10 Apr 09

20:54 EST

Boston in the sunshine - beautiful!!

We started out a bit delayed due to everyone in the house all wanting a shower too but then had breakfast just down the road in Allston, M had the breakfast Burrito and S had hostile hangover buster bagel in a very trendy, very studenty cafe, we then got the T to the centre of town. We then started the freedom trail, which is marked by a red line in the pavement. This takes you past a number of key revolutionary sites,

Massachusetts State House

Old City Hall (now a chain steak house)

Old State House

Faneuil Hall, Market Hall and Meeting Place

Statue of Paul Revere

We deviated from the trail just behind the Fanuiel Hall to watch a troop of three "British" Acrobats (The lead sounded Australian!) perform some amazing feats, culminating the 'sister' standing on the head of one of the 'brothers' head whilst he balanced on a large ball, very impressive. We then walked to the end of one of the warfs (the sea is blue if anyone was wondering) and then headed into the North End area, which was originally Irish but is now Italian and headed for Pizzaria Regina which was highly recommended in the guide book.
We joined the queue (yes queue) outside to wait for a table, meanwhile we got chatting with a Bostonian family in front of us in the queue (with authentic accents) who were very impressed by our itenary, wanted to know why Steve supports St Lois Blues rather than Boston Bruins, and were very impressed that he was a scientist!

We actually managed to by-pass them a get a small table at the back of the resturant which was completely chocker, next to an official decree of thanks from the Coast Guard for the friendship that the resturant extended to its service men and women while they were stationed there post 9/11. We ordered two large pizza's and ended bringing half back with us, absolutly delicious but HUGE.

Because of the huge pizza box we decided to head back home before going to Cambridge, home of Harvard. We walked over the river to Harvard Square when we realised that we were too late to go to the Museums so we had a cup of tea in the Harvard bookstore before deciding to head back into to town for dinner. We went to a place called Jacob Wirth's which is a german based resturant with a massive beer menu, we opted for a pitcher of the local stout, a shared starter of bratwurst with potato, cabbage and sauerkraut. S had a main of jeagerschnitzle with a dough based carb underneath, M had fried local clams with fries and coleslaw but unfortunatly didn't managed all of it. We then headed back to the flat to pack as we are off to pick up the car first thing tomorrow. The plan is to head through Salem, up the coast to Portsmouth and then inland to the Meredith area.