|
|
The Duck Tour and other Boston Pictures
One of the best things that we did in Boston in terms of fun for the money was the "Duck Tour". This is a guided tour of Boston from an amphibious WWII style landing craft. We saw one of these from the taxi on the way to where we were staying, and it came highly recommended, so we did the tour right after the Red Sox game on April 28. Our tour guide was Al Fresco. He was pretty strange, but very funny, and he gave the tour lots of color. We went all over the city, then into the Charles River, and then back around to see some more parts of Boston.
The other pictures are from April 29 before we went to the aquarium. We had some fresh clam chowder, which was excellent, and we also saw the Holocaust Memorial, which was quite haunting. It was six glass pillars, each one etched with tiny numbers, corresponding to the numbers that people were assigned by the Germans, who died in six Nazi work camps or death camps. They all had a couple stories from a survivor of each camp as well.
Chris and I before the Duck Tour, trying to keep warm. One of the fleet is in the background.
Now the Ducks look kind of like they're going to sink when they are in the water, but we were told that this has not happened yet. We didn't sink, so this was fine. This is one of the other Ducks passing us on their return trip. The riders are encouraged by the tour guide to give a healthy "QUACK QUACK" from time to time, especially when there is a crowd of locals, or another tour neaby. The reaction of the locals is very mixed, between tolerant/ignoring and giving us a hearty "QUACK QUACK" right back!
A similar shot with a better view of the city, and the front of one of the other Ducks.
This is a nice shot of the city, taken in the Charles River from the Duck.
This Bridge over the Charles River is just one of the projects within what is called locally "The Big Dig". They are pouring billions into this project to ease traffic congestion. The plan is to separate the locals from the people just passing through, among other goals. The bridge looks really spectacular already.
This is one of Boston's many marinas, near the aquarium.
A street vendor saw me take this picture. He laughed and said, "I have NEVER seen anyone do THAT before!" What can I say? I wanted to catch the local flavor.
Chris and I hamming it up with one of Boston's numerous statues. The couple in the picture on the left had a similar idea for the statue on the bench, which is actually of the same person. The glass pillars behind the statue's head in the background make up the Holocaust Memorial.