Well — 5 days in Boston was a delight.

Flying from LA to Boston on a clear day produced some stunning vistas

We stayed right in the North End (on Hanover Street) – part of the “Freedom Trail” – the designated city walk that connects up all the important locations and events that led up to the Revolution, the Declaration of Independence and the drafting of the Constitution. The City and the National Parks people run free guided walking tours that you can join and leave as you wish. Together with the ‘Red Bus” tour of the city we quickly got the feel of the place.

Being here for the 4th of July – made the historical aspects of the City even more prominent.

Taking selfies brought back memories of our Tibetan adventures

But we got it right eventually.

We took a trip to Harvard University – what a wonderful campus. The entire surrounding district is owned by the University – providing student housing and fabulous research facilities. They currently have an endowment of around 35bn dollars to underpin the operation and expansion of the university. MIT (next door) have around half that. — So you can see how easy it would be to move from our government subsidised system to a US style system and get a couple of our universities into the top 20 — we just need a few people to leave around $50bn in their wills to a couple of universities – and do it quickly please!

Harvard “Yard”

 

 

This is the main Harvard Library – second in size only to the Library of Congress – built by a small donation from the Mother of a student who died on the Titanic in 1912.

 

Here we are at the Statue of (Not) John Harvard – apparently it was sculpted after his death and there are no photos (being the 17th century!) – never mind it has his name on it and everyone wants a photo next to it.

Here I am exiting the main gate.

In 1971 I applied to do a Masters course at MIT in Boston and was accepted. I also got accepted at Imperial College London and decided to accept the offer. I have long wondered what  life in Boston would have been like and how my life would have been different. The visit confirmed that Boston would have been much more fun than our previous 2 years in Washington DC – but London it was — and no regrets.

Here’s Quincy market – contains a great array of eating establishments inside and market stalls alongside.

Here’s Cheers!

This is Faneuil Hall – the centre of Community meetings in Boston since the 1650’s and a central location for the debates about liberty and freedom – around the time of the Revolution.

Here we are at the “Ball Game” – Boston Red Sox Vs Chicago Cubs – at Fenway Park. I am living the boyhood dream here and couldn’t resist wearing the stars and stripes. Please note that Linda is drinking Chardonnay – from a plastic cup – with Ice!!!! Thats my Girl – – almost had her drinking beer!!

The “Soxs” went down 2-1 to the Cubs in a pretty boring game.

 

On 4th July I went downtown to the State House where the Declaration of Independence was first read from that balcony. The re-enactment was to take place at 10.30 – but they moved it because of the threat of rain but didn’t tell anyone. Oh well – I got a picture of a hot-dog stand being set-up.

Boston is definitely worth a visit – put it on your list.