Oldies On Tour

Thursday 19th March 2026

Not such a good night, probably not as tired as the night before; though we are on the 9th floor, this time we heard the “underground trains” rumbling through!!!  No matter we had our objective and that was to get the Boston tour bus from the Boston common stop, a 25-minute walk.

After another interesting breakfast we headed out, yes we could have got a train or cab etc., but decided to walk to take in the atmosphere and we walked through Chinatown, old Downtown and onto Boston Common where we headed straight into the Information centre to buy our two-day passes for the hop-on, hop-off buses.   This office was at the bottom of the Boston common hill, the bus stop was at the top of the Boston common hill; that’s on top of the one + mile we had already walked!!!

Our stop was number 8 on the route so arrival times were quite dependant on traffic etc., but bus arrived around the appointed time and our decision was to stay on and do the whole tour.  We would then decide where we wanted to stop off and what we wanted to visit.  The whole tour took about two hours and again, was very informative but unlike the big red bus tours, where they give you earphones, here it was the driver who gave the commentary.   As the day progressed and we changed buses with different drivers, so the commentaries changed.  Not in the historical facts but pointing out different buildings, and reciting different facts; we suppose it boils down to their preferences.

There are three historic cemeteries in the centre of old Boston dating back to the early puritans, who arrived in 1630 following their “disgust” and “religious persecution” back in England.  Over the following 200-years, they filled their cemeteries, hence three, but the most significant is the  Granary one I mentioned in my last post. The Granary cemetery, called this as it was adjacent to the towns granary store and was established in 1660.   This is a historic cemetery famous for its Revolutionary War-era patriots, including Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, James Otis Jr, Robert Paine and John Hancock, as well as the victims of the Boston Massacre*.    Other notable figures include Benjamin Franklin’s parents, nine Massachusetts governors, and the first mayor of Boston.  This is a key stop on the Freedom Trail, known for its notable burials, unique headstone art, and apparently a site of local ghost stories.  It has an estimated 5,000 people buried there under about 2,300 markers. 

Another important site on the route is The old South Meeting house.    This is a historic landmark and museum, famous as the site where the Boston Tea Party began in 1773, when thousands gathered to protest British taxation before heading to the harbour. Built in 1729, it was the largest building in colonial Boston and served as a crucial meeting place for public protests against British rule, making it a hotbed for the American Revolution. Today, it’s a museum operated by Revolutionary Spaces, featuring exhibits on its revolutionary history and serving as a symbol of free speech.   It was in this meeting that James Otis spoke those famous words, “No Taxation without Representation” (allegedly).

On our first tour we changed to a different bus route that took us around the “Back Bay” area.  This whole part of Boston is on re-claimed land, rather strange when you think of the size of the USA! The reason the council went ahead with this very expensive scheme was really due to blackmail.   All the wealthy traders wanted to build nice properties but stay in the Boston area as well, so they threatened to leave and take their business with them, thus depriving the town of much needed local tax revenue.   The result is the Back Bay Area, backing onto the Charles river.  This tour also took us through theatre-land, here in Boston many of the Broadway shows are premiered to iron out any issues before it heads to NY.

At the end of this we stopped for a little “nosh” and planned what we wanted to go and see/do.  By now it was around 1400hrs and the last bus leaves stop one at 1600hrs and we didn’t fancy being stranded the other side of town so got back on the bus and headed to stop eight to look inside the “new” Massachusetts State House.

By the time we got off it was 1600hrs and the last bus at this stop was 1700hrs so we could only spend about 50-minutes inside.   Fortunately the entrance is virtually opposite the bus stop.

What a magnificent building.  The Massachusetts State House in Boston is the seat of the state’s government, housing the Massachusetts General Court (legislature) and the Governor’s office, and is known for its distinctive gold dome covered in “gold leaf” and Federal architecture designed by Charles Bulfinch. the building is Located on Beacon Hill, at the top of Boston Common, it’s a historic landmark on the Freedom Trail, featuring numerous statues, murals, and art that reflect the state’s history, and is open to visitors, no entry charge!!   The amount of marble inside is incredible, massive pillars, huge wide staircases beautifully decorated ceilings; one could spend a whole day here, but alas we had less than an hour👹. 

One intriguing area is Memorial Hall, also known as the Hall of Flags, it is a very big room that sits central to the state house’s second floor. The room displays regimental flags of returning Massachusetts soldiers from various regiments across “every” war since the Civil War, the stained glass skylight above contains the seals of the original thirteen colonies of the United States, with the Massachusetts seal in the centre; very spectacular.

The inside of this building is enormous and we were totally disoriented and left via the wrong exit, we came out at the rear and now had to “hot-foot” it back to the bus stop and hope the bus hadn’t gone through!   We stood waiting and wondering and then, out of the traffic we spotted it heading towards us, thank goodness as we didn’t want the long “march” back.   We had discovered that stop nine was much closer to our hotel.   There was only one other passenger and apparently she was heading back to the start point and whilst talking to the driver, he asked where we are staying.  As we got to stop nine and as there were no passengers waiting to get on, he announced he’d take a detour and drop us even nearer our hotel, wow!  And he did, what a kind driver, we hope we see him again tomorrow.

