Boston

On Saturday 6 October we caught the 8.22am commuter train into Boston. Foggy but fine. Unfamiliar procedures at the train station; how to pay for parking? where to buy tickets?
Parking was paid by pushing 4 $1 notes into a slot with the number of the parking bay. You have to fold the $1 note about 4 times to get it to slip in. We bought the tickets on the train - $10 each round trip - seniors discount.
The train arrived at South Station and we caught the subway to Park Street and the Visitors Centre on Boston Common. We decided to buy day passes on the City View Trolley Tour, a hop on, hop off narrated bus tour of the city.  We ended up going around twice after stopping numerous times to explore iconic and historical points of interest.

We visited Paul Revere's house, Boston's oldest surviving clapboard frame house, historically significant for it was from here that on 18 April 1775, Paul Revere made his historic ride from Boston to Lexington to warn his compatriots that British troops were on the march to arrest them.
In fact Boston has more sites directly related to the American Revolution than any other city. The most important of these sites have been linked together as the Freedom Trail a 2.5mile walking route marked in red on the footpath.

We also visited the Quincy markets, the US Custom House, walked the Freedom trail and found coffee in Little Italy!!
There were loads of people doing exactly what we were doing, clutching maps and cameras.
We had a beer and sandwich for a late lunch.  We returned home on the 5.40pm train fairly exhausted!

The next morning we did a repeat run for the 8.22am train but this time we were saying goodbye to Coralie who was going to Boston then by train to New York; she will spend a day in New York and fly home to New Zealand on Tuesday.  We enjoyed her visit immensely - she was an easy guest and coped well with the small space and limited privacy. We even taught her how to play cards!