This covers our last two days - the 13th & 14th June; we had to pack and check out of the hotel on the 14th and then return for our luggage before we left for the airport in mid-afternoon

Monday 13 June (Rob’s 40th)

Woke about 8.15am. Weren’t expecting the weather to be very good so we didn’t rush. Usual fruit breakfast and then typed up the diary for yesterday. Didn’t get going until after 10am. Walked to Boylston T station and went a few stops north to Haymarket.

Quite difficult to orient ourselves when we came out but eventually realised that we were only a very short distance from where we’d stopped doing the Freedom Trail on Friday. Carried on with the Trail through the Italian district. Almost every shop unit seemed to be an Italian restaurant. They must have more of these per square foot than central Rome.

Found our way to the Paul Revere House. Very interesting, but very small (only 4 rooms) so didn’t take very long. Coming out we continued on the Trail and found a cafe for a drink. Very amusing man serving us. We seemed to be the only people in the cafe who didn’t speak Italian. The guy serving was switching between broad American and Italian - assume most people in the area grow up bi-lingual.

The next thing on the Freedom Trail was North Church. Very similar to King’s Chapel inside and difficult to photograph outside because of adjacent buildings. Carried on past Copps Burial Ground and eventually we were by the Charleston Bridge where the Trail carries on to Charleston, Bunker Hill, etc.

We decided to walk to the Beacon Hill area which wasn’t really too far. We passed the Bruins (ice-hockey) Stadium where there were already fans standing around outside for tonight’s game in the final of the Stanley Cup against Vancouver. This explains why Paul Revere is wearing a Bruins shirt in today’s photo, as are George Washington, and the ducklings in Boston Gardens.

We walked along Cambridge and then up Joy Street looking at the typical Beacon Hill houses. We turned onto Pinckney Street looking in on Louisburg Square - one of the most desirable addresses in Boston.

We came out on Charles Street which seems to be the neighbourhood shopping centre for Beacon Hill at this point. Lots of smart shops but the give away is that we’ve never seen so many manicure shops in such a short area.

Found a cafe and stopped for lunch. We should’ve said that by this time the weather had changed and it was actually sunny and relatively warm - enough for us to be carrying our coats rather than wearing them. We had a very welcome Sam Adams seasonal with our lunch.

Leaving the cafe we turned back along Charles St to Beacon St where we went into the Public Gardens. We stopped and photographed the (Bruin clad) bronze ducklings and then photographed a bright orange bird splashing in some casual water - at this stage we’ve yet to identify it.

We decided to do the ride around the lake on the swan boats. After the boat ride we took some photos of the various flowers in the gardens and then crossed to Boston Common and walked across to Boylston St. We came back into the food plaza and bought apple juices in Dunkin Donuts and sat and drank them to cool down. We then picked up some more water in the 7/11 and came back to our room. It was only about 4pm but we’d done enough walking for Les’s knees by then.

Downloaded photos and backed them up for the last time and wrote up diary. Anne used iMovie (as shown to us yesterday at the Apple Store) and managed to combine the two bear videos into one. We uploaded this to the Facebook page and deleted the two individual ones.

Started to prepare for tomorrow’s departure before gong out to eat. Went to Vapiano again, simply to avoid walking too far. Two tables of Brits near us. All here for the flower festival. Much fun in telling them we thought they were here for last Saturday’s Gay Pride March. As it was our last night we treated ourselves to a nightcap at the bar afterwards - Seagrams and Courvoisier. Odd that over here we’re happy to sit in a bar with large screens showing sport. It’s because the bar is spotless and everyone’s well behaved. Bruins were 4─0 up when we left, but it’s game six of the series, and we don’t know where the series stands.

Realised we haven’t mentioned the fun we have with people who ask us to take their photo at various tourist sites. Les always says OK and takes the lens cap off his own camera and starts to adjust the settings. It takes them a while to realise that he’s going to use his camera rather than theirs, and then he explains that he thought they meant that it would be nice for us to have a picture of them. Sometimes they realise that he’s winding them up, and sometimes they don’t.

Tuesday 14 June (Les’s birthday)

A quieter night. Woke around 8am, and opened Les’s cards while we had coffee in bed. Got ready and spent the next couple of hours packing for the flight. Managed to get everything in without any drastic problems. Had time to Skype Tracey after Niamh had come back from school. Went down to the front desk and checked our luggage and set off with just the one rucksack.

Les had had the idea of going to the airport early to see if any upgrades were available. We did this via the Blue Line, swapping on to it at Government Centre, having got on the Green Line at Boylston. Blue Line is obviously very new and has things like level access. Would’ve been good for our final trip to the airport (only $2.00 each), except for the various stairs at Boylston and the transfers  and of course the shuttle bus from Airport T Station to the actual terminal.