Back in our room we finished off the second part of last nights dinner and headed to bed later.   Tomorrow we are planning to do the naval docks area and the tea party experience.

• The Boston Massacre, known in England as the Incident on King Street, was a confrontation on March 5, 1770 during the lead up to the American war of independence. 

In this confrontation 9-British Soldiers shot several5 in the crowd, estimated to be between 300 & 400 who were harassing them verbally and throwing anything they could get their hands on.   Five American colonists were killed.   The event was subsequently described as a massacre by Samuel Adams and Paul Revere (see the etching below; Propaganda or what?) and other leading Patriots who later became central proponents of the revolution.   British troops had been stationed in the Boston Bay Area since 1768 to support the Crown-appointed officials to enforce unpopular legislation imposed on them from the British Government 

Amid tense relations between the civilians and the soldiers, a mob formed around a British sentry and verbally abused him. He was eventually supported by seven additional soldiers, led by Captain Thomas Preston, who were hit by clubs, stones, and snowballs. Eventually one soldier fired, possibly by accident, prompting the others to fire without an order by Preston. The gunfire instantly killed three people and wounded eight others, two of whom later died of their wounds.

The crowd eventually dispersed after the acting governor promised an inquiry, but they reformed the next day, prompting the withdrawal of the troops,   Eight soldiers, one officer, and four civilians were arrested and charged with murder, and they were defended in court by attorney, and future U.S. president, John Adams, six of the soldiers were acquitted; the other two were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to branding on the thumb, according to the law at that time.

The Bloody Massacre by Paul Revere: a 1770 engraving depicting the massacre

Thursday 18th March 2026

Our room booking includes breakfast, so down we went for our “continental” Buffet, which we found amusing.   Firstly drinks were in paper cups, we placed food on cardboard plates and we ate with plastic cutlery, one thing we did enjoy however, was the breakfast pastries, they kept coming from the kitchen freshly baked and still nice and warm. Also our room is comfortable, warm with a king’s sized bed, what else could we want???

Our first two tasks today are to find a “Hop-on, Hop-off” bus and get a US “SIM card”.   We asked reception about the bus and were told we needed to catch underground to South Station, one stop away where just outside we would find a stop and get tickets etc.  very conveniently our station is right opposite our hotel, not a long walk!!!!   

We walked out of South Station and looked and walked around the area but no bus stops and no sign of any personnel from the big red bus company who operates these buses.   We asked several people but no one really knew so eventually found a policeman who told us where the actual bus stop was, of course it was down a road we hadn’t checked!!!   This bus stop didn’t have any indication the red bus came this way however “Old Town Trolley Tours” do stop here.   Whilst waiting, one went up the other side of the road, not stopping but we did notice on the side it had Hop-on, Hop-off written on it so then assumed this was Boston’s equivalent, so waited.   After about half an hour, we were getting fed up and cold, it was very cold today, one of these trolly busses drove straight by, not stopping!!!!    At this stage we gave up the bus idea and looked for a ‘phone shop for our SIM cards.   We were pointed in the right direction by a kind passer by, and 10-minutes later and unbeknown to us we arrived in “Downtown” where there was much more going on and eventually we found a T mobile shop where a very kind lady set our ‘phones up with US SIM cards.  One of our frustrations was not being able to use our phones in the street to check things out unless we paid stupid roaming charges.   Amongst the shops there was a branch of Primark where I had to buy yet “another” hat as it is so cold🥶🥶🥶 and it was that time where a little food was wanted!!!   We popped into a small, sparse “shacky” sort of place that only sold shell seafood; it was probably because they had “facilities” that got us in there and we felt obliged to eat there.   I had a Clam Chowder and Christine had a Lobster Bisque, both were excellent and hopefully we will re-visit “Luke’s Lobster restaurant” before we leave.

Fully refreshed we headed up to the big park someone had pointed out to us and that was the  real start of our day in Boston.    This park, Boston Common, has a tourist information centre, so we called in and 5-minutes later we’re booked on a walking tour of the area, following part of the heritage trail.

Boston Common, established in 1634, is the oldest city park in the United States, located in downtown Boston and serving as a historic public green space for recreation, events, and free speech. It’s known for its significant monuments, the Frog Pond (a skating rink in winter and spray pool in summer), and as the starting point for the Freedom Trail, connecting it to the adjacent Public Garden. (For some more history see below)

This 90-minute tour was very informative about the early history of Boston, the lead-up to the revolution and naturally the “Boston tea Party” and its significance in starting things off.   As schoolchildren we knew about the “headlines” of this period of history but this tour went into so much more depth about the “Bostonians” involvement in getting things started.   The this walking tour took in places of interest from the Massachusetts State House to the meeting house where the signal to carry out the raid on the tea ships; from the Granary cemetery with about 2,000 headstones but approx 18,000 bodies to the old Paxton hotel; the oldest hotel with historical links to Charles Dickens and J F K.   No doubt tomorrow we will learn a lot more as we get to do the hop-on, hop-off bus tour.

