06/06/10

Reporting on 08/06/10

We started our day at IHOP; the International House of Pancakes. I, in my normal style, had 5 plain pancakes drowned in maple syrup with a load of black coffee on the side. There is nothing that can top pancakes for breakfast. Unfortunately it was absolutely chucking it down outside, but by the time we reached the metro station it had calmed down a bit and when we reached Boston itself it had stopped altogether.

I had heard that Boson was a nice place from various people when I had mentioned the trip, so I tagged it to the end of the itinerary without really knowing anything about it or anything I particularly wanted to see. Upon going there I am very glad we went, Boston is awesome! So much of the history of America happened in the buildings and on the streets of the city. The downtown area of the city has “The Freedom Trail”; a ludicrously named but fantastic trail that winds around the city taking you to all of the sites of historical importance. What I liked most about it is that it is a physical red line on the pavement so you can’t get lost and can do the trail easily as a self guided tour of the city. My USA book had this tour in it so we followed the line and read the entry for each place in the book. It was great, you can see it all at your own pace and all for free :D

The tour takes you across to Charlestown across the river and to the site of “Old Ironsides” the USS Constitution; the oldest commissioned warship still afloat. For those who noticed the wording of that statement, the oldest commissioned warship full stop is HMS Victory in Portsmouth, but Victory isn’t still afloat. The Constitution is technically still part of the US Navy so all of the people onboard are real Navy officers who try to teach you the history rather than amateur historians dressed as Navy officers. The tourist side of things is sorted by our friends the National Parks Service (NPS) who have impressed me every time we have encountered them. Visiting the museum, ship and having a guided tour by a young Navy guy is all free. The only negative point of the experience was something that I fully expected; that the stories about the ship were all very pro American and as is the history of things, pretty anti British, but that’s ok.

From the Constitution we went up the hill to a huge obelisk, similar to the Washington Monument in DC called the Bunker Hill Monument. As it is run by the NPS going up the 294 steps to the top is free and fantastic. The views from the top are great as you would have thought, but what I liked was the hole that runs down the middle of the obelisk. There is a metal grate on top of the hole so you can stand on it and look down this shaft right to the bottom of the stairs.

After Bunker Hill we walked across town to Cambridge, home of MIT and Harvard, two of the most prestigious universities in the world. We were in the area so I couldn’t help myself. By that point the skies were beginning to look pretty dark and stormy, but we went on regardless. MIT was the first of the universities that we came upon, we had a quick wander around the campus and grabbed a cache before the rain came. I have honestly never seen it rain like this. We here standing by the Landau Building of MIT just after putting a cache back when I saw some spray being whipped up by the wind around the building across the courtyard. I then heard “holy shit!” from a guy who was hit from behind by a wall of water. It was incredible, it went from no rain to the most terenchal downpour imaginable in a matter of seconds. We managed to run to a set of revolving doors before the rain hit where we could put on coats and plan the next move. The guy I mentioned, Jim (I think, I'm terrible with names) was going to the metro station so G0N and I tagged along with him in sprinting from sheltered patch to sheltered patch to sheltered patch to the station. It was unreal, in about 30 seconds it must have rained well over an inch. We managed to get to the station fine, but my trousers were really quite wet, fortunately I had my waterproof so the top half of me and my phone were ok. At the station I went with Jim up towards Harvard whilst G0N decided to sit that part out. At Harvard I went alone up to the surface to do as much exploration as I could in the rain. I wandered around the magnificent quads of Harvard in the epic rain. By then my trousers were saturated and water was running down my legs into my shoes, so was about as wet as I could be, so I just ambled about the place. I'm sure that a beautiful day would have been the best backdrop for the university, but it was pretty amazing even in the rain. The water ended up getting to most of me and my belongings. I was soaked, my bag drenched, my books soggy, but my electronics were fine as I had them hidden within my coat. When we got back to the car I was very pleased to change into dry clothes and shoes that didn't squelch.

Cube out