Sunday morning dawned with better weather, enabling us to see most of the old town on foot. Boston's oldest suburbs are filled with beautiful old buildings and history. One such building is Trinity Church, a soaring 19th-century Episcopal church on the edge of Copley Square. As luck would have it, we enjoyed a superb view of this local landmark from our hotel room. I secured our impressive view courtesy of some Starwood loyalty points I'd cashed for three nights at the Westin Copley Place.
Copley Square is also home to the finish line of Boston's renowned marathon. This athletic milestone is preserved in marble on the pavement along the plaza's western perimeter. Nearby, on our first day wandering, we also came across a delightful, but damp, sculpture depicting the Hare and Tortoise of Aesop's fable folklore.
However, I preferred the equally quirky Make Way for Ducklings sculpture we encountered a few blocks away in the Boston Public Gardens. It depicts the duck family from the children’s classic of the same name. Next door in the famous Boston Common we found more fictitious characters cast in bronze by the aptly named Frog Pond. Apparently, the pond doubles as an ice skating rink in winter.
I was thrilled to finally visit Old North Church in North End, Boston’s historic neighbourhood on Sunday. Its steeple was used to warn locals of approaching British soldiers during the American Revolution. Two lanterns were hung in its distinctive white tower for less than a minute to avoid attracting the attention of the Brits. We've all heard of Paul Revere who saw this signal. He went on to ride through the night warning nearby counties.
Boston’s revolutionary horseman is immortalised in bronze nearby. This imposing statue rests on a pink granite plinth at the end of Paul Revere Mall, a leafy pedestrian boulevard extending eastward from Old North Church. Twenty-three-year-old artist, Cyrus Dallin, won a competition to erect the sculpture in 1885, by beating out two other finalists. We later learned that he cast several versions of this statue, some of which are displayed elsewhere around the city.
Curiously, the Old North Church’s sanctuary isn’t fitted with regular rows of slip pews. Instead, its seating is divided into low-wall cubicles called box pews. Families and congregation groups once paid a weekly fee to retain exclusive use of their own box pew. The layout visible today was restored in 1912 and includes some of the original doors, hinges, and panelling from 1723.
Another unexpected highlight was our visit to the Christian Science headquarters. Here we saw the Mapparuim. It's a three-story spherical stained-glass globe room glazed with a political map of the world as it appeared in 1935.
You effectively walk into a spherical room across a glass bridge suspended in mid-air and view the world as if you were standing at its core, looking outwards. It's an incredible experience! However, visitors aren't allowed to carry cameras and loose items inside. Hence the image below was ripped from the internet. You can read more here.
The project has taken almost 15 years to complete. Construction delays and cost overruns have made it the USA’s most expensive highway project. It’s also inspired Sydney’s burgeoning network of underground motorways. Regardless, it provided an impressive and seamless transfer from the airport.
Staying at Princeton brought back more childhood memories. I'd last been here during my exchange student year. My host father, host sister Marcia, and I had driven down from Syracuse to see the University campus in February 1984.
At the time Marcia was considering Princeton as a college option for studying a computer science degree. I recall that she visited the campus computer lab, a room filled with large clunky desktops. It was more than a little ironic that I found myself back in town 21 years later, pursuing my own career in the technology industry.
While I attended the conference, Garry spent most of his time playing golf, shopping, and enjoying the parklands around the town. Princeton is stunning, filled with many old gothic buildings and parks filled with autumn-coloured oak trees. As you'd expect, the squirrels are everywhere preparing for winter.
Once I'd completed my professional obligations, Garry and I got back on the road. Our next stop was the French Canadian city of Montreal.
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