MARTINA'S WORLD TRIP

UNITED STATES: September 26 - December 3, 2004
Your Dictionary

(Übersetzungshilfe)

Monday, October 25th, 2004 - Boston, Massachusetts
For once we managed to get up early (well, around 8 am) because we had decided to spend today in Boston which is about an hour south of Dracut. Before we took off, however, we ran into Aaron’s cousin Laurie outside at the horse stable and spent some time with her and the horses. We also realised we needed to have breakfast before starting the ride, so it was time for my second French Toast at the same diner as three days ago. We finally left Dracut around 10 am and drove towards Boston, Massachusetts.

Massachusetts (MA) was named for an Algonquian Indian word that means “a big hill place” and from the earliest days of colonial settlement at the beginning of the 17th century, Massachusetts has been the heart of New England. As shipbuilding and maritime trade developed in the 18th century, Massachusetts strongly felt the trade restrictions imposed from London. The Stamp Act and Townshend Act preceded the Boston Massacre in 1770 and the Boston Tea Party (1773) as well as the Battle of Bunker Hill (1775) were significant events in the colonies’ fight for freedom. During the Revolutionary War (1775 - 1783), Boston remained the centre of resistance to British rule. After the Revolution, Massachusetts was the 6th state admitted to the American Union in 1788 (after Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia and Connecticut). Today Boston is the state’s capital and with 600.000 inhabitants its largest city. Textiles, electronics, publishing, education, tourism and fishing are the major industries of the 6th smallest, yet the 13th most populated state in the USA (Massachusetts has over six million inhabitants packed into only 17.000 sq km!).

We arrived in Boston at 11 am and first checked in at the Beacon Street Guest House. It is located in a turn-of-the-century townhouse in the historic Back Bay District of Boston, a very central and convenient location. (If you ever plan to visit Boston, I recommend you have a look at: www.463Beacon.com) Our first activity planned for the day was a Boston “Duck Tour”, a popular land-and-water city tour conducted in authentic, renovated World War II amphibious vehicles, known as ‘Ducks’. The tour had been recommended to us by Aaron’s family in Dracut, so we wanted to give it a try. Plus, I had never been in Boston before and I always think a city tour is a good introduction to a new place, especially when there is a lot to see and you would like to get some kind of overview before getting into it on your own.

As capital and chief port of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (established in 1630), Boston was the centre of Puritan New England. The first public school in the USA, the Boston Latin School, was founded here in 1635, followed by Harvard College a year later. With its 35 colleges and universities in the metropolitan area, Boston still is at the forefront of American education. The city has always been a leader in US intellectual life and prominent Bostonians such as John Hancock, Samuel Adams and Paul Revere were among the founders of the American republic. The first newspaper in the 13 original colonies was established here in 1704. Once called ‘the hub of the solar system’, Boston remains at least the hub of New England and a city young at heart but full of history. Our Duck Tour took us through different neighbourhoods: Back Bay, Downtown, Beacon Hill, West End, Charlestown and North End, all of them unique in their particular architecture and with a distinct flair. Our driver-guide (or ‘conDUCKtor’ as per Duck Tour brochure) told us a lot about “the birthplace of freedom” and he was a fun guy to listen to. The tour also included a ride in the Charles River from where we had a beautiful waterside view of the city. By the way, a street sign that originally read “Reversed Curve” had been converted to “Reverse the Curse - Go Sox!” Similar slogans on hand-written signs could found in countless windows and cars all over the place...

After the Duck Tour we had lunch at a small place called “Rebecca’s Cafe” and walked back to the quarter named Beacon Hill, Boston’s most historic and wealthy neighbourhood situated on a hill nearby downtown. We had a walk along the narrow, cobbled streets and admired the old houses, most of them dating back to the 19th century. Even the defeated Bush-opponent and Massachusetts’ Senator John Kerry has a house here on Louisburg Square. - If nothing else, the police barrier and security agents in the street would draw your attention to it... Coming down Beacon Hill, we passed the 1798 golden-domed State House, seat of Massachusetts’ government. Just a little further down in the park is the beginning of Boston’s “Freedom Trail”. The Freedom Trail is a 4 km-long walking path that links 16 important colonial and Revolutionary historic sites. You simply follow a red line of sidewalk bricks on the ground and it takes you to the “must-sees” of the city. We decided to give it a try.

