Marcher le long de la Freedom Trail

Walking along the Freedom Trail

Head entrance of Bost South Station

It was 18 February, just a day after I wrote three midterms on one day, when I got on the night bus towards Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Accompanied by a group of five international students, one Dutch, one Slovak, one Czech, two French, I sat through the nine hour bus ride. At 9:30 am on Friday, we arrived at the South Station in Boston, after which we all went to the hostel to drop out stuff and start a trip which I never will forget!

Boston, a city known for the Boston Tea Party, the Freedom Trail, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),and Harvard University, was one of the cities I wanted to visit during my stay in Montréal for above listed sights. So on Friday we started of by walking towards the harbor where the ship of the Boston Tea Party was supposed to be. On the way there we passed some great buildings which I don’t want you to miss out on:

Federal Reserve bank of Boston

Boston Wharf

James Hook Lobster

Washington st. & Franklin st: 2 of US' founding fathers

Sadly they moved it for renovation work and one of the most renown events in US history was kept from us. Nonetheless, we found a great restaurant to have some lunch.

With our stomaches filled with fish and mine was nicely swimming in white wine , we continued our stroll around the city to end up in Boston Common. Boston Common is the main park in Boston and the start of the Freedom Trail, which leads its followers through the city passing 16 of Boston’s most important historical landmarks.

Boston Common, where the freedom trail starts

A memorial placed in Boston Common

The park Boston Common

Tile in the floor marking the start of the Freedom Trail

Massachusetts state house

So following the Freedom Trail as every tourist, we kept the red line illustrating the path close to us. The path led us to the Massachusetts State House, which is the building where the current government of Massachusetts is seated.

After the State House, the path took us to the Granary Burying Grounds. On first sight the grounds look like every simple cemetery, but when one would walk around the grounds it would soon become clear that this ground is house to the graves of Josiah and Abiah Franklin, the parents of Benjamin Franklin, and the grave of Paul Revere , who was one of the members who planned the Boston Tea Party and who participated in the midnight ride, which was set out to warn Samuel Adams (the leader of the American Revolution) about the incoming British Army.

Grave of Josiah Franklin

Grave of Paul Revere

Having the burial grounds behind us, the red path took us to the Old City Hall with in front of the building a statue of Benjamin Franklin himself.

Statue of Benjamin Franklin

Old City Hall in Boston

After the Old City Hall, the Freedom Trail took us to many places like the house of Paul Revere, Little Italy, Copp’s Hill Burying Grounds, and Deacon Larkin House (Paul Revere rode his horse on the famous Midnight Ride of Paul Revere) to end at the Bunker Hill Monument.

The Bunker Hill Monument is a 67m high obelisk which sits on top of a hill and gives an amazing view over Boston to it’s visitors.

Bunker Hill Monument

View over Boston from the monument

So that was the Freedom Trail of Boston, as usual more pictures can be found in my online Picasa Albums.

So many pictures, so many stories to tell which made me decide to split this week up in at least 3 stories. Hopefully I find time tomorrow to write a story on the second day in Boston, which will be considerably shorter but as interesting as this one because it included visits to 2 of the most prestigious universities in the world, being Harvard and MIT. And the weekend has to be enough to write down all the amazing things I’ve seen in New York City!

So make sure to check back this weekend to read the rest or just sign up to make sure you get an update when I post something new!

For those who are interested, I have some grades back.

• Investment Management midterm: 92%
• Organizational Policy midterm: 72%
• Sales Management midterm: 74%
• Sales Management paper: 77%

Thanks for reading and hope you’ll be back!

Á bientôt