By now you're probably familiar with the New England road trip I took. If you aren't you can check out some of the adventures here: SK Tours, Hocus Pocus, Lizzie Borden and Salem. As part of that trip I also stopped in Boston Massachusetts for a couple of days.
I covered a lot of ground in the short time I was there, so in the interest of keeping this blog shorter than a novel I'm not going to go into detail about everything.
Let's start with food. I feel like you can't go to Boston and not go to Mike's Pastry to get one of their infamous cannoli. I've never seen a picture of this place without a line out the door, so I was confused and surprised when I arrived and walked right in! It was around 1:00pm on a Friday believe it or not. The cannoli, by the way, are 100% worth it.
Next I headed toward the Paul Revere statue and house. I didn't take a tour of the house because I was short on time but tickets are $5 (at the time of this writing) and they are open year round. The good news is that their website says they are fully accessible! Also, if you need a history refresher, Paul Revere was a patriot in the American Revolution in addition to being a silversmith and entrepreneur.
I then went over to the Old North Church to take a tour of the bell tower and the catacombs. It's right around the corner from Revere's statue and is the oldest standing church in Boston. The church itself is accessible, but the tour definitely isn't. Fun fact: the bells are still hand rung! The steeple of the church is where Paul Revere lit lanterns as a signal to the city that the British were marching to Lexington and Concord. If you've ever heard the phrase "the British are coming!" this is where it's from. Tours are $8 (at the time of this writing) and the stairs to the bell tower are narrow and VERY steep. There are also stairs to enter the crypt, but they are pretty standard. The ceilings are fairly low as you're going through the catacombs but it's not unmanageable.
The Granary Burying Ground was also on my must-see list. It's right down the street from Boston Common and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It is full of infamous residents like Paul Revere, John Hancock, Samuel Adams and Mary Goose, long rumored to be THE Mother Goose. The cemetery has lots of interesting headstones to look at, but they do not allow gravestone rubbing. There were laminated maps available as you entered or you can find maps online very easily. There are a set of stairs to access the cemetery so it is not accessible.
I also:
- Walked through Beacon Hill and saw Acorn St (the most photographed street in America) and Louisburg Square, the most expensive neighborhood in Boston and one of the most expensive in America.
- Did a walk-by of the Cheers restaurant.
- Went by the Bell in Hand which is America's oldest tavern.
- I waked through Boston Common a few times, which is the oldest city park in the U.S.
- Saw the Massachusetts State House (which is across from Boston Common) which has a dome made out of 23k gold.
- Had a delicious Italian lunch at La Famiglia Giorgio's in the North End.
- Walked by Benjamin Franklin's birthplace (which is right around the corner from the Old South Meeting House).
- Saw the Old South Meeting House where colonists organized the Boston Tea Party.
- Walked through the King's Chapel Burying Ground which is the oldest cemetery in Boston (and is ADA friendly).
- Checked out Old City Hall,which used to be the Boston Latin School, which was Boston's first public school and the oldest school in the country. It's also right around the corner from the King's Chapel Burying Ground and church.
I stayed in an Airbnb with an awesome rooftop view, which you can see below. There is a lot to see and do in Boston, and although I feel like I accomplished a ton of things on my list, there's so much more left. I'll definitely be visiting Boston again!
Downtown Boston, Boston Common and the Massachusetts State House