A five-hour drive across Quebec's Eastern Townships and the mountainous terrain of northern New England brings one from Montreal to the historic city of Boston, Massachusetts. It was my new proximity to the USA's eastern seaboard that led me to pay a brief visit in the late summer of 2007. Although two to three days doesn't give much time for delving into Boston's past, just to arrive there and walk the town's center lets history soak in by osmosis. A passing understanding of this city's significance in redefining the new world over 200 years ago helps enrich even a cursory urban ramble through the crooked, cobbled streets.
Google map of downtown Boston.
Of course, Boston is also a modern American city, so expect incongruities like that 18th-century graveyard being surrounded by glass skyscrapers or the marvelous towering cathedral sharing a street with a corporate coffee chain. This is history with context and you can count yourself a part of it.
If I return, I intend to hop a ferry and explore the dunes and beaches of Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, but this report shows only a land-based account of Boston's center. Pictures posted include Beacon Hill, the Boston Common, the Back Bay district and a sojourn across the Charles River to the Cambridge side, where I witnessed a Caribbean parade.
Click the link for more photos of Boston life.
