I think we spent our time wisely as again thanks to Norngirl it was well planned. After getting off the train from New York we stood on an almost deserted platform, the complete opposite of Penn Station where we'd been just hours earlier. The first thing we did was buy our travel passes for the local metro service called the 'T' and found ourselves a station to get on a tram out to Cambridge where the hotel we were staying at was located.
Once we had made it to the hotel, checked and settled in, we made our way to the local Cheesecake Factory we found food and were introduced to the not so old Samuel Adams. His tastier brews became a firm friend during our visit.
Another ride on the T and we'd made it to TD Garden, home of the Boston Bruins for the big game as they took on the New York Rangers.
I'll try not to delve into too much depth as I still aim to write a separate post on all of the overall Ice Hockey experience but suffice to say, we weren't at this game as neutrals. We were cheering for the New York Rangers! Boston and New York have quite the friendly rivalry. Inside the stadium we were set upon by a big fury Bruin, thankfully this one was the mascot dressed up in a big plush costume. I got a mocking tug of my hockey shirt that says 'NEW YORK' diagonally across it and some Bruin attitude... we laughed. Next up the dude selling beer was toying with us until he found out we'd travelled from the Emerald Isle, at which point ‘best buds’ and the beer flowed. It was all in good humour and it set the tone for a friendly but competitive game in which, complete with a flashing beer, we had a great time.
It felt like being in a friendly hornets nest (the Bruins club colours didn't help) or should I say Bruins den? We were little spots of blue and red scattered amongst an arena of yellow and black. A plucky fellow New York Rangers fan in the section across from us gave us both some confidence with some fighting talk and so as the NYR goals rained in we celebrated like we were at Madison Square Garden. The final score was 3-0, the Bruins fans did get to cheer but it was short lived as a goal was correctly ruled out muwhahahaha.
We hung back as the crowds emptied from the stands to take it all in and ended up having a chat about hockey with a friendly Bruins fan and we wished them all the best for the season. On the way out the building we had to use the lift, turns out we weren't the only UK hockey fans in the building as a lady with a Coventry Blaze shirt was there too. Our night ended back in the hotel with a slice of Cheesecake, watching the Daily Show on TV.
The next day we set about our sightseeing itinerary. We'd decided not to bother with the USS Constitution as we've seen our fair share of ships and US history this trip. We also looked up the sights along the freedom trail but we hoped to do something different.
First of all we took a walk past Boston City Hall, Custom House Tower...
and Faneuil Hall ...
...and through Quincy Market.
We then carried on our walk down Long Wharf amongst others...
To get to our next location we ended up in the Aquarium... well the stop of that name anyway. The place names were fun. We were heading inbound which wouldn't have been disappointing if we weren't giving up the intrigue of finding out what was is in Wonderland!
Where we did go was for lunch, a delicious and very reasonably priced set lunch (which on the day was $22 for 3 courses) at the restaurant called 'Top of the Hub' which is located at the top of Prudential Tower. It had amazing views of the urban sprawl and beyond.
This was followed by a short walk to the bus stop to catch our ride over the Harvard bridge to the University area in order to visit the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Museum... more in part 2.
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