The ducks of Boston

So between Saturday and Sunday I've had two guided tours of Downtown Boston, the first through the bus tour, the second through the Beantown trolley tour.

Hotel by the sea

Beantown is the nickname of the city, from when they had a lot of people to feed and not enough food. There was a lot of bean dishes going around. (And according to the guide, the gave the Windy city competition for the nickname.)

The trolley is a reproduction of a trolley cart, a hop on / hop off thing where the drivers give you pointers of the area you are going through. Being the lone passenger at time, I had a more interesting discussion with the driver (come on, cricket. Even the American don't understand it.)

I used the trolley to go to the USS Constitution, then to go back downtown. I went to the public garden, which is on the other side of the street from the Common, and which reputedly has a tree from every state (including Hawaii). There are also ducks, of the feather variety and the bronze variety. I'll to put a picture after,  but pictures makes writing harder. The bronze ducks are inspired by a children's book, Mother Goose or something (I know, ducks and geese.)

The ducks, of the bronze variety

After that well I was near Beacon Hill and its mansions. They are brownstones, which means they were built of bricks and the occasional reddish-brown stone. The streets are still paved with red bricks, the lights are still fuelled with natural gas. The area is beautiful, posh, of course, and quiet as soon as one takes a side street away from Charles street, the big avenue that crosses Beacon Hill.

Brownstone

Brick pavement

After taking my fill of brownstones, I decided on new adventures: buying food to take home. Well, that wasn't that easy. I found the grocery store, first victory. I found more or less food to buy (I'm happy to learn that my ham is gluten-free.) At the checkout, I was stymied by the bagger:I'm not used to have my shopping bagged (doubled-bagged, actually) by someone.

But I found my way home and had a good dinner.