were hit by clubs, stones, and snowballs. Eventually one soldier fired, possibly by accident, prompting the others to fire without an order by Preston. The gunfire instantly killed three people and wounded eight others, two of whom later died of their wounds.

The crowd eventually dispersed after the acting governor promised an inquiry, but they reformed the next day, prompting the withdrawal of the troops,   Eight soldiers, one officer, and four civilians were arrested and charged with murder, and they were defended in court by attorney, and future U.S. president, John Adams, six of the soldiers were acquitted; the other two were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to branding on the thumb, according to the law at that time.

The Bloody Massacre by Paul Revere: a 1770 engraving depicting the massacre

Thursday 18th March 2026

Our room booking includes breakfast, so down we went for our “continental” Buffet, which we found amusing.   Firstly drinks were in paper cups, we placed food on cardboard plates and we ate with plastic cutlery, one thing we did enjoy however, was the breakfast pastries, they kept coming from the kitchen freshly baked and still nice and warm. Also our room is comfortable, warm with a king’s sized bed, what else could we want???

Our first two tasks today are to find a “Hop-on, Hop-off” bus and get a US “SIM card”.   We asked reception about the bus and were told we needed to catch underground to South Station, one stop away where just outside we would find a stop and get tickets etc.  very conveniently our station is right opposite our hotel, not a long walk!!!!   

We walked out of South Station and looked and walked around the area but no bus stops and no sign of any personnel from the big red bus company who operates these buses.   We asked several people but no one really knew so eventually found a policeman who told us where the actual bus stop was, of course it was down a road we hadn’t checked!!!   This bus stop didn’t have any indication the red bus came this way however “Old Town Trolley Tours” do stop here.   Whilst waiting, one went up the other side of the road, not stopping but we did notice on the side it had Hop-on, Hop-off written on it so then assumed this was Boston’s equivalent, so waited.   After about half an hour, we were getting fed up and cold, it was very cold today, one of these trolly busses drove straight by, not stopping!!!!    At this stage we gave up the bus idea and looked for a ‘phone shop for our SIM cards.   We were pointed in the right direction by a kind passer by, and 10-minutes later and unbeknown to us we arrived in “Downtown” where there was much more going on and eventually we found a T mobile shop where a very kind lady set our ‘phones up with US SIM cards.  One of our frustrations was not being able to use our phones in the street to check things out unless we paid stupid roaming charges.   Amongst the shops there was a branch of Primark where I had to buy yet “another” hat as it is so cold🥶🥶🥶 and it was that time where a little food was wanted!!!   We popped into a small, sparse “shacky” sort of place that only sold shell seafood; it was probably because they had “facilities” that got us in there and we felt obliged to eat there.   I had a Clam Chowder and Christine had a Lobster Bisque, both were excellent and hopefully we will re-visit “Luke’s Lobster restaurant” before we leave.

Fully refreshed we headed up to the big park someone had pointed out to us and that was the  real start of our day in Boston.    This park, Boston Common, has a tourist information centre, so we called in and 5-minutes later we’re booked on a walking tour of the area, following part of the heritage trail.

Boston Common, established in 1634, is the oldest city park in the United States, located in downtown Boston and serving as a historic public green space for recreation, events, and free speech. It’s known for its significant monuments, the Frog Pond (a skating rink in winter and spray pool in summer), and as the starting point for the Freedom Trail, connecting it to the adjacent Public Garden. (For some more history see below)

This 90-minute tour was very informative about the early history of Boston, the lead-up to the revolution and naturally the “Boston tea Party” and its significance in starting things off.   As schoolchildren we knew about the “headlines” of this period of history but this tour went into so much more depth about the “Bostonians” involvement in getting things started.   The this walking tour took in places of interest from the Massachusetts State House to the meeting house where the signal to carry out the raid on the tea ships; from the Granary cemetery with about 2,000 headstones but approx 18,000 bodies to the old Paxton hotel; the oldest hotel with historical links to Charles Dickens and J F K.   No doubt tomorrow we will learn a lot more as we get to do the hop-on, hop-off bus tour.

We left our guide and went into Quincey’s market, a fairly modern building full of food outlets, not well known brands but small operators offering take-out dishes from all around the wall; we settled for a cooked chicken with salad to take back to our room for tonight.