We left our guide and went into Quincey’s market, a fairly modern building full of food outlets, not well known brands but small operators offering take-out dishes from all around the wall; we settled for a cooked chicken with salad to take back to our room for tonight.

Out came Google maps and we looked up our hotel and decided to walk the one and a half miles back which was good as we were routed along the river’s walkways.

Back in the hotel for our hearty meal of chicken and more importantly, put our feet up; according to our ‘phones we exceeded 16,000 steps!!!!!   Looking forward to tomorrow.

More history of Boston Common.   In 1634, Puritan colonists purchased the land rights to the Common’s 44 acres from the first European settler of the area, Anglican minister William Blackstone. Originally, the Common included the entire block northeast of where Park Street is now, bounded by Beacon Street and Tremont Street.

Tuesday 16th March 2026

Having just returned from a road trip to Spain, these last three days have been fraught with things to do, builders to catch up with and Phase three to be discussed, agreed and set in motion, but we did it: Just!!!

Fortunately our dog sitter Edryd ,arrived promptly at the appointed hour which gave us “just” sufficient time to show him the ropes and the dog walks before we had to be at Jane’s for our lift to the station to catch the 1420hrs to Paddington.

Oh dear, our train was pulling out as we arrived.   The next one means changing but the 1530 is straight through, so after a lot of “umming and ahing” we headed back over the footbridge to platform 2 where fortunately the train arrived nearly 40-minutes early so our 40-minute wait was in comfort.

Arriving at Paddington with no stress 😇 we crossed to the Elizabeth line and headed straight to terminal 3.   Thanks to Christine’s “new AI friend, Chat-GBT”, we decided to head to the central Heathrow bus station by T3 and catch the no 111 bus to our hotel along the Bath Road; so far so good.   We looked up on the bus schedule where it stated clearly the first stop was Bath Road and we knew the Premier Inn is on the Bath Road having been there several times before.   One of the attractions of this method of transport was a bus fare of £1.75 as opposed to the Heathrow hopper, £5.00 pp.   We got on the bus and I produced my bus pass (having never used it in the 3-years I’ve had it) and it worked- no charge; the reason i was surprised, I’d been told TFL only recognised London passes.   

We arrived at the first stop, Bath Road and got off and looked around, we could see every hotel you could think of but no Premier Inn.  Out came Google maps to see where it was and what a disappointment, we had about a mile to haul our cases to get there👹👹, well this idea worked???

As we walked we “clocked” about 4-other bus stops before we finally arrived and as AI said, one right outside the Premier Inn; Oh well we know for next time!!!!!  Whilst we were checking in, the desk clerk must have looked up, seen our faces after this walk tugging our cases and immediately said she would find us a room close to a lift; what a kind lady.

After a light meal accompanied by a rather nice  Chardonnay (a little too much!!) we headed to bed but fortunately our flight isn’t too early.

Heathrow to Boston

Wednesday 17 March 2026

No rush this morning as we’ve booked into a special airport lounge where we will enjoy breakfast and wait for the appointed hour.

Like yesterday we would follow “the plan” and it was easy with the bus stop immediately outside the hotel entrance.   A few minutes later our bus arrived and out came my bus pass and the driver nodded me through and as Christine was right behind me he nodded her through as well, and she doesn’t have one!!!

Arriving at T3, headed to Virgin’s check-in desk and no queue, straight up.  Security was fairly quick, a definite bonus then to the lounge we booked.   I produced the confirmation but she couldn’t match it up with her computer and after a few minutes she informed; sure I had booked it, but for the 19th not the 17th ugh, what a prat and I couldn’t blame anyone else on this one🥵🥵🥵.  She gave me two options, return on the 19th (funny😂) or cancel up to 48hrs before.    OK, so we headed back to our normal airport lounge muttering to myself about my stupidity.  Anyway we got our breakfast and some much needed alcohol whilst we waited.   Whilst there I set about cancelling my booking only to find by now it was less than 48-hrs so couldn’t cancel; an expensive double whammy!!!!

The time arrived and headed to the gate and boarded soon after and after a glass of bubbly settled in and put my cock-up behind me.  We both agree that flying Virgin is a far better experience than flying BA; better service, better food and more friendly staff, both on the ground and in the air.

Arriving at Boston airport and after a b….y long walk we arrived the customary queue to get through passport control.   Once through and to our surprise our bags were waiting on the carousal as we walked up, wow!!   Outside we got a cab to our hotel.

A reasonable hotel in the centre on the ninth floor overlooking the main railway lines.   We had an early night to start fresh tomorrow.