Well early to bed means early to rise and we woke in Boston at 3:30 am. Plus we’re excited about embarking the Zuiderdam for the Voyage of the Vikings cruise.
Yesterday we got notice the ship was having a Coast Guard inspection and the terminal would not open for check-in until 1 pm.
We were assigned new boarding times based on deck. Ours is 1:45 pm or later. Given that news, we plan to take a trolley tour to make the best of the morning. Steve took a morning walk and got a photo of the Zuiderdam waiting for us.
Renaissance Breakfast
After in room coffee and getting ready for the day we headed down to the hotel’s breakfast venue, Cadiz Lounge. It is buffet only on weekends but what a buffet. We had fruit, pastries, omelets, potatoes, pancakes, juice and coffee.
There was also oatmeal, yogurts, bagels, and toast.
The couple next to us started a conversation and it turns out they’re on the same cruise. We enjoyed getting to know Roger and Renee over breakfast.
Afterwards, it was back to the room to finish getting ready, repack the bags, and head down for checkout before touring. We dropped our bags with the bell staff. It was a short walk to the trolley stop for today’s tour.
We had about a 30-minute wait for a trolley on this seaport transfer route. Then at the next stop, 1, we all debarked and got in a line for the real tour.
Boston Trolley Tour
It took about 20 minutes or more to get on a trolley and off we went. We decided not to go to the Revere house because of the unexpected waits.
It turned out to be a gorgeous day and we enjoyed being in the open air and seeing some sights. Boston is a beautiful city with lots of green space for residents.
After driving through the North End we crossed over to Bunker Hill. This is the monument.
I wasn’t able to get a picture of the USS Constitution but boy is it small. The bus crossed the water again and we had a good look at the Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge.
Statues
The trolley passed many statues and some without explanation so I looked up information later (thank you Google Lens). I found the Curley Memorial Plaza interesting with two statues of the same man.
He was a former Boston mayor as well as congressman. Ben Franklin’s statue is outside the Boston Latin School site. He was a student there.
This is a statue of Horace Mann who is known as the father of American Education and was a statesman for Massachusetts before becoming a college president.
The Robert Gould Shaw & Massachusetts 54th Regiment memorial is impressive. They were one of the first black regiments in the US.
Buildings
The picture below is the Armory of the First Corps of Cadets built in late 1890s.
Pretty fancy for an armory; even includes a gargoyle! Next we saw the old State House which was built in 1713.
Still a beautiful building after three centuries. This is the front of the Trinity Church which was the church’s third building and completed in 1877.
The back of the church is just as beautiful.
The last building I wanted to share with you was the John Hancock building.
I normally don’t like glass buildings like this but the reflections of the historical buildings across from it make it a striking one. These are just a few of the beauitful and historical buildings we saw during the driveby trolley tour. You could get off
Other Outdoor Art
There’s an interesting story behind this giant copper kettle outside Starbucks.
It was originally created in 1873 for a tea company which went out of business. Then it moved to the present location when the cafe was named “Steaming Kettle”. It still seems fitting for a Boston located Starbucks given the city history with tea.
There is an art installation of about 100 cows in the city right now. I spotted a few of them during the tour.
This one’s walking the wrong way. 🙂
They are being sold for charity when the display ends.
Tour End
I recapped just some of the beauitful and historical buildings, sculptures, etc. we saw during the trolley tour. With more time, we would have gotten off at stops and explored more thoroughly. Luckily it wasn’t our first time to Boston so we didn’t feel cheated.
We got off at stop 14 by the Tea Party museum and walked the little over half mile to the hotel.
Once there we got out bags from the bellman and ordered an Uber XL thanks to all the luggage. The rest of our busy embarkation day will be detailed in the next post.
Leave a Reply