Boston
Trips
31. Jan. 2020
Manfred Goschler
Because of our late departure from New York, we arrived in Boston later than planned. That’s why there was a rush when leaving the ship, but that didn’t bother me, because I now know how to make good use of such waiting times with the help of my mobile phone. In addition, you could still look at the showcases on this floor.
Many passengers make their shore excursions via organized tours that the ship offers and the schedule is predetermined. We prefer to go alone or in a small group to explore a city on our own in order to be more flexible. A bus brought us close to the center, where we first visited the Quincy Market, a historic building with adjoining halls with markets, and then decided to walk the Freedom Trail. This is a walkway marked with red lines that connects historical sights of the city.
First we strolled to Boston Common, the oldest public city park in the United States. Between historic buildings and skyscrapers, we noticed the contrasts between old and modern buildings.
With the best weather, we spent some time in the park before we set off.
The first stop on the Freedom Trail was the Massachusetts State House nearby. This building is the seat of government of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. There followed 15 more stations where there were signs almost everywhere, that reported about the historical background. Past parks, historic buildings, memorials, old cemeteries and churches, and even a historic battleship.
It was a 5 km long route through the city center and across the Charles River in the north to Charlestown and ended at the Bunker Hill Monument.
One station in front of it lies the oldest and still seaworthy warship in the world, the USS Constituation, which was launched in 1797. This ship could even be visited, which I would have liked to have done, but we ran out of time in the late afternoon. We were happy to catch a taxi that brought us back just in time for the ship to leave.
So unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to get a proper picture of this metropolis, which is said to be one of the “oldest, wealthiest and culturally richest cities in the USA” (wikipedia). This fact contributed to the idea of making this virtual trip to get to know this city and its history better. As it is often the case with a trip, at least as I imagine one, goals and focal points can change, which is especially evident on this virtual trip.
Due to the “positive” virtual experience in Princeton, I would like to limit my virtual visit to the two world-famous universities Harvard University and MIT in Cambridge near Boston. For that we have to come back to Boston at a later date.
Harvard is a private university in Cambridge near Boston on the east coast of the United States and a founding member of the Association of American Universities. It is the oldest university in the United States and dates back to 1636.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, German Massachusetts Institute for Technology) is a technical university in Cambridge and, like Harvard, is one of the world’s leading universities (source). It is particularly noteworthy that MIT makes its course materials publicly available on the Internet.
It is noteworthy that both universities are very transparent in their handling of information such as course documents or online courses. We’ll come back to that later.
Although it was a beautiful, sunny day in Boston, a cold and fresh wind was blowing.
From now on our ship was supposed to sail a route south, which is why we were looking forward to warmer days.
At the end of the day there was a great sunset on deck to admire.
