Back to Beautiful Boston

Although Paola and I visited Boston last week, I was very pleased to get another opportunity to discover this wonderful city.

Bruce accompanied us to the Museum of Fine Arts, where we first visited the exhibition of Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese. Then, we strolled through the permanent collections of the museum and admired - as always - the French impressionists and in particular the statue "la petite danseuse" by Degas. Of course, we didn't travel all the way to the US to look at European art, so we quickly walked to the first floor and the gallery with the Art of the Americas. We discovered masterworks by Revere, Copley, Sargent, Casset. I specially liked Boston Common at Twilight by Childe Hassam, John Singer Sargent's painting of the four young sisters, the self-portrait of Ellen Day Hale and of course, Edward Hopper (unfortunately only two paintings by him in the museum). I will know what to look for now in the bigger museums of Washington and New York!

While we visited the MFA, another group went to the Aquarium and were really impressed by the three-dimensional movie they watched.

After a quick lunch at Fauneuil Hall we walked through the Common and the Park along the most exclusive shopping street of Boston (looking straight ahead for fear of temptation) to the Prudential tower. This tower is with its 52 floors the second highest of Boston. We took the elevator and I couldn't believe my eyes. A 360 degree panorama unfolded for us under a radiant sun. We could look down on the miniature buildings below, see the swanboats in the park, the sea in the distance, the river, Cambridge on the other side...

From here, we were escorted to our Holiday Inn hotel. I shared a comfortable room with Sandra from Paris - France. Half an hour later, THE tourist attraction of Boston picked us up: a duck boat. These amphibious vehicles date back to the second world war when they were used to transport army material. Now they are used to transport tourists through the city center and on the river. A wacky captain welcomed us aboard and asked us to "quack" from time to time. His Bostonian accent and jargon wasn't always easy to follow, but we got the general gist.

As during our previous visit, I had located some lobster restaurants, I invited some friends along and with a party of eight we walked back to the city center. We booked a table at the Union Oyster House, the oldest restaurant of Boston and had a heavenly lobster.

On our way back to the hotel, Dai called us into a bar, so that we could meet his friend Dean from Minnesota. The girls were unanimous: this was a very nice American guy!

So, at half past eleven we hit the pillow but we only switched off the lights after reading another chapter or two for our next day.