A day in Boston.Wow. What a city.
It was lovely. We got off the ship and caught public transport into the city. Great trams and trains.
Great parks, full of squirrels. I had to buy raw peanuts from one of the shops that sells candied nuts.
We went to the “Freedom Trail” and walked much of it. Past very important sites. The cemetery was great and included the graves of people like Samuel Adams and other signatories of the Declaration of Independence.
There was a great memorial to Boston’s role in saving so many Irish during the Potato Famine. The whole city was such a super mix of very old and great modern building. They looked so good together. We went to the bar that was used in the TV show Cheers. And the into a great food hall. It was an important old building and was now full of amazing food – especially lobster things – rolls, chowder and more.
During summer a few of the parks are filled with food trucks. The lines waiting for food were huge. We hunted and searched for the famous “Boston Cream Cake”. Alas they were all sold out. But we did stand outside the hotel where they were invented. The one where JFK announced his race for the presidency, announced his engagement and many other famous things.It was then back to the ship for the second and bonus cruise. Five days to Bermuda. Fun to be had. And I get another day in Boston at the end of the cruise.
Friday 13th September, Bermuda.
Damn you can be wrong. I booked this cruise thinking Bermuda was just another one of the OK Caribbean islands. (I know ….. it’s not really near the Caribbean, but that’s how I thought of it.)|
How wrong can you be?
Bermuda was stunning.
It’s an old British penal colony – so I felt quite at home.
The main island, Main Island, is a long low hook shaped island. Eight of the islands are joined by bridges, although there are actual 118 islands.
It’s on the edge of the Saratoga Sea,1000ks off North Carolina, is sub-tropical (although it felt pretty tropical today) and of course is one of the corners of the infamous Bermuda Triangle. Bermuda, Miami and San Juan. We didn’t disappear and our ship was not found floating with no humans on board!
We joined with another group and did a taxi bus tour. We travelled around for six hours and didn’t get to any of the things we told the river we wanted to see. Pretty funny. But we did see lots of good things. We did go from the very end of Main island to the other end!
The pier was at the site of the old Royal Navy Yards. Some stunning building.
One of the most striking things about the area is that it is made of limestone. So amazing rock formations in the water and huge stone walls everywhere.
All buildings were built of carved limestone blocks.
The roofs are all made of limestone blocks, laid like tiles then coated with a lime/cement slurry giving them a great look, but hard to focus on as it just looked out of focus as your eye was looking for sharp corners but all was smooth. It is then given many coats of white paint. I didn’t see a single roof that wasn’t white.
And on that note the roads were made of crushed limestone, so were a pale colour as well. Talk about trend setters – there is much talk at the moment about the impact dark roofs and dark roads are having on Urban Warming and therefore climate change!
And so pretty. All the buildings were pastel colours but more vibrant than anywhere else I have seen. Still earthy but pinks, greens, blues. Looked amazing.
We stopped at many beaches and lookout. The place is so pretty. The sky colour and the water colour were unbelievable.
“Moon Gates” are a famous feature in Bermuda. They are meant to be a good luck charm and has become one of the national symbols. The first was built by a sea captain after seeing them in a Chinese garden.
We visit the world’s smallest draw bridge – Somerset Bridge. The bridge connects Somerset Island with Main Island – but cuts off access to the other side of the island.
The draw bridge appears to be a normal bridge, but has a flap that opens. The flap is less than a metre wide. It is operated by hand – by lifting it up and is operated by hand.
When a yacht needs passage the traffic is stopped. The yachtsman go up and open the flaps. The boat then moves forward with someone at the top holding the mast and guiding it through. When they are through the flaps are then pushed down and the traffic goes on its way.
Each section was about a metre long and so heavy.
We called into a number of fancy resorts – which were quite
stunning. And past a ‘friends’ house who was an archaeologist who had been a
professor at ANU.
Many of the stunning beaches we saw had sea turtles happily poking around,
We think the driver was on a payment scheme form the resorts and BnB industry,
because we spent more time looking at them then at other things. Funny.
Heaps of fancy golf courses. No one walked. They were all in buggies. At the docks we saw huge ships unloading sand – for the golf course.
Then to Gibbs Hill Lighthouse – the tallest object in the country. Also one of the oldest and first cast iron lighthouses in the world. It was built in 1844 – before iron could be bent, thus being made of cast. It can be seen from all over the island – and from 220 ks away by planes.
We climbed it – 20 plus stairs and the views were great.
There are no rivers in Bermuda. All water comes from roof tops and a bore.
We saw the cemetery next tot eh prison, where all 281 British
immigrants are buried after they arrived with Yellow Fever on the ship and all
died.
