Friday, 14 December

Boston

There’s a lot more to Salem than witches. We discovered this when we caught a train there today. It’s about a half hour journey by train and another town that is easy to explore on foot.

As we stood on a corner considering which way to go a very nice man stopped and offered to help us. He knew EVERYTHING about Salem’s history and the places to visit. We think he must be a tour guide who was on his day off or recently retired.

On his advice we turned right and walked to the Witch House, the home of one of the judges who tried those unfortunate people in 1692. From there it was a block to Chestnut St, one of the great residential streets of America, according to our friend. And there were some lovely old homes, mostly built in the late 1800s, with money from Salem’s thriving sea trade.

One of the houses, Hamilton House, was open to visitors so we went in for a look around. Tomorrow night there is a dance in the ballroom, an annual event run by the patronesses and a very exclusive affair from what we could make out.

Our next stop was the information centre where we watched a short film about the witch trials. Karyn and I reminisced about reading “The crucible” in form 6. We have added “The scarlet letter” to our reading list as Nathaniel Hawthorne came from Salem. His grandfather was one of the judges in the trials.

Down the road was a memorial to the 20 or so who were hanged (and one man was pressed to death!).

We found the waterfront which had a nice marina with boats wrapped in plastic for the winter. There were lots of touristy shops and once again we were glad to be visiting in the off season. It must be packed in summer!

Our nice man from the corner had recommended a local fish restaurant for lunch, telling us that they had very special Nantucket scallops. It also happens to be the building where Alexander Graham Bell did his first public test of the telephone. Of course we tried the scallops and they were delicious!

Back to the train for the half hour ride to Boston, a 10 minute walk to our house, with a quick stop at an Italian bakery, and a well-earned cuppa and biscuit.

The icing on the cake of a lovely day was the concert we attended this evening. Performed by the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus, it was titled “Brass & Bows & Boys”. Their performance was of a very high standard with a terrific variety of Christmas music, including a choral version of “The night before Christmas”.