We woke to grey skies and April showers. So if you’re planning a trip to this part of the world avoid April!

But it had to be bad to stop us. Steve kindly went to Modern the pastry shop around the corner.

http://www.modernpastry.com

It’s amazing, as is Mike’s – but a local told us to visit Modern. Steve arrived back with coffee and a cannoli!

It’s not something I would usually have for breakfast but it’s cold and we’re on holidays and it’s got ricotta in it so that’s good? OK?

It set me up for the Freedom Trail.

https://www.thefreedomtrail.org/visit

If in Boston put this on your list. It’s great. We downloaded the notes and decided to tour ourselves. There are walking tours but you don’t need to do that.

We set off all rugged up and decided, as our apartment is in the middle of the trail, we’d start from our place and reverse the order! Made sense to us.

We stopped at the first State House.

A great place to start the story of Boston. We did a tour and our lovely young ‘education officer’ spoke at a rapid pace so we had lots to take in!

By now the rain had stopped so we wandered along with the other walkers of the trail coming the opposite way towards us!

There are some great public statues including these in the Irish Square.

I really enjoyed the Granary Burial Ground where many of the key figures of the Revolution are buried including Paul Revere, Samual Adams, John Hopkins are all resting in peace.

I also liked the footpath game of hopscotch outside the first school.

Kings Chapel was lovely. Designed by architect Peter Harrison – no, not our friend Peter!

The new State House stands proudly above The Common.

It’s beautiful. Completed in 1798 it’s dome was done in copper by Paul Revere! He was a coppersmith. It was overlaid with gold leaf.

Today there was a crowd outside the house and names were being read out. Lots of names. All had died through workplace fatalities over the years. Quite moving in its simplicity.

We walked through the Common, a really lovely public space with a big history and loved seeing the squirrels!

This park would be lovely on a sunny day. By now we had reached the beginning of the Freedom Trail. but for us it was only half done. It was time for lunch. We headed across to Beacon Hill. This area is a gentile place to walk.

Spring plantings are everywhere. It’s a pity it doesn’t feel Spring-like today!

We found a warm place for lunch. Soup for me and a Reuben sandwich for Steve.

I remembered great bookshops from years ago when I visited with my sister but the one in this area had gone, so I found another in nearby Newbury St. ‘Just a short walk’ I told Steve! Well it was the other end of a very long street. A very interesting long street with lots of shops – mostly big names operating out of lovely old brownstone houses.

We rewarded ourselves with a hot chocolate for Steve and a latte for me but we were surprised by the things you could add to your hot drinks. We decided on CBD. Read about it here!

I wonder if my aches and pains will go.

We still had a lot of walking to do.

To mix it up a bit we got an Uber to the end of the trail and decided to walk it backwards.

Now Jo Jo, our larger than life very friendly driver was all chatty. She was into food, so we got a good run down on where to eat.

We ended up at Bunker Hill and the museum. Really interesting.

We kept on walking despite the chill and the rain and ducked into a church as it looked so interesting.

Low and behold a father and his daughter – the bride! – were inside the door waiting for the music to make an entrance.

They encouraged us in but we hovered in the foyer till she had made her entrance.

She looked beautiful and it took me back (and made me teary) because at about this time last year, on a Friday, Rob and Jordan got married in Santa Barbara. The date is actually tomorrow but it was a Friday. Fortunately they had beautiful Spring weather with blue skies.

We blew out into the street again and walked across the bridge back into the city.

It was soooooo cold.

We finished the walk. It was so interesting. Now we’re tucked up in our apartment drinking a glass of red bought across the street at a lovely wine shop.

We’ll stumble out for dinner a little later.

Tomorrow more walking. We’re off to Harvard for a tour.