Historical Studies Tour - Day 2

Today was a pretty busy day, with lots of good walking.

We had breakfast at a place near our hotel -- it was actually the snack bar in a bowling alley! But apparently, this place has a good enough kitchen to lay out a nice little buffet for us, and it was pretty good.

We returned to the Faneuil Hall area, and before starting on the part of the Freedom Trail that goes through the North End, we went by the New England Holocaust Memorial. I remembered the monument from when I had visited Boston in 1997, but there were things about it I missed the first time, so it was good to see it again. It's a very moving experience, especially for something that occupies only a few yards of a city walking park. There are six towers made of steel and glass; each tower represents one of the six Nazi concentration camps.

On the glass panes are numbers which resemble the prisoner tattoo numbers of those who were in the camps.

The thing that strikes you is that there are A LOT of numbers - six million, actually. Each tower is about 30 feet high, and the columns of numbers go all the way to the top, so it gives you a better sense of scope for how many people that would be. The sidewalk runs through each tower, and as you pass under them, warm air comes from vents in the ground, recalling the gas chambers and furnaces of the camps. On the sidwalk are various facts and quotes, and then, at each end, the word "Remember" written in English and Hebrew. Very moving.

(We will be seeing the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. when we get there, too.)

Then we walked along the Freedom Trail some more, and got to see what one of the oldest parts of the city looked like. The Paul Revere House was not open for us to go in, but I loved seeing the European-influenced architecture in some of the buildings around there. Apparently, the area was inhabited early on by Irish immigrants, fleeing the Potato Famine, later on by Jewish immigrants, and more recently by Italian immigrants. It's Boston's "Little Italy," with many Italian restaurants, bakeries, and coffee houses.

We stopped at the Old North Church, where we went inside and listened to the docent talk about the church's history, especially the events of April 17th, 1775, when Paul Revere and 30 other riders passed along the warnings of the British soldiers advancing toward Lexington and Concord. The docent also pointed out the famous bust of George Washington in its alcove, and the organ with its pilfered angels decorating the loft. It's a very interesting building, and worth visiting if you get the chance.

The park adjacent to Old North would be interesting to spend a lot of time in, reading the plaques and memorials to various

members of America's armed forces from all through our history. In the garden of the church itself was another very moving memorial, this one to those American military personnel who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last decade. It's a series of six-foot-high posts, with strings of dog tags hanging between them, one for each lost life. A stirring tribute, and a very effective one. I caught a short video when I saw that the sun was reflecting off of some of the tags onto the ground. (I'd upload the video, but the Internet connection in this hotel is rather slow!)

We then walked to Copp's Hill Burying Ground, one of the oldest cemeteries in Boston. Some of the headstones are over 300 years old, which is pretty darn old for us Americans, but nothing for Europeans!

We then walked back to the Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market area to have lunch and do a little souvenir shopping. While we were there, a Marine Corps band was playing at one end of the Quincy Market building. It was great to listen to them. Like one of the adults in our group said, you can't beat a military band for precision! They had about three songs in which some members of the band sang, as well, and that was really good, too!

We then boarded our bus again, and drove to Plymouth, to tour the Mayflower II, a replica of the original Mayflower from the 1620 crossing of the Pilgrims. Nearby is the famous "Plymouth Rock," which represents their landing place. It may not be the actual landing place, but it makes for a good monument!

Then, down to the the Plimoth Plantation, a "living history" museum of both the Plymouth colony in 1627 and of the lifestyle of the Wampanoeg people who lived in the area at the time. In the English village, there were several people in costume and in character who talked about the lives of the colonists. Not only were they very informative, but they were very good actors, giving lots of serious details about the people, their community, their relations with the natives, and the political situation driving European colonization of the New World. It was quite interesting to me, but I think it may have bored some of the kids!

We had dinner at the Plantation, with turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, butternut squash, salad, and desert. Then we came back to the hotel for the evening, mercifully early for our tired feet!

Tomorrow morning, we're up at 5:45 to get out of the hotel and go to breakfast, and on the bus by 7:30 or so to head to New York, where we'll see Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty!