Tea, massacres and magnolias

With the state of Maine behind us we enter Massachusetts and it's most famous city, Boston. Images of Boston have beamed through our television for years in the shape of a couple of well known sitcoms, Cheers and Ally McBeal. Other than TV I know that this was the kicking off point of the American revolution and their sporting teams are the Red Sox and the Celtics. The latter being a nod to the Irish contingent who crossed the pond here and now reside in their faux Irish thousands. In fact more Americans now claim to have Irish blood than the actual population of Ireland.
Again our budget is struggling to meet the high prices of a city like Boston so we're forced to stay out of town, luckily it's not too far though. In fact the are in which we stay is a nice neighbourhood, Watertown, which is just a stones throw from the famous Harvard university.
We park up in the leafy, floor filled euro-style streets of the edge of Boston downtown. Tall brick terrace buildings flank the streets upon which fresh colourful flowers in full bloom run the length of the path. It's a picture book scene of spring in an eastern American city.
A large park and gardens dominates the city and makes for more good photos and a pleasant stroll. It's a welcome change to be amongst a park in the centre of a city once again and the surrounding terraces of red brick buildings give the place an air of London. From here it's into the main shopping street and downtown proper. The streets are clean, relatively busy and surprisingly tramp free. The mainly dull shopping area has a sprinkling of older buildings and we have a look for the Boston Massacre site that started the revolution in front of one of the oldest city buildings, but we couldn't find it. Ok, so we try and find the boat that started the Boston tea party from which British India tea was thrown into the water in opposition to a British embargo, but we couldn't find it. Both of these crucial moments in American history aren't signposted and even though included on a map are impossible to find. We end up stumbling upon a rather a fairly lifeless market area that has a great looking colonial building adjacent, Faneuil Hall.

For a time we wondered if this was the massacre site, but it wasn't.
If you're wondering what all this massacre business is all about then I will explain. If you already know then be prepared to be mesmerised by my description of events! Ok, maybe not. The Boston Massacre was influential in America becoming separated from British rule. British soldiers on nightly watch outside the old state house had become points of frustration for the Bostonians and we're a target for venting local grievances about the British taxes and so on. One cold night this abuse escalated into a barrage of thrown items upon the troops along with torrents of abuse. A soldier was knocked to the ground as a crowd gathered taunting the soldiers to fire upon them. The soldiers did and 5 people perished. The soldiers were sent to trail but a Boston lawyer saved them from prison. This lawyer, John Adams, eventually become a leading player in the move to split from British rule and even at the time of the trial his brother, Samuel, was heavily involved in the beginnings of revolution.
We do eventually happen upon the spot of the massacre at a rather overshadowed old state house that's now seems miniature in comparison to the large sky scrapers either side. There's a plaque on the floor that we can't quite see as it's surrounded by construction works and jostling people rushing into the old state house as it's now a tube station. In fact, this pivotal point in American history was almost flattened to build offices but when Chicago offered to buy it, transport it and rebuild it brick by brick the people of Boston held firm and the powers that be just flattened everything around it instead. This is the American way.
It's even more odd that this building came so close to demolition considering that America's first official president, George Washington, was inaugurated and made his first speech here! More of the same continued at the waterfront. The ship, which is depicted on our colourful map, that was the site of the Boston Tea Party was also nowhere to be seen. We heard much later that the ship had actually burned a few years ago and no-one had thought to rebuild it. This again is massively influential in the formation of the United States of America. It was this ship on which the British India Tea Company was transporting it's goods into the harbour. This aggrieved the Bostonians as they were not allowed to import and export goods other than those to the British Empire. The British India Tea Company had been granted sole license to trade. The already annoyed locals decided to board the ship and throw it's cargo into the cool waters below. The captain was apparently covered in hot tar and then stuck with feathers and paraded through the streets. But did we find any of this out in Boston? Nope. I'm sure their museum would've told us but by this point we'd read a fair amount on the subject anyway.
We get one back over the Yanks by getting another parking ticket of which we had no intention of paying, what revolutionaries we are.
Overnight we get some complete lunatics stopping next door to us who drunkenly argue like true demented loons for hours. At one point it even sounded like the woman of the couple was being strangled. You know your motel is going to be a bit dodgy when your room door is metal. Next day we head out tired and grumpy looking for Harvard University. It should be right near our motel and we head glimpsed it the day before. True to form here in Boston, we couldn't find it. It's no wonder though, the road signs here are frankly woeful. They tell you were you want to be going for a couple of miles but when the road splits or comes to a T-junction all the signs disappear and you're left with total guesswork. Invariably the guess is totally wrong and you've wasted 3 and a half hours of your day trying to find something that you weren't really that bothered about seeing in the first place. We do, however, take a stroll around the student town of Cambridge for a short while to see if we stumble upon the University amongst all these students. All we find is our faithful burrito chain, which made us happy enough. The manager of the place chatted to us a bit about his friend from Manchester. 'He still thinks he's in England because he watches football and wants to go out and start a fight.' You can take the man out of Manchester....
Boston, I'm not sure I get it. A couple of days here was enough as all the sights around downtown can be seen in a day and then the next day is spent tooling around the plain neighbourhoods. There are some decent looking buildings, the streets seem clean, the tramp population is minimal but on the whole it's not somewhere I'd recommend. The lack of general life is a failing of America and Boston doesn't escape it. From a place that is home to the American revolution I expected much more in the way of historical interest but it turns out otherwise. It's also bloody cold, the North Atlantic really doesn't take any prisoners here.
And what of the famous Cheers bar? Well, the bar is still the same from the outside but inside it's totally different as the real Cheers was filmed in a set. Some entrepreneurial soul has thought it wise to build a replica of the set over at the market, which is housed in glass through which you can peer inside at what looks nothing like the fabled bar of the 80's sitcom. The disappointment continues. To be honest, there's nothing really to come out of your way to Boston for. If you're in the area then why not but otherwise I can think of at least 10 far better cities off hand.