Boston Day One

After 12 hours of travelling, a few hours of forcing myself to stay awake, and a 12 hour sleep, Boston is calling!

Today’s plan was just to wander around the city, see a few things that we wanted to see, and get a feel for the place.

Stop number one was to Kane's Donuts for a breakfast of Maple Bacon doughnuts and iced tea, followed by a walk through the Granary Burying Ground. At 8am the place was empty and atmospheric, lined with yellow trees and surrounded by red brick buildings.

Next up was a walk around Boston Common, the US's oldest public park. Just off of the park was Brattle Bookshop which specialises in antiquarian books, spanning three floors and with an outdoor shopping area.

From there it was a short walk to Beacon Hill, a popular neighbourhood full of red brick mansions. Lots of the porches were impressivly decorated for Halloween! The next break was at Beacon Hill Bookshop and Café for a London Fog and a slice of warm banana bread, before walking back to the Common.

October 23rd serendipitously combined the first day of our trip with national Boston Cream Pie day, so the obvious next stop was the Omni Parker Hotel which invented the sweet in 1856. While they were setting up for a tasting, they weren’t handing out samples yet so we grabbed some pies to go from the small shop on the site and headed back to the park to eat them.

Layers of sponge and cream, topped with chocolate and covered with almonds. It was delicious, but very heavy and not necessarily something that I’d have again. If you’re visiting with a friend then I would recommend getting one to share!

After a quick nap in the hotel, it was time for dinner at The Barking Crab. The fish was delicious and the views over the harbour as the sun went down were amazing! Be warned that when you order a side of onion rings they will bring you a whole platter…