17 September, 2012 - Boston is great! It's like going to Europe without leaving the country and the people are really friendly and so nice! And like Paris, it's not very handicapped friendly. True, most of the corners have ramps, but to get to the stores and restaurants, you either have to climb stairs or descend stairs.
We made our plane reservation through a travel agent. We will never do that again. We've used them before and it seems no matter where you're going, they always book you on a flight with at least one stop, even though there are many non-stop flights available. You may recall we had to go to Dallas, Texas in order to get to Paris, France. This time it was
Fort Lauderdale to Atlanta, Atlanta to
Boston. The airline, AirTran, wasn't bad, but their $20 per bag charge is ridiculous. And they don't tell you about that until you've already made your reservation! That was with one bag each. If we had had two, it would have been $45. Three would have been $90. Four = $200! Now I understand why people board with two or three bags, even though it's supposed to be prohibited. It still bothers me that they think they have the right to take more overhead storage than allotted, but I do understand why they do it.
We arrived in Boston around 17h00 on Monday. Caught a cab to the
Commonwealth Court Guest House in the Back Bay area of Boston. The ride took only about fifteen minutes. We knew nothing about the guest house and had kind of taken it as a last resort. As luck would have it, it was a very nice place, though our studio was rather small, in an excellent location. I had Googled it and found on Street View, that only a block away was
Newbury Street which was teeming with restaurants. Our first Boston dinner was at
Kashmir and it was very good. The buildings you see in the photo are typical of the Back Bay area.
18 September, 2012 - On Tuesday, we discovered we were only about three blocks from a large shopping mall located in the
Prudential Center, so we walked down and had a walk around the place. The stores seemed to be mostly high-end places. We've quickly found out that everything in Boston is a bit more expensive than we're used to in Fort Lauderdale. Robb, as usual, was suffering from hunger pains, so we walked to a restaurant named
Cafeteria for lunch. Robb had a chicken club sandwich which was so large that even he couldn't eat the whole thing. I had a "side order" of Parmesan Fries, half of which I brought back to the studio for later consumption (which never did happen). Our second dinner in Boston was at a great French restaurant...
La Voile. The chef and most of the staff are French. We both had Le magret (roasted duck breast) and were happy to find that the serving size was considerably less than the American Huge we're used to getting.
19 September, 2012 - Wednesday started with lunch at
Charley's Saloon. The we caught a taxi to the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts. We were surprised to find how close it was to the guest house. Five or six years ago, I would have been able to walk to it. It's a
huge, beautiful place, but not the easiest to find your way around. We did manage to see a lot of it, but we did not see even half of what they had to offer. When we decided to leave, we simply sat outside and waited for a taxi to show up looking for a fare. We only waited about five minutes. Tonight's dinner was at Charley's Saloon, because we had been told they make the best
New England Clam Chowder in the world. It is served in a bread bowl that, in it's self was quite edible. They were right! It was easily the best we've ever had.
20 September, 2012 - We started by walking down to the
Prudential Center. Then we made our way down to the
Boston Public Library, a huge place. I waited by the entrance while Robb wandered around having a look at the place. In the time I was sitting there, people just came coming in and out. More people entered while I was there then we usually see in a week at the Fort Lauderdale library. It was simply astonishing. Afterward, we walked down to have a look at the Copley Subway Station. We watched as several trains came and left. Each one was standing room only! Then we made our way over to
Trinity Church. We were a bit put off when they wanted to charge us to go in a have a look around.
Dinner tonight was special, and the real reason we are in Boston! We got to meet with 'Blocked' and her husband at
Kashmir. They were both really charming people and we're so glad we got to meet them in person. We had a great meal and a lot of great conversation. After dinner, we all went back to our tiny room and chatted a little longer.
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Dumb Law of the Week: In Omaha, Nebraska, it is illegal for a child to burp during a church service, his or her parents may be arrested.
À la prochaine, mes amis.