When we got there the terminal was utterly deserted. We had a coffee and finally found an information desk where the man phoned Virgin and was able to tell us that the desks would open at 3.30pm.

Took the Blue Line back to Aquarium and had a look round the adjacent wharf by the Marriot. We then walked to Quincy Market. This was surprisingly crowded - possibly more crowded than when we were there on Friday. After a walk through we decided on a fish outlet and we had a swordfish steak each, one with rice and one with salad. These were about $14 each - relatively expensive by food court standards but were absolutely wonderful and cheap by English standards. Unfortunately we had to stand to eat but it didn’t really matter as the food was so nice.

After lunch we walked back to the waterfront by the Aquarium and worked our way along the waterfront as far as Seaport. Certainly some of the smart places weren’t there when we were here last time. To get to Seaport we walked across the pedestrian bridge which is in fact the old rail bridge with a wooden deck. We didn’t go as far as old hotel but we could see it in the distance and recognised the Science Museum where we went and played with the computers.

By this time we’d had enough of walking and spotted what we thought was a T station. It was but not as we know it. It was actually a station for the Silverline Bus Service. The disconcerting aspect was that you had to go a long way underground but where you would find the rail tracks in a normal station was simply a roadway! The bus eventually came along and we realised that whilst underground it operates as a trolley bus with overhead wires so that there are no engine emissions. Presumably it switches to a conventional engine when it emerges into the street.

We went to South Station where the bus, still underground, interchanges with the Red Line. We got on this which meant that we’d now travelled on every single line - Red, Green, Blue, Orange and Silver. We only went one stop to Government Centre where we changed onto the Orange Line back to Tufts Medical Centre. The whole journey from Seaport to Tufts took less than 20 minutes. Having said that a fit person could possibly walk it in well under 30.

We went into the Food Court for the last time and had a cup of tea and then walked back to the hotel for 3pm. At this point the fun started - we’d assumed no more than about 3 mins to check our bags and get a cab. Firstly Les tried to split $20 bill at the Reception Desk to get some small change to tip the Bell Man. They were reconciling the till so we had to wait for that to finish. When the Bell Man then got our cases and went outside and started whistling for a cab a shuttle minivan pulled up to drop someone. He assured us he would be going straight to the airport and that we needn’t bother with the cab behind. Of course when we got in the van he had one more passenger to be dropped. This shouldn’t have been a problem except for the fact that there was a high profile visitor to the State House (police cars everywhere, traffic stopped, band playing ‘Hail to the Chief’ and everybody standing to attention and saluting.) By this time we’re getting a bit stressed, but our driver (Lebanese) was very laid back - we’ll be there in a couple of hours, he laughed! In fact immediately after the hold up we dropped off our passenger and were at the airport by 3.35 - only 5 mins after our target time.

What a contrast - the airport was now very busy. Fortunately there weren’t many people at the Virgin desk and we were able to walk straight up to a bag drop. We asked about an upgrade but he immediately started with our baggage, etc. By the time he’d weighed the second bag we realised he hadn’t heard and we asked again. Yes, upgrades available - no problem. He then spent an age tapping away at the computer and seeking assistance from colleagues. He kept telling us it was no problem, but we were worried that any upgrades would be sold at the other desks before he could complete ours.

Eventually all was well and all we had to do was to go to the Ticket Desk and pay. There was a couple at the desk and for some reason their transaction took an enormously long time. In the meantime another passenger came up and instead of joining the queue behind us stood in front of us. When the first couple left the desk he immediately moved up to it and started what looked like a complicated transaction. We resigned ourselves to a long wait but a Virgin man came up to us and asked if we were okay. We said yes but this guy has just gone in front of us. He’d actually served the man and said that he’d told him to wait behind us and he actually went to the ticket desk and made the clerk deal with us first. Didn’t please the queue jumper.

Got through all that and went through Security - almost no queue because of our upgrade. Unfortunately they didn’t like the ‘snowglobes’ that we’d bought for Holly and Kaya. They were below 100ml but they didn’t like the fact that they were sealed and couldn’t be opened to have the contents analysed. After some heartfelt pleading from Anne they agreed that they were probably the equivalent of nail varnish and let them through.

Not a great deal of interest inside the departure lounge. Only good thing is Duty Free has Seagrams VO and only $13 per litre. Skyped Tracey but the constant Tannoy announcements made it impossible to talk sensibly. Did a bit of typing and decided to grab something to eat.

Took off around 8pm (about 15 mins late) but made good time and arrived at Heathrow 25 mins early (6.50am) - flight took 5hrs 40mins and quite smooth. Not really enough time between dinner and breakfast to get much of a sleep.