Relaxing Donut Day
This was our last full day in Boston we slept in a bit and then made coffee. Jen used the pour until full method of adding coffee to the machine that resulted in some extremely strong brew adding milk only slightly lightened it. We decided to have a quiet day for our last holiday day.
Once we were up and dressed Jen wanted Donuts so we headed out and found the nearest Dunkin Donuts we grabbed some coffee and donuts. I had a jelly and a Boston cream and then a medium coffee. They were ok not the most fresh they’d been there in the case a while but they were pretty tasty. The coffee took a while to drink.
When we’d finished out coffee we headed off to the nearby shop to get some bits some cheese and some other bits. We headed home and then made toasted turkey pastrami cheese pickle and mustard sandwiches. They were pretty good we read and napped watched Walker Texas Ranger then had more sandwiches.
We then drank the remaining beer and watched the film The Heat with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy which was pretty fun.
Tomorrow we fly home our flights are not till the evening so we have a little time but our time in Boston is almost over.
Witches and Hotdogs
We got up fairly early so we would have some more time as we wanted to go to Salem. We had some coffee and a hearty breakfast of meat omelet. Which was our remaining eggs bacon and the pseudo salami we bought.
Once fortified we headed out and caught the green line down to North Station where the T links up with the commuter rail. I got a ticket but Jen and by association rode for free. We caught the train over to Salem. It wasn’t a long trip we managed to get shouted at by the train guards for going to the door too soon as apparently that was verboten.
Anyway we left the train and headed into Salem the weather was clear almost painfully bright and bitterly cold the low being -9 degrees C it was pretty nasty. The previous day it had gotten a bit warmer but today it was cold again. You really needed your coat gloves and warm stuff.
We headed over to the Witch House which was where Jonathan Corwin a judge in the famous witch trails lived. It was a mansion in it’s day and had two stories and something like 4 main rooms. The house was moved and renovated some time in the 1940’s as the road ran through where it was so they shifted it back a bit.
The inside had some interesting stuff on the times and examples of the furniture. One of the pieces was the table it was narrow some 24 inches across and 8ft long made of a single plank. This was because any plank wider than that was shipped to England for ship building by law. You could also see some of the inside construction of the walls in one section which showed how they layered the construction for a sort of insulation.
After that we headed out and towards the Witch Dungeon Museum which was nearby. We got there and found it was closed till april 1st though maybe that was a joke. On the side of the building was a plaque that said the building was built on the site of the gaol where the witches were held in the witch trails which was then razed in the 1950’s. Then there was a second smaller plaque next to the first one saying that the plaque had been moved and the actual site of the gaol was two blocks over.
So we headed further into Salem to see the Salem Witch museum. The museum started with a presentation that went through the witch trails using manikins and a voice over. It was a little odd. After that they had a guided tour that went through the history of witches in general and the modern “witches”. Looking at the list of local attractions there were several “witches” or “psychics” who were the sort of annoying jerks who spelled magic with a K. We didn’t visit any of these frauds.
Instead we visited the Boston hotdog company a place with magical (tasting) hotdogs. I had the excellent Texas Dog, Byrnie had a Southern Slaw Dog, and Jen had the Reuben Dog. They were very tasty and just what we needed on a cold day.
We wrapped up and headed back to the train station catching the next train home. We rode the T back to the nearest stop and then headed over to the booze and sandwich shop and got a few bits. For dinner we enjoyed some nachos and then finished off some chili we had made. Tomorrow is our last full day I’m not sure what we plan to do yet. Salem was good fun very cold but it was nice to see the various period houses and witch stuff and excellent hotdogs.
MIT and Pancakes (Wednesday 11th)
I got woken up pretty early by someone shouting what I thought was “BACON!” so naturally I got up thinking it was Byrnie making an early breakfast. However the kitchen was dark and there was no one about. Once the cobwebs had cleared a bit I realized the noise was actually coming from above.
I’m not sure what it was but it sounded like workmen doing something with cables (I heard them scream back and forth about the end of some cable). I went back to sleep and woke up sometime later when the screaming had stopped and had been replaced by banging and dragging noises. This time Jen was up and making coffee so I stayed up.
We got some coffee and rather than have breakfast we decided to go out for breakfast. Jen wanted to go to IHOP as she had never been to one. So we headed back up towards Harvard where the nearest IHOP awaited. It was more like lunch than breakfast by the time we got the bus and rode up to Harvard square and the IHOP was basically empty. I ordered a t bone steak and eggs (with pancakes) and then enjoyed rather a lot of food. It was pretty tasty the special syrups were nice.
Fueled up for the day we decided to go and tour MIT. There was an app available that offered self guided tours (as we had missed the student guided option) so we rode the T back down to the stop nearest MIT. We walked down towards the university and then fired up the app. It provided a blank screen. We tried it on another device, it did the same, we tried it on the Jen’s Iphone, it wouldn’t download. We tried using the map part of the application, it crashed. It seemed the android version was not full Lollypop compatible. Pretty bad for what is supposed to be a tech savvy university. We couldn’t get the iphone version to download so we decided to just have a wander around.
We saw a few of the buildings and then headed down to the Charles river which offered a great view of Boston. The sun was out it had gotten quite warm (I took my coat off and was fine in just a tshirt) and it was gloriously bright with a vivid blue sky it was a really nice day. We walked about taking pictures and enjoying the day then we walked back across the bridge.
We headed into a pub to enjoy a drink picking the Corner Tavern which is a little pub in the basement on the corner the street a block or so down from where our flat is located and across from the sandwich and booze shop.
I enjoyed a nice Lagunitas IPA which is a Californian brand I know but it was good and on tap. We enjoyed a pint and then headed over to the booze and sandwich shop to pick up some stuff for dinner.
We grabbed some cheese and other bits then headed home. We made a lasagna and also garlic bread drank arrogant bastard beer and then prepared for tomorrow when we intend to visit Salem.