Out came Google maps and we looked up our hotel and decided to walk the one and a half miles back which was good as we were routed along the river’s walkways.

Back in the hotel for our hearty meal of chicken and more importantly, put our feet up; according to our ‘phones we exceeded 16,000 steps!!!!!   Looking forward to tomorrow.

More history of Boston Common.   In 1634, Puritan colonists purchased the land rights to the Common’s 44 acres from the first European settler of the area, Anglican minister William Blackstone. Originally, the Common included the entire block northeast of where Park Street is now, bounded by Beacon Street and Tremont Street.

Tuesday 16th March 2026

Having just returned from a road trip to Spain, these last three days have been fraught with things to do, builders to catch up with and Phase three to be discussed, agreed and set in motion, but we did it: Just!!!

Fortunately our dog sitter Edryd ,arrived promptly at the appointed hour which gave us “just” sufficient time to show him the ropes and the dog walks before we had to be at Jane’s for our lift to the station to catch the 1420hrs to Paddington.

Oh dear, our train was pulling out as we arrived.   The next one means changing but the 1530 is straight through, so after a lot of “umming and ahing” we headed back over the footbridge to platform 2 where fortunately the train arrived nearly 40-minutes early so our 40-minute wait was in comfort.

Arriving at Paddington with no stress 😇 we crossed to the Elizabeth line and headed straight to terminal 3.   Thanks to Christine’s “new AI friend, Chat-GBT”, we decided to head to the central Heathrow bus station by T3 and catch the no 111 bus to our hotel along the Bath Road; so far so good.   We looked up on the bus schedule where it stated clearly the first stop was Bath Road and we knew the Premier Inn is on the Bath Road having been there several times before.   One of the attractions of this method of transport was a bus fare of £1.75 as opposed to the Heathrow hopper, £5.00 pp.   We got on the bus and I produced my bus pass (having never used it in the 3-years I’ve had it) and it worked- no charge; the reason i was surprised, I’d been told TFL only recognised London passes.   

We arrived at the first stop, Bath Road and got off and looked around, we could see every hotel you could think of but no Premier Inn.  Out came Google maps to see where it was and what a disappointment, we had about a mile to haul our cases to get there👹👹, well this idea worked???

As we walked we “clocked” about 4-other bus stops before we finally arrived and as AI said, one right outside the Premier Inn; Oh well we know for next time!!!!!  Whilst we were checking in, the desk clerk must have looked up, seen our faces after this walk tugging our cases and immediately said she would find us a room close to a lift; what a kind lady.

After a light meal accompanied by a rather nice  Chardonnay (a little too much!!) we headed to bed but fortunately our flight isn’t too early.

Heathrow to Boston

Wednesday 17 March 2026

No rush this morning as we’ve booked into a special airport lounge where we will enjoy breakfast and wait for the appointed hour.

Like yesterday we would follow “the plan” and it was easy with the bus stop immediately outside the hotel entrance.   A few minutes later our bus arrived and out came my bus pass and the driver nodded me through and as Christine was right behind me he nodded her through as well, and she doesn’t have one!!!

Arriving at T3, headed to Virgin’s check-in desk and no queue, straight up.  Security was fairly quick, a definite bonus then to the lounge we booked.   I produced the confirmation but she couldn’t match it up with her computer and after a few minutes she informed; sure I had booked it, but for the 19th not the 17th ugh, what a prat and I couldn’t blame anyone else on this one🥵🥵🥵.  She gave me two options, return on the 19th (funny😂) or cancel up to 48hrs before.    OK, so we headed back to our normal airport lounge muttering to myself about my stupidity.  Anyway we got our breakfast and some much needed alcohol whilst we waited.   Whilst there I set about cancelling my booking only to find by now it was less than 48-hrs so couldn’t cancel; an expensive double whammy!!!!

The time arrived and headed to the gate and boarded soon after and after a glass of bubbly settled in and put my cock-up behind me.  We both agree that flying Virgin is a far better experience than flying BA; better service, better food and more friendly staff, both on the ground and in the air.

Arriving at Boston airport and after a b….y long walk we arrived the customary queue to get through passport control.   Once through and to our surprise our bags were waiting on the carousal as we walked up, wow!!   Outside we got a cab to our hotel.

A reasonable hotel in the centre on the ninth floor overlooking the main railway lines.   We had an early night to start fresh tomorrow.