A DAY TRIP TO BOSTON

We had a late start. it was a 2 hour drive from groton, CT. the drive was beautiful. it was the start of the leaves turning colors. going to the new england states in the fall is the best time to see the colors.  the last time i was here was in May 2006. i wanted to see more of the city.  we wanted to have picnic at boston commons but, it was a cloudy day :(

we wanted to spend the day in boston before going to the our hotel in lynnfield, which is 20 mins north of boston. we parked near the banknorth gardens, home of the celtics, bruins, and other sports and entertainment events. it was a cloudy day. thanked god it did not rain, by the way do not park in the city. it is highway robbery. we arrived at 1pm. we walked towards quincy market and fanieul hall to find something to eat. we walked by the.......

New England Holocaust Memorial, not long ago, I made a trip to Boston, Massachusetts. Before I left, quite a few people told me that I must see the Holocaust memorial located there. Very powerful, they said. What disturbed me was that everyone I asked who actually lived in Boston, not only did not know where the memorial was located, they had no idea what I was talking about. And, I was soon to find, the memorial is not mentioned on any maps.

When I got to Boston, I decided to walk the Freedom Trail. This is a historic walk that many tourists follow to see the historic sites of Boston. The trail is a self-lead walk which winds throughout the city and which is designated by a red line on the ground (painted on concrete in some parts, inlayed in red brick in others). This trail starts the visitor at the Boston Common and passes by the state house (with its distinctive golden dome), the Granary Burying Ground (where Paul Revere and John Hancock rest), the location of the Boston Massacre of 1770, Faneuil Hall (famous local site, the town meeting-hall), and Paul Revere's house.

Why am I telling you so much about the Freedom Trail, you may wonder? Though the Holocaust Memorial is not listed on the tour guides for the Freedom Trail, it is very easy to sidestep the red line by just half a block and get a chance to visit the memorial. Located very near Faneuil Hall, the memorial is on a small grassy area bordered on the west by Congress Street, on the east by Union Street, on the north by Hanover Street, and on the south by North Street.

"The Nazis intended the destruction of Jewish life
to be total and permanent. Jews were to have been
removed from history and memory. In this memorial,
we create a marker for the six million - a place to grieve
for the victims and the destruction of their culture -
a place to give them an everlasting name."

The memorial begins with two large, granite monoliths which face each other. In between the two monoliths, a time capsule was buried. The time capsule, buried on Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) on April 18, 1993, contains "the names, submitted by New Englanders, of family and loved ones who perished in the Holocaust."

As you look up from these monoliths, the six large towers of glass will immediately grab your attention.

Each of these towers represents one of the sixth death camps (Belzec, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Sobibor, Majdanek, Treblinka, and Chelmno). Each tower is made out of plates of glass that are etched with white numbers, which represent the registration numbers of victims.

There is a paved path which travels through the base of each of these towers.

Along the sides of the concrete, in between the towers, are short quotes that give information as well as give remembrance. One quote reads, "Most infants and children were killed immediately upon arrival at the camps. The Nazis murdered as many as one and a half million Jewish children."

When you walk underneath the tower, you realize a number of things.

When standing there, your eyes are immediately drawn to the numbers on the glass. Then, your eyes focus on a short quote from survivors, different on each tower, about life either before, within, or after the camps. Soon, you realize that you are standing upon a grate in which warm air is coming out. As Stanley Saitowitz, the designer of the memorial, described it, "like human breath as it passes through the glass chimneys to heaven." *

If you get down on your hands and knees, which I noticed most visitors did not do, you can look through the grate and see pit which has ragged rocks at the bottom. Among the rocks, there are very small, stationary white lights as well as a single light that moves. I have yet to find a reason for the lights at the bottom of this pit, but there are many analogies that can be made, such as light even amongst darkness, etc.

At the end of the memorial, there is a large monolith that leaves the visitor with...

They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

---Martin Niemoeller

At the square, there is a statue of Samuel Adams. it was also one of the points to the freedom trail. we walked thru the cobble streets. we ate at the well renouned chef, todd english's restaurant, king fish hall. i recommend it.

Quincy market is decorrated with "GO SOX" it was great. the bostonians do love their sports. i did not have irish food or have beer at a pub. i will next time.

Quincy Market is a historic building in a shopping center called Faneuil Hall Marketplace in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It was constructed 1824�"1826 and named in honor of Mayor Josiah Quincy, who organized its construction without any tax or debt.

The main Quincy Market building continues to be a source of food for Bostonians, though it has changed from grocery to food-stall, fast-food, and restaurants. It is a popular and busy lunchtime spot for downtown workers. In the center, surrounding the dome, is a two-story seating area.

Further street vending space is available against the outside walls of the building, especially on the south side, under a glass enclosure. Most stalls in this space sell trinkets, gifts, and other curiosities. A few restaurants also occupy fully enclosed spaces at the ends of this enclosure.

More conventional retail space is provided on the second floor and in the basement level. The Comedy Connection, one of Boston's two largest comedy clubs, currently occupies one of the second-floor spaces, and bars and restaurants occupy space on the basement levels.

Flanking the main building in the marketplace are two equally long buildings (North Market and South Market) that expand the market space for more restaurants, specialty shops, and office spaces. Two further concave market buildings enclose a circular plaza at the market's west end.

The open spaces at both the east and west ends of the marketplace are a common venue for various street performers, as well as street vendors. Most daytime visits to Quincy Market will encounter a large circular crowd of people standing around a juggler or other unique act.

Faneuil Hall, near the waterfront and today's Government Center, in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States, has been a marketplace and a meeting hall since 1742. It was the site of several speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis, and others encouraging independence from Great Britain, and is now part of Boston National Historical Park and a well known stop on the Freedom Trail. It is sometimes referred to as "the Cradle of Liberty".

The Freedom Trail is a red (mostly brick) path through downtown Boston, Massachusetts which leads to sixteen significant historic sites. It is a 2.5 mile (4 km) walk from the Boston Common to the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown and is popular with tourists. Part of the Freedom Trail overlaps with the much longer Boston Harbor Walk. The Freedom Trail is a unit of Boston National Historical Park.

The freedom trail was originally conceived in 1958 by the local journalist William Schofield, who has been promoting the idea of linking important local landmarks with a pedestrian trail since 1951.

USS Constitution, known as "Old Ironsides," is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. Named after the United States Constitution, she is the oldest commissioned ship afloat in the world, although the permanently dry docked HMS Victory is older by three decades and is still in service in the Royal Navy. The Constitution was one of the six original frigates authorized for construction by the Naval Act of 1794 and was launched in 1797. Joshua Humphreys designed them to be the Navy's capital ships and so Constitution and her sisters were larger and more heavily armed than the standard frigates of the period.

In 1917 she was renamed to Old Constitution, to free the name for a new Constitution, a Lexington class battle cruiser that was never completed. She resumed the name Constitution in 1925 after the new hull was canceled. In early 1941, Constitution was assigned the hull classification symbol IX-21 (the "IX" hull code stands for "Unclassified Miscellaneous"), but was reclassified to "none" on 1 September 1975.


Boston is the capital and most populous city of Massachusetts. The largest city in New England, Boston is often considered to be the unofficial economic and cultural center of the New England region. The city of Boston had an estimated population of 590,763 in 2006; however, the city lies at the center of America's eleventh-largest metropolitan area, known as Greater Boston, which is home to over 4.4 million people. It is also part of a wider region that includes the nearby cities of Worcester, Providence, and Manchester, with a population of 7. 4 million. Residents of Boston are called Bostonians.

In 1630, Puritan colonists from England founded the city on the Shawmut Peninsula.During the late eighteenth century Boston was the location of several major events during the American Revolution including the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party. Several early battles of the American Revolution, such as the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston, occurred within the city and surrounding areas. After American independence Boston became a major shipping port and manufacturing center, and its rich history now attracts 16.3 million visitors annually.The city was the site of several firsts, including America's first public school, Boston Latin School (1635), and first college, Harvard College (1636), in neighboring Cambridge. Boston is also home to the first subway system in the United States.

Through land reclamation and municipal annexation, Boston has expanded throughout the peninsula. It has become one of the most culturally significant cities in the United States, and is recognized as a global city, With many colleges and universities within the city and surrounding area, Boston is a center of higher education and a center for health care. The city's economy is also based on research, finance, and technology �" principally biotechnology. Boston has been experiencing gentrification and has one of the highest costs of living in the United States.