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 Today many locals consider it an outdated, touristy term.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.