The first sight that we passed on the trail was one of Boston’s old cemeteries, called the Granary Burying Ground, just behind Park Street Church (in which the hymn “America” was publicly sung for the first time in 1831). Founded in 1660, the Granary is the third oldest cemetery in the city and along with two Massachusetts Governors, three signers of the American Declaration of Independence are buried here. The Granary also holds the remains of the victims of the Boston Massacre, as well as whole families of settlers ravaged by fire and plague. I must admit that I found it a little bizarre how this ancient cemetery was squeezed between modern buildings in the middle of the city but at least, I had never seen such old gravestones before. Next stop on the Freedom Trail was King’s Chapel which was founded in 1686 by the Royal Governor of the Province of New England. It was the first Anglican Church in New England and became the first Unitarian Church in America in 1785. It was also the first church in America to use an organ. The church was built on a corner of Boston’s first burying ground, nowadays the city’s oldest cemetery. Almost all of the early settlers are buried here, including passengers from the Mayflower that reached America in November 1620. One of them was Mary Chilton (approx. 1607 - 1679), the first female to step ashore at Plymouth at the young age of 13. A little further is the site of the Boston Latin School, the oldest public school in America, attended by some early patriots like Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams and John Hancock. Nestled in the shadow of Benjamin Franklin’s statue on the site of the Latin School, is a bronze donkey, commemorating the Democratic Party (the donkey is the party’s mascot – more than coincidence?). One could even stand in bronzed footprints before the donkey’s head to designate one was “in opposition” to the Party...

Further sites on the Freedom Trail include the Old South Meeting House, where colonists met in 1773 to protest British taxation and where Samuel Adams gave the secret signal to launch the Boston Tea Party, and the Old State House, which was built in 1713 and made history when the Declaration of Independence was first read from its balcony in 1776. A cobblestone circle beneath this very same balcony marks the site of the 1770 Boston Massacre. Tensions between British sympathisers and colonists had been mounting throughout the 1760s but had turned into serious violence in the beginning of 1770. On March 5, 1770 a small group of colonists were up to their usual sport of tormenting British soldiers. It appears that there was a great deal of teasing and taunting that eventually led to an escalation of hostilities. The sentry (Wachposten) in front of the Custom House eventually lashed out at the colonists which brought even more colonists to the scene. A group of soldiers led by Captain Thomas Preston came to the rescue of the sentry. Captain Preston and his detachment of seven or eight men were quickly surrounded. All attempts to calm the crowd proved useless. Instead, the soldiers were attacked with heavy clubs and snowballs. Until this day it is very controversial who gave the command to open fire or if there was such a command at all. Some eyewitness testimonies rather suggest that it was the crowd that called for the soldiers to fire. Either way, at some point one of the soldiers fired a musket into the crowd. Whether he was provoked by the colonists, whether he believed to act upon command from his Captain or if it was an accident, we’ll never know for sure. In any case the first was immediately followed by more shots which ultimately left several people wounded and five dead. Modern research has proven that the whole incident was not so much a “massacre” as people liked to believe back in 1770 but the colonists embraced the opportunity and used the event in their propaganda against the British.

Continuing on the Freedom Trail for a little longer, we passed Faneuil Hall, the historic market building where Senator John Kerry would give his concession speech in only 9 days from now. Next was Boston’s oldest residential neighbourhood, the North End, where we visited the oldest house in downtown Boston: the Paul Revere House. In 1774/75, Paul Revere (1734 - 1818), originally a silversmith, was employed by the Boston Committee of Correspondence and the Massachusetts Committee of Safety as an express rider to carry news, messages and copies of resolutions as far away as New York and Philadelphia. He became an American folk hero when he rode to Lexington, Massachusetts, on the evening of April 18, 1775, in order to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock that British troops were marching to arrest them. On his way, he stopped at every house to alarm the colonists and his critical message delivery made US history as “The Midnight Ride”. Paul Revere’s house in Boston’s North End was built in 1680. It was owned and occupied by Paul Revere and his family most of the time from 1770 to 1800. Nowadays, the house has been turned into a small museum in which some rooms and furniture are arranged as they were at the time he lived here. Our last stop on the Freedom Trail was the Old North Church. It was built in 1723 and is Boston’s oldest church building. It is famous for its role at the beginning of the Revolution when two lanterns were hung in the steeple to warn Charlestown patriots of the advance of British soliders during the same night Paul Revere rode to Lexington.

After we had arrived at the church, we decided not to go on with the trail which would have continued for a few more sights. We had been walking for over six hours, my legs were tired and we were hungry. So we went for dinner at Rustic Kitchen, a very nice restaurant inside the Quincy Market Building. I swear this was the best dinner I’ve had in a long time! Afterwards we walked back to our guesthouse, passing once more through the beautiful streets of nightly Beacon Hill. We arrived at the guesthouse around 9 pm and the only happening that made this day a little less than perfect was the fact that I suddenly started to feel sick. Not so much stomach-sick but I got a severe headache, started to shiver and felt pretty bad. I have no idea what that was but after a hot shower and going straight to bed I felt much better the next morning...

P.S.: The Boston Red Sox did not play tonight. Next game is on tomorrow!
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