Day 134: Beverly - Visiting Boston - Racpat Northern Tier 2021

October 12, 2021

Day 134: Beverly - Visiting Boston

Sightseeing City of Boston

“Pick up for Patrick and Rachel…Pick up for Patrick and Rachel,” Tony shouts at the top of his lungs, and holding a placard with our names, as we get off the commuter train at the Monsarat stop towards evening. Never a dull moment with Tony!

After breakfast, we pile back in Tony’s car and he drives us to downtown Boston. We find a rare parking spot in a side street near North Station and walk towards the “Boston Commons”, the park at the center of the city. Tony points out a couple of landmark buildings and shows us the red line that forms the “Freedom Walk”, a walking route that takes you by some of the main historic buildings downtown.

John and Frosene do their own thing today and Tony is headed for a bookstore. We first check-out the park and adjacent State Capital building. A friend of Rachel warned us about the lack of public restrooms in Boston: there are none. Even small restaurants do not provide any, but we learn quickly that pubs do. We follow the Freedom Walk, to name a few of the famous sites: Park Street Church, the Old State House and Boston Massacre site, Faneuil Hall, the Granary Burying Ground, Paul Revere House, the Old North Church, Franklin Statue and First School Site.

At one point we find ourselves in an alley with a row of Irish pubs, by coincidence we walk into the “Green Dragon” for a pint of Guinness. It turns out the Green Dragon is the pub from where Paul Revere planned his seditious actions. Next is the Old Italian quarter full of brick buildings, narrow streets and many restaurants and bakeries. We follow the waterfront across a bridge to visit the “Constitution”, the oldest commissioned warship in the US Navy. It is kept in the old Boston Navy Yard, now a National Park. We pass through the visitor center (make sure to visit the restroom) and then walk onto the dock and on the USS Constitution. The three mast wooden sailing ship main deck houses two rows of cannons. Overhead is an impressive array of masts, yards and lines. We go down one level and find another deck full of cannons. Through the portholes we can see that the hull of “Old Ironsides” is about 18” thick. Enormous hardwood timbers only leave about 5 foot headroom. Another set of stairs leads us down to the next deck where the crew slept in hammocks.

Instead of walking all the way back to downtown we take the Harbor Water Shuttle, and then walk back to the Green Dragon for another Guinness and food. We are near the North Station and take the purple T-line back to Beverly. Tony picks us up at the station

We had a full day of sightseeing in Boston. Tomorrow our only task is to take our bikes to the Centraal Bike shop to be boxed for Bike Flights.