Day 13 - Boston

In Boston all day today so no driving at all which is refreshing for K. We saw a tip that even if you're only in Boston for a few days the 7 day transport pass is still good value and this has def been true. We got ours yesterday afternoon and we've probably got our money worth already.

We hopped down to the Dunkin next to the tube station and each got a bagel with a schmear and a coffee for breakfast. The weather wasnt great but wasnt as bad as we feared so we hopped on the tube into town.

I'd bought tickets for the hop-on, hop-off trolley tour on groupon before we left home so we just headed to the first stop as soon as we got into town. The tour was very good - funny, educational and entertaining. We hopped-off at Boston Common and went a wander about the fancy-pants area of Beacon Hill, apparently the townhouses looking onto Boston Common cost a minimum of £12mill!

After that we went a stroll through the Boston Public Garden which was absolutely hoaching with squirrels. Seriously, they were everywhere. We strolled over the smallest suspension bridge in america and took loads of photos.

Our next adventure was an exploration of the Back Bay area. We stopped at Flour Bakery for lunch and even though it was pretty busy we managed to get a seat. I had one of their fall specials - a sandwich with roast lamb, goats cheese and roast carrots - it was delicious but i couldn't finish it. K had a roast beef roll which I had a wee taste of so confirm it was delicious. Then we shared the main reason for us choosing Flour for lunch, their Boston Cream Pie. It was really good but not change my life good.

We wandered about some more enjoying the buildings, particular highlights being the Trinity Church and the Boston Public Library. We were unsure whether or not to do the skywalk observatory cos the weather wasnt great but we decided to go for it. Im super glad we did cos it was brilliant, we were up there for ages. You could still see for miles despite the weather and we were able to pick out loads of places we'd been. There were also other fun things up there like a citizenship test gameshow, a quiz about Boston and lots of info about the importance of immigration to the city.

When we got back on solid ground we walked about Newbury St a bit more before getting the tube pack to Boston Common to hop back on the tour. After we got back to stop 1 we hopped back off and headed to Hard Rock to get a souvenir for Lorna (John already had a Boston shot glass). After pottering about for a bit we went to The Bell in the Hand (the oldest pub in America fact fans) for a wee beer juice. We sat at the bar and they played some country hits so we were delighted. Ive been drinking Sam Adams to fit in with the locals and it's been pretty nice.

Our final area for day was the North End which is the original Boston and also the Little Italy of the town. It was really cool, lots of old school Italian businesses lining the streets. Our destination was the Regina Pizzeria which is the oldest pizzeria in town. It was like a proper Italian place out of a movie, photos of loads celebs on the walls, millions of police patches from all over on the walls and proper wee booths. I got a pizza with meatballs and K got a white pizza with roasted red peppers and broccoli. I also got their own brand root beer but K just had a diet coke. They had sport on 1 tv and jaws came on the other. Some teenage girls clearly hadn't seen it and looked absolutely shocked by the mauling at the start.

The pizza was good but def not the best pizza I've ever had, the whole experience was 2nd to none though and I would go again for the vibe. We didnt wait too long for a table but by the time we left the queue was halfway down the block so we were lucky.

We walked back through some other streets of Little Italy then just headed back towards the tube. The route back was via the Greenway which is a park that was created relatively recently when they moved the motorway that went through town into a tunnel below town. Apparently, once the tunnel opened air pollution in the city centre dropped by 75% almost immediately.  So if you visited Boston pre-2008 you might find it to be much more pleasant now. The Greenway has art all along it and benches. Some of the benches are swings so we had a grand old time having a wee swing.

We got back to the air bnb quite early cos we need to make sure that all the crap K has bought over the last fortnight fits in our suitcases. Imma have my leftover pizza now with a wee ginger ale - a wild last night.

Our flight isnt til 11pm tomor so we still have another, almost full, day before we head home.