Shipping off to Boston

We left New York just before lunch and hopped on an Amtrak train to Boston. The trip from New York to Boston takes about 4 hours, and if you don't want to drive, the train is the best way.

The Amtrak trains were pretty comfortable, with big seats and lots of leg room. There was also free wifi for most of the trip.

We arrived at Boston Back Bay station in the early afternoon, and headed off to the apartment we were renting in Charlestown.

Charlestown is just out of the main centre of Boston, about a half hour walk, so pretty close, but in a lovely residential neighbourhood instead of the city. Charlestown is where Ben Affleck's movie The Town was based, and is famous for its history of organised crime. Aside from that, it's apparently one of the safest places in Boston for women.

The neighbourhood itself is really nice, full of coloured wooden houses, all really well taken care of. The house we stayed in was bright blue, and is often included on heritage trails.

Like New York, Boston is quite expensive to stay in. So for the price of a hotel room, we got a full apartment with a huge, extremely comfy bed, a lounge and a bathroom with a full tub. Breakfast was also included which was a big plus!

After we settled in, we put on some warmer clothes and went to explore the neighbourhood. Boston was at least 6 or 7 degrees colder than New York, so it was off with shorts and on with jeans and jackets.

The Bunker Hill Monument

We came across The Freedom Trail a few streets down. The Freedom Trail is  a red brick line that you can follow all around Boston. It takes you to all the historical sights scattered around the city and is the easiest way to explore Boston.

The Bunker Hill Monument was the first stop. Bunker Hill is the site of the Battle of Bunker Hill, where an army of British fought against 3000 Redcoats. 

While the British won, it was made famous by the fact the Redcoats supposedly didn't have enough ammunition  and led to the much quoted order 'Do not fire until you see the White's of their eye's'.

Pretty houses

We continued down to the Charlestown Naval Yard to see the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned warship in the world. 

The ship was known as Old Ironsides, because during the War of 1812 cannonballs fired by the British Frigate HMS Guirriere bounced right off the side, as if the ship was made of Iron.

The USS Constitution

We continued over the very rickety North Washington Bridge and into Boston. Our next stop was the Copp's Hill Burying Ground. Copp's Hill is Boston's largest Colonial Burying Ground and dates back to 1659.

People buried here were mostly normal Bostonian's, but there were some cool stories about some of the graves. One of the gravestone's had lots of small bullet holes marking the stone. This grave belonged to Captain Daneil Malcolm who smuggled wine into Boston during the war. When he died he asked to be buried 10 feet deep in a stone coffin to be safe from the British, so they took it out on his headstone instead!

The Old North Church

By now it was the late afternoon, so our last stop for the day was Quincy Market, a big indoor food market with lots of different food stalls. We wandered around for a while, stopping for a hot coffee to warm up. 

We had a look in the various Red Sox stores surrounding the Market square. Both Bradley and I were looking for something to wear to the Red Sox game the next evening, but found ourselves uninspired and came out with nothing.

After exploring the Market and the surrounding shop's, we headed back inside to find something for dinner. After much wandering up and down we decided on Boston's famous Chowder. I had sweetcorn and potato, while Bradley had clam Chowder. Both were amazing, and I'm dreaming of having it right now as I'm writing this! In the three days we were in Boston, we came back here twice!

After dinner we slowly made our way back to Charlestown. The city was all lit up with fairy lights which felt very Christmassy.

We had lots more exploring to do the next day, including trying on some engagement rings, but for now it was back home for a warm bath.