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Boston
Calling this quaint and charming city the 'Athens of America' might seem a bit braggadocio, but the city's 19th-century glory radiates through its grand architecture, its population of literati, artists and educators and its world-renowned academic and cultural institutions.
Disastrous 'urban renewal' in the 1950s provoked such a furious backlash that Boston now has some of the best preserved historic buildings and neighbourhoods in the country. Compact, walkable, historic and clean, the city blends old-world beauty and modern convenience.
Area: 125 sq km
Population: 600,000
Country: USA
Time Zone: GMT/UTC -5 (Eastern Time)
Telephone Area Code: 617
Orientation
Boston is on a small peninsula in the middle of Massachusetts' Atlantic Coast, a little over 320km (200mi) northeast of New York City. Most of the city's sights are contained in less than 8 sq km (5sq mi). Cambridge (home of Harvard and MIT) is a short drive or subway ride north across the Charles River.
The North End, occupying the northeastern tip of the peninsula, is the historic city centre. The North End and the eastern waterfront are separated from the rest of the city by the John F Fitzgerald Expressway (I-93), now underground as a result of the Big Dig. Just south of the expressway are Faneuil Hall Marketplace and Government Center. The Financial District is a few blocks further south, Beacon Hill directly west, Boston Common (the city's main park) and Chinatown to the southwest. The Back Bay, South End and the Fenway are further to the southwest. Anyone in reasonable shape could walk from the North End to the Fenway - allowing for wandering, eating and shopping - in half a day or less. You can buy movies legal and fast at newdownload.info
back to top Events
Reserved and booky they may be, but Bostonians do Independence Day for a week and St Patrick's Day can hangover even longer.
Kick off the Chinese New Year in January or February with firecrackers and scampering dragons. If you've ever had a taste for green beer you can drink your fill on St Patrick's Day in mid-March. South Boston holds the city's biggest St Paddy's parade, though Cambridge has made a point of allowing the gay and lesbian groups that SoBo excludes to march. The city streets resound with the muffled slaps of thousands of running shoes during April's Boston Marathon.
Harborfest is Boston's weeklong version of the Fourth of July, with a free Boston Pops concert on the Esplanade and fireworks over the harbor. Save some room for July's Chowderfest, when you can sample dozens of fish and clam chowders from some of Boston's best restaurants. Head over to Cambridge for the Christmas Revels, which feature music, dancing and theatre from a different folkloric tradition each December.
Public Holidays
1 Jan - New Year's Day
third Monday in January - Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday
third Monday in February - Presidents' Day
last Monday in May - Memorial Day
4 Jul - Independence Day
first Monday in September - Labor Day
second Monday in October - Columbus Day
11 Nov - Veterans Day
fourth Thursday in November - Thanksgiving Day
25 Dec - Christmas Day
back to top Attractions
Beacon Hill
When Oliver Wendell Holmes called Boston the 'hub of the universe', he was thinking mainly of Beacon Hill. You can locate Beacon Hill easily by the gilt dome of the Massachusetts State House and the undulating rows of brick houses that surround it. Boston's most affluent - one might almost say precious - neighbourhood, Beacon Hill was once the stomping ground of the Boston Brahmin, the stereotypical member of the city's ruling class. Modern day young urban professionals now tread the brick sidewalks and cobblestone streets of the hill.
The 1798 State House was designed by local architect Charles Bulfinch. You can watch the parliamentary machinations of the state legislature when it's in session. Some of the finest headstone carvings in New England are on view at the Old Granary Burying Ground, where Paul Revere, John Hancock and Samuel Adams rest in peace.
Cambridge
There are college towns and then there are college towns - and then there's Cambridge. The double whammy of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) would make any burg's head swell. Just across the Charles River from Boston, Cambridge is a mix of ivy covered antiquity and nose-ringed youth. Ground zero is Harvard Square (actually a triangle) and the surrounding blocks, crammed with all the bookstores, cafés, restaurants and shops you'd expect to find in a town that caters to 30,000 university students. Just off the square is Harvard Yard, a quiet leafy quadrangle of vine-covered brick buildings. Among the school's several museums is the Museum of Natural History, where over 3000 lifelike handblown glass flowers and plants are on display.
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Charlestown
This neighbourhood is a living museum of Boston's shipbuilding past. At the river's edge is the oldest commissioned ship in the US Navy, the USS Constitution. Launched in 1797, it got its nickname, 'Old Ironsides', after surviving over 40 engagements during Thomas Jefferson's war against the Barbary pirates of North Africa. At the Charlestown Navy Yard, signs of its 174-year run as one of the country's major shipbuilding centres include one of the country's first drydocks, an 1836 Ropewalk (where the Navy made its rigging) and a WWII destroyer of the type built here in the yard's heyday.
Nearby are the Bunker Hill Monument and Monument Square, where during the Revolutionary War a rebel commander warned his men not to fire until they saw the whites of British eyes. The blocks around the square are lined with restored Colonial and Federal houses. You can reach Charlestown via a short walk from the North End across the Charlestown Bridge, or by water taxi from the Long Wharf on the eastern waterfront.
Faneuil Hall
Faneuil Hall and the adjacent Quincy Market form one of the country's first mixed-use commercial developments. The hall, built in the 1740s, has always been a market with an upstairs meeting hall; Quincy Market's three granite buildings were added nearly 100 years later to provide warehouse and retail space. The complex made the transition to tourist attraction in the 1970s, getting redubbed Faneuil Hall Marketplace in the process. Fishsellers and butchers still have stalls in Quincy Market's warehouses, but they now have trendy espresso joints and piano bars as neighbours. Jugglers and other street performers regularly perform outside. North End
Narrow, winding streets and the smell of coffee in the air probably mean you're in the North End, Boston's oldest neighbourhood and home to much of the city's Italian population. The heart of the Italian section is Salem, crammed with bakeries, cafés, delicatessens and candy shops. Among the remnants of Boston's early days are Copp's Hill Burying Ground, serving stiffs since 1660 (look for headstones pockmarked by Revolutionary War musket balls); the tiny clapboard Paul Revere House, built in 1680 and the oldest house in Boston; and the 1723 Old North Church, where two lanterns were hung in the steeple to signal the Brits' arrival by sea, which was followed swiftly by the first battle of the Revolutionary War.
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