It has been too long since my last published post. I can’t believe that I still haven’t reported my whole trip yet. Today I am going to talk about Boston, Concord and Newport in Rhode Island.
Boston was our first stop. Boston is the largest city of New England and a pretty neat place to visit. It is not only famous due to its vast size, it is actually one of the oldest and wealthiest cities in America. The metropolis is also associated with a lot of cultural stuff and considered as the birthplace of the American revolution since so many important historical events took place there (e.g. the Boston Tea Party). Furthermore Boston is known for top colleges like Harvard and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). And last but not least of course its popularity for sport. Boston is the home of one of the best current Baseball and football teams (Boston Red Socks & New England Patriots).
After 2.5 days in Portland we decided to leave right in the morning that day. We wanted to use the whole day and see as much as possible. We presumably arrived in Boston at around 10-11 am, so not too late. It was actually not even that easy to find a good parking spot downtown. That is probably one thing we could have looked into earlier. We parked somewhere close to the Suffolk University. Our first stop know was the public garden where we tried to get some information and advices about the city. Afterwards we decided on going through the financial district first to get a first impression of the city. Consequently we went to the waterfront and harbor of Boston. Then we got to see the Boston tea party boat and museum. Afterwards we continued our walk along the water and ended up at a nice bakery. After that we walked through some other streets and parts of Boston. For instance china town. Later we also walked along the famous “freedom trail” which pretty much took us through half of the city and included a lot of nice sights such as the Boston Common, the USS Constitution, the Park Street church, the Benjamin Franklin statue and the Site of Boston Massacre. Within the trail we also came across lots of nice squares and shops. Later on we went to Beacon Hill, which is another borough of Boston. More places that we stopped at where Quincy Market, the Public garden and Little Italy. We pretty much took the whole day to explore the city by just walking. The city has the perfect size to reach all the major sights by walking, at least in the downtown area. Since we did not went to any museums, the aquarium or on a boat tour we got a lot done on that day. The only thing that could have been a bit better was the weather. I do not want to complain because it did not rain but I wish it would have been sunny and a bit warmer. In the evening we went to our Bed & Breakfast place which wasn’t that great. That’s why we decided to stay there for only one night and leave the day after. Unfortunately leaving meant that we were not able to go to Cape Cod for the next day and go on a whale tour which kind of sucked. Apart from this the day was awesome. Boston really impressed me and I can’t wait to go back some day.
On the next day we did not immediately leave Boston. In the morning we went to the Harvard University, a place I have always wanted to go to. It was fairly interesting to see the university in reality. I do not even know whether I could imagine studying there, since there were so many tourists, but it definitely impressed me. After we explored the campus and got some breakfast, we went to Concord, which is a small town near Boston and the home of very important writers. Americans kind of compare it with Weimar in Germany, since it is famous for the literature history. Concord it is not that large though, so we saw all the major sights. Following this, we stopped at a small restaurant to get something to eat before continuing our ride towards Rhode Island. Our second last destination was Newport, which we kind of decided before long. We did not book a place to stay at yet, so we figured that we could not get there too late. It was probably around 6:30 when we got there. Most of the places were already dereocgnized. Eventually we ended up at a hotel near Newport.
The plan for the next day was to spend half day in Newport and half day in the car to get to our final destination, New York City. For everyone who hasn’t already heard anything about Newport. Newport is one of the biggest cities in the tiny state Rhode Island. It is located on the Atlantic Ocean and a very popular tourist destination among Americans, especially people from the city (NYC) and foreign visitors. It is pretty old for American conditions and has been famous for a few centuries due to his location between the two metropolis Boston NYC. In 1646 Newport it was renowned for its shipbuilding industry. Later on, while the Declaration of Independence in 1776 some British colonies occupied Newport and partly destroyed it. Even though it never got back its economical and political importance, some rich families such as the Vanderbilds and the Breakers took up residence there. At first we went to the center of the town and explored the harbor as well as some shops. Consequently we drove along the coast and stopped at the beach and eventually at the nice mansions of the Vanderbilds and Breakers. We decided to go for a stroll. We went in a couple of mansions and honestly it was pretty imposing to see how the rich people of the 19th century lived like. The Vanderbilds used to be one of the richest families on the planet. The villas represent the prosperity of the family. Even nowadays it would cost a fortune to build a mansion like this.
That was our last stop in Rhode Island. In the early afternoon we already left Rhode Island in order not to arrive too late in NYC. On the way there we only stopped once at an outlet mall where I went shopping for the last time. Due to heavy traffic the whole drive almost took us 4 hours which was probably normal when going to New York City. Already from the highway I was amazed by the skyscrapers. I knew that some unforgettable days were upcoming. At about 8 PM we arrived at that friends house in NYC. After the long drive we were starving and decided to order some Thai food which was delicious. Because some busy days were imminent we did not go to bed too late.
I hope I will soonish find time to report on the time in New York City. Bye for now and y’all take care!
Justus
justusgoesabroad.wordpress.com 