Having enjoyed our stay at the Cape, we headed north toward Boston, with a stop at Plymouth along the way. There are two main attractions at Plymouth: the Mayflower 2 (a replica of the original) and Plymouth Rock. The Mayflower's deck is 80'-90' long, 100'-110' overall and carried about 100 settlers with 30 crew. Pretty small for that many folks spending about 2 months crossing the Atlantic! (in 1620, almost 400 years ago) Plymouth Rock is housed in an open air 'gazebo' and is quite unremarkable. There are various stories about how it gained renown. Probably not a rock the settlers stepped out on, it's just symbolic. It's about 5 feet long. A 'mini' pirate ship was available for hire. A wreath was dropped in the harbor. We got there just at the end of a Memorial Day celebration on the Mayflower pier. (click to enlarge) We picked a campground about 30 miles southwest of Boston that had easy access to a commuter rail stop. The train ride to Boston took over an hour and we've decided that this is a really good way to commute. The ride is smooth and quiet. In Boston we purchased trolley day pass which included a harbor tour (on a boat). The first attraction was Quincy Market. The history dates back to the 1700's as a food market. Today it's a touristy place with a major food court inside and shops and pushcarts outside. A very pleasant place. Here's our harbor tour boat. The Boston skyline. An important stop was the Old North Church. This is the place where the lanterns (one if by land, two if by sea) signaled Paul Revere to alert the people that 'the British are coming'. Click the church picture to see the whole thing. We were privileged to be here on a day when the Blue Angels were doing flyovers for a photo shoot. They made 6-7 passes over the harbor with 3 helicopters hovering high overhead. It's always a pleasure to see them. The church is the original and services are still held there. Typical of the period, the church has 'box pews'. The boxes were bought and paid for by families and the location represented the wealth and status of the family. They had no furniture (the benches weren't there), so the owners furnished and decorated them to their taste, including painting and/or wallpapering the inside. Today churchgoers can sit in any of them. There are many apartment buildings of this style around the city. And the sports venues of the Bruins and the Red Sox. Many of the streets are narrow. I'm glad I didn't have to drive, much less one of these trolleys. Look! The entrance to the Cheers bar - 'where everybody knows your name'. This exterior was used in the popular series but the interior scenes were shot somewhere else. That ghostly looking thing is a net stretched between the buildings is supposed to be 'art' by someone trying to make a name for themselves. There are other sights to see in Boston, but we had seen enough so we caught our train and were back home by 6 pm. A good day but the last of the big cities on our trip. So we're glad of that.
Stay tuned.
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Who are we?Chuck and Mary Lou have been traveling in their RV since 2002 and have lately been taking longer, extended trips. This is our way to share our experiences. Trip Reports
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