Boston (or Bahstun, as they call it there) and New England

Decorative heating pipes - our Boston Apartment

On our last day in New York a rain front moved across, but the heaviest rain was at night, so really did not impact our travels. We took the train from New York to Boston as planned. Very comfortable trip – roomy cars and an efficient cafe car. Our B 'n' B host was waiting for us at our Beacon Hill 'apartment' to let us in. Quite a surprise with this place! It turned out that despite being marketed as a 'B&B', the accommodation was really a small separate apartment. And I mean small! Up 6 steep stairs to a foyer, then DOWN about 20 steeper steps to the basement rabbit hole. There was a reasonable sized kitchen and bedroom (though both penetrated at various angles and levels by old central heating pipes), microscopic bathroom (1.2m x 1.5m) all built about 1840, with a renovation in early 1900s. Not super clean, but tolerable. No TV, but WiFi internet worked well. Windows opened at ground level, one onto a narrow yard & wall 2 storeys above, one to a light well 6 storeys deep, so we never got a 'day time' feel in the mornings. Anyway, it provided a good and conveniently located base to explore Boston, which we did. 

Saw all the usual historic sights, and took the opportunity to see through the State (Parliament) House of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

On our last day in Boston we took a ferry to Salem, an interesting and pretty village and site of the witch trials of 1692.

House in Sandwich, Cape Cod

Sunday was time to move on again – collected a rental car from Boston airport, and drove down the coast to Plymouth and Cape Cod. We got off the motorway for a beautiful drive along the bottom of the Cape Cod 'hook'. Spent a few hours at the very picturesque town of Sandwich, before reluctantly moving on to Newport, Rhode Island, which on approach seemed nothing special, but after a better look really is quite full of picturesque mansions, and a harbour full of huge and expensive yachts! We've since travelled all the way up through Massachusetts, visiting the Concord home of 'Little Women' author Louisa May Alcott; across the corner of Maine (visited a tram museum, wherein is a Sydney Tram!) and up into the mountains of New Hampshire where we rode the 1860s cog railway up Mt Washington. Lots of picturesque timber houses, and in the north, beautiful autumn foliage. Different from what we see in Australia, in that there are much more deep reds, as well as the many shades of green and yellow.

Louisa May Alcott House, Concord, MA

Marble Hall, Newport, RI

Mt Washington Cog Railway

I don't think I've said anything particularly negative in my blog to date, so it's about time to vent my frustration with a couple of things... I'd hate you to think that everything in America is just perfect.

First: TV. It's abysmal! A hundred channels of JUNK.. like 'Worlds Best Vacuum' ... 'Mum is 55 Looks 27' … 'Jewellery Auction' etc, all ads, all the time. “Reality TV” so unreal it's sickening. News... well the ONLY news that anyone wants to see, of course, is the Mitt Romney/Barack Obama slanging match. And that is very poorly presented if compared to Australia's ABC news presentation; there may be stuff happening in Syria and Libya (where a US Ambassador was sadly killed). But the rest of the world almost does not exist! And any other good dramas or docos you may see on ABC, SBS or even commercial TV at home, are simply not to be found here. At least not on TVs in hotels, many of which only have satellite or cable TV feed.

Second: Tea & Coffee. It's impossible to make yourself a good cup in hotels, apartments or B&Bs. Noone seems to have invented ELECTRIC KETTLES over here. They've all got these silly coffee makers, which gurgle away and spit out moderately warm water, but the tea bags make an almost undrinkable brew, and no-one has heard of instant coffee to make a quick cup without having to mess about with filters & packets. And of course, NO MILK, only powdered non-dairy creamer. Pth-ewy. If you buy a cup of tea or coffee at Starbucks or the like you get a BUCKETFUL (unless you emphasise SMALL CUP) of tasteless tea, or triple strong coffee!

Well that's off my chest. For the record, we did get to watch an episode of the British drama 'Hustle', (which we liked at home) in New York (albeit punctuated with ads for pharmacutical products with very long disclaimers!), and I have had a couple of passable cups of tea and coffee... over the last four weeks.

Sydney Tram - in Trolley Museum in Maine

Boston - The Old State House amid the modern city

Third frustration: I got this blog almost ready to post, and last night, for the first time in weeks, we didn't have WiFi access!