Beacon Hill and Boston Riverside

The weather on our last full day in Boston was not looking great when we woke up. It was grey and rainy and cold, it was looking a bit like London! But with prettier coloured houses.

I'd been tossing up while packing as to whether I wanted to bring my warm Superdry jacket, or if in September, my leather jacket would have been enough. Luckily Bradley made me take it, since I needed it while in a thunderstorm in New York, and now on a grey day in Boston.

We didn't have too much of a plan for today, which was good, because the bed where we were staying was so comfortable that we slept in much later than anticipated.

We stopped at a cafe on the way to get some coffee to warm us up, and headed into Boston.

Our first stop was Quincy Market, where we had stopped for dinner on our first night in Boston. There were lots of shops that had been closed when we were there last, so we wanted to spend some time exploring.

Holiday goodies

The Holocaust Memorial

We were mainly looking for an interim engagement ring because, as Bradley had been unable to propose with a ring, it didn't really feel official without something on my finger. 

We managed to find a nice silver ring with a Blue Topaz stone in the first shop we tried, so we snapped it up and I wore it out of the store. It's nice to have something to wear so we could take our time finding the perfect ring. I really don't know how men buy engagement rings for their girlfriends, there are so many styles to choose from, and I can't imagine anything worse than having a ring you don't love, or one that a million other girls have.

Once we'd found our ring, we headed over to a Christmas shop we'd spied earlier. I can never walk past a Christmas Shop and not go in, no matter what time of year. They had lots of different decorations, and someone at the back personalising them for free. So we took our time trying to find an ornament we liked, and got it personalised to remember our engagement. In case we forget.

Our engagement present to ourselves

After visiting all the shops in Quincy Market, we continued down Washington Street, the longest street in Boston, and one of the longest in Massachusetts. It's full of shops, and is home to the Boston theatre district, and if you continue all the way along, leads you straight to Chinatown.

I wanted to buy all of these yummy candles, but they would have weighed our suitcase down horrendously

We stopped for lunch at an amazing Vietnamese restaurant, apparently it is one of the best in Boston. The Beef Pho soup I had was delicious, and Bradley's Pho Xao noodles were really huge, neither of us could manage to finish our meals. Especially with a starter of summer rolls!

Warming up with Green Tea

After lunch we came across Boston Common again, and now that the sun was out, sat for a while digesting our rather large lunch.

Our next destination was the neighbourhood of Beacon Hill, an affluent neighbourhood full of amazing old brownstone houses.

We wandered down all the little side streets with names like Chestnut, Walnut, Branch and Spruce St, and just admired all the huge houses, all kept in fantastic condition.

Cute cobblestoned streets, with Halloween pumpkins

After taking hundreds of photos of people's houses, we found ourselves on Charles St, a lovely street full of independent shops, and lots of antique shops.

Seeing another opportunity to have a look at some rings, we stopped at quite a few on our way down the street. I didn't try any on, but saw lots of stunning antique engagement rings. It seems Boston is the place to go if you're looking for an unusual ring.

After all this walking we decided we needed a coffee and cake stop. We stopped at a cute cafe, and had a coffee with a huge slice of apple cake. Just the thing to perk us up for more exploring!

The day had cleared up considerably after the morning's rain, so we headed down to the Boston riverside to sit in the sunshine and watch the Duck Boat tours go up and down the Charles River.

There were lots of people in the park enjoying the sunshine heaps of bikers and rollerbladers, and then the sedentary, just enjoying being outside in the sunshine.

Towards the late afternoon, we continued walking along the riverside. We figured we'd just walk back to our apartment from here, which was about an hour's walk. This seemed fine at first, but my ankle was playing up after a week of walking for hours on end on concrete, so by the time we got closer to home I was limping pretty badly. 

We stopped at a pharmacy to pick up some strapping material to wrap my foot to try and keep it straight. While that made a huge difference, the only thing we could really do was head home for an early night and a hot bath.

Boston at sunset

This is the bridge we had to walk across each time we came to and from the apartment. It's a huge steel bridge, that while I'm sure is perfectly safe, seems like a huge death trap that could collapse at any minute. Needless to say, we walked pretty quickly every time we crossed.

The next day, after an early night, and a long sleep in, we had a few hours to kill before our flight in the late afternoon.

We had some breakfast, and decided to spend the sunny day further exploring the Charlestown neighbourhood. We wandered through the perfectly kept streets, with their pretty clapboard houses, before deciding what we really wanted to do before getting on a plane back to London, was just enjoy the sunshine and fresh air.

So we stopped at Bunker Hill, lay down and watched the huge dragonflies flying backwards and forwards above our heads.

After lying in the sun for a while, we were getting pretty hot, so went off in search of an ice-cream. We came across the most amazing ice-cream place, with waffle cones dipped in chocolate and nuts, and huge scoops of chocolate ice-cream.

Bradley looking pretty pleased with his ice-cream

We decided to walk off that huge ice-cream in Paul Revere park, on the other side of the Charles River from where we had been the day before. We took off our shoes and walked in the soft grass, watching the dogs play while getting an panoramic view of the city.

After getting our fill of Vitamin D, we headed back to our apartment to grab our things and went off to the airport.

We had a fantastic time in New York and Boston, and we were extremely sad to be leaving. Both cities were so different from the travel we've been doing in the past two years, and we're already planning our next trip back to the USA!