The Freedom Trail is a route you follow around Boston that leads you past significant historical points of interest, most of them to do with the American Revolution (hence "freedom"). Conveniently, the trail started just around the corner from our hostel at the visitors centre on Boston Common. So off we went...
As you can imagine, the trail is tourist heaven so there were lots of annoying, slow moving people to contend with along the way. We enjoyed ourselves though, following the red line around the city and taking photos of everything like proper tourists. There are lots of impressive buildings along the trail, like the Massachusetts State House, and several large churches. Dominating the trail though, are the numerous burial grounds; there seemed to be one every ten minutes or so! Also seeming to play a leading role in the trail was a bloke called Paul Revere, he literally kept popping up everywhere, and we're still not entirely sure what he did... We think it had something to do with lighting lanterns to warn of a British invasion, and something else involving a midnight ride? We were obviously paying more attention to our photography than the information placards!!!
The trail went right through the heart of a neighbourhood called North End, home to a massive Italian community. It's heaven for someone who wishes they could be an Italian gangster, like me. We will definitely be heading back there to check out some of the numerous restaurants.
After North End, the trail lead us over a bridge into Charlestown where there was, wait for it, a Paul Revere Park. There was also a huge old navy yard which was part of the trail. By this point, we were hot, tired and hungry, having been walking for several hours. Instead of lurking around the navy yard, we followed the last part of the trail up to the Bunker Hill Monument, yet another unnecessarily phallic structure, much like the Washington one. In fact, it was pretty much the same as the Washington one, just a bit smaller.
We decided to make a beeline for the first place selling food we saw, which happened to be a cute little tavern. It was a pretty old building and had the feeling of a cosy pub in Devon or somewhere which was nice. I ordered Shepherd's Pie, which was surprisingly good, and Kitty ordered steak. Again. I think it's becoming a slight steak fetish situation...
After this we walked the Freedom Trail in reverse to get back to the hostel. Boston really is a nice city, I read somewhere that it blends the old and the new together better than anywhere else. It does! I also read that it's one of the best walking cities in the whole of the US. It is! It feels the most European out of any of the cities we have visited so far, and therefore familiar maybe. We get good vibes from it anyway.
We located the nearest Trader Joe's to stock up food, making ourselves a feast of pasta and salad for tea. We then finished the day by routinely watching the NBC coverage of the Olympics. We were very happy that the USA won the girls gymnastics all arounds, the gymnastic girls have become our faves!
Our new dorm mates are three guys, all of whom are nice but a little odd, one appeared to be wearing a skirt. This could be an interesting few days...
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