Petrol is $8.50 US a gallon.
Bermuda is a tax haven so many stunning yachts and houses. Heap of celebrities have places here. It is also a fairly rich country with the minimum wage between $25-35US an hour.
The accents were quite lovely. Very Caribbean until they used a vowel and then very posh. O as in Oh.
The two towns we visited – Hamilton and the Old Town area of St George were
both very colonial with classic building.
We did get road raged in St George. Our driver failed to indicate when turning right. The lady coming towards us took exception to that and stopped in the middle of the road screaming at his. He didn’t cut her off but she sat there for minutes screaming. He didn’t react which drove her even madder. Then off we went. Three minutes down the road and parked. Suddenly she was there – blocking the traffic and screaming. She jumped out of the car to scream. “You didn’t indicate. You are an idiot. I gunna report you to the police. I have your number. Now you telling all them people that I am the stupid one. My name is …blah blah blah and blah.” Pretty funny.
On the way back we did get to see one of the famous pink beaches. We didn’t go down to see it – and it was very orange – maybe you had to walk on it to see it. But it as a lovely beach. More golden like Australian sand.
And beaches with great undercut limestone rocks.
Our guide didn’t take us to the places we wanted. But we had a great time. And now plenty to see if I ever come back.
Saturday 14th September – At Sea
Another fabulous day at sea.
Bridge tour as this was a new ship to me.
Trivia, food, chatting and sadly cramming the clothing into the too small suitcase!
Sunday 15th September – Boston, Massachusetts.
Another fantastic day in Boston.
After dropping my gear at the hotel I took off on the Hop on hop off bus.
My first stop was at the site of Griffin’s Wharf, home of the Boston Tea Party. By 1773 the residence of Boston were tired of paying taxes but not having representation in the English parliament. On the16th December of that year they dumped 342 chests of imported tea into the harbour as a protest.
It was basically the rallying point for the 13 colonies to fight the British for independence.
The museum has two of the original tea chests – they paid $500,000 for it from a Texas family.
Next was to seek out the Omni Parker House Hotel, the developer
of the famous “Boston Cream Pie” and home to many historical events. One of the
bus stops was quiet near to here but was much later in the day – so I walked up
through the centre of the historic district. It is such a pretty city with such
old and stunning building sandwiched between super modern, and again stunning,
buildings.
And I got my ‘pie’. This is the place
who invented them so I suppose they got it fight. Its two layers of a crumbly
sponge cake with a boiled cream (custard?) filling and coated in more cream and
coconut(?). Lovely.
I then walked back down the hill for a walk around the harbour then to the bus stop.
Harvard was next. The
city of Cambridge and Harvard University. As grand as I thought it would
be.
The houses in Cambridge were lovely as were the building in the Uni.
I saw many lovely churches in Boston. But I then visited the most sacred of all site in Boston. – Fenway Park. Home of the Red Sox!
For dinner I had a whole lobster tail….$17.00
Another great day.
But that is the end of this wonderful holiday. Home in the morning. Well the long trip begins in the morning. Home in a few days.
Monday 16th September – Boston, Massachusetts.
Well……..
Remember last week when I spent 14 hours organising my new flights.
Flights were confirmed. Payment went through. Even did my seat allocation.
So off I and to the airport. I arrived very early as US security is always fun and was first in my line for check in.
Lucky I was served by a lovely lady as it went down from there.
The old booking was still on place. They could see that I had new reservations but the new flights were not booked.
We all called the Australian Qantas office. Closed.
Called USA office. It went through to Australia and yep, Closed.
After 20 minutes and many calls to many numbers one had an option to talk to a human.
Meanwhile I was onto the wonderful, NOT wonderful, text line.
After 60 minutes I got through to the human and started.
Oh it was because I didn’t do the payment. But there was the payment receipt. And the amount on my credit card.
But he still insisted that it was not paid.
In the end I got to use the famous quote “take my money”. I paid again and will sort it out when I get home.
So finally I got tickets and boarding passes. Seats in the middle of the middle block, so some lucky person will have me climbing over them for 14 hours if they are not happy to swap seats. But I had boarding passes. Yay.
At least I got to go to the lounge and have a champagne breakfast.
Lucky the ladies looking after my booking were great and made lots of calls as well. And lucky I had some champagne on my bag that I was bringing home, and was able to give it to them at the end of it all.
So off I went.
14 hours to Japan. Across the top.
4 hours in Japan.
9 hours to Brisbane.
A few hours in Brisbane and a flight to Canberra.
The joys of travel.
But at least I got home!