Bawstin

The train ride was OK - I managed to sleep most of the way, but Mark wasn't quite so lucky. Since we couldn't really turn up at our B&B at 8am, we grabbed a coffee and a bagel near Boston Common and tried not to fall asleep. Everyone on Boston Common seemed to feel as groggy as we did - apparently Boston is home of one of the biggest 4th of July parties. It was slightly mollifying to see that, while we were really tired, most of Boston was really hungover. We killed an hour or so on Boston Common, admiring the greenery, the lakes, the squirrels playing and the panhandler singing a seemingly endless song of "Change change change, change change change, has anybody got any change?".

At a slightly more respectable time of 11am, we arrived at our B&B in a brownstone on Beacon St. We were in luck - our room was ready (we'd emailed ahead at 1am!) so we caught up on some sleep and avoided the heat of the middle of the day.

Boston has painted a red line around town that takes you to American Revolution sites and called it the "Freedom Trail" - we did that for a few hours - highlights: Paul Revere's grave, the site of the Boston Massacre, and then grabbed a root beer at Quincy Market, enjoyed the sun on the pier before grabbing dinner near Faneuil Hall and heading home to catch up on some more sleep.

It was a much more relaxing start to our second morning in Boston - coffee and pastries at a cafe in Beacon Hill (the East Coast coffee is SO MUCH better). Then out to unbelievably beautiful Harvard, where we roamed around trying to look smart, and MIT, where the even the buildings are geeky. We completed the Freedom Trail by heading to the Bunker Hill monument at Charles Town, but the 36 degree heat was really starting to get to us - and we weren't alone. We happened upon a rather spectacular scene - all the roads around Bunker Hill were sealed from traffic and were clogged up by dozens of emergency vehicles, after a brownstone caught fire (the result of an illegal barbecue on a rooftop). Heaps of firemen were treated for heat exhaustion. We prescribed ourselves gelato and then checked out Old North Church - where the "two if by sea" lanterns were set up on Paul Revere's orders, Paul Revere Mall, Paul Revere's house etc. It was too hot to chew, so we got some lovely clam chowder and hideous pinot gris before heading out on our sunset cruise on Boston Harbour. We saw all the landmarks - the site of the Boston Tea Party, the various islands, the USS Constitution, Battery Wharf, Lincoln Wharf etc, but the highlight was definitely the Boston skyline with a blood-red sun sinking behind it. One last push before bed - Boston Cream Pie at Omni Parker House (delicious, if a little too long to arrive).

In summary - Boston was wonderful, the accents were brilliant, it put up some serious competition to Philly (our favourite US city thus far).