Swan boats

these are the famous swan boats in the lagoon in the public garden. they are sort of a boston landmark. you can take the 15 minute boat ride around the lagoon, sitting on the benches in front of these swans. the seats you see here are for the operator of the boats, who move them forward by pedaling, similarly to riding a bike. we never did this, but it is very popular, and apparently something you do when in boston... :) 

they are in operation since 1877!! something i didnt know until i read the wikipedia page about them just now... the oldest boat currently in operation was built in 1918! here you can read more about the history of the swan boats.

Tourist guide

the tallest buildings in a US city are skyscrapers, in the Netherlands it is the church... above the st. bavochurch or "grote kerk" (large church) in haarlem, where we were yesterday. it is truly enormous and placed on a large square.

if i were to write a tourist guide, this would be my advice: for lunch or breakfast, goto the V&D warehouse, dont be fooled by the ground floor small dining area, but goto the uppermost floor, where you will find a large dining area with nice seats and a magnificent view of the city. i before showed you utrecht, and here is haarlem, as mentioned. the other advantage is that the food will be cheaper, and you will loose less time than in a restaurant or cafe, where the service, especially in larger cities, really is not that good (usually); at the V&D you yourself take what you want and bring it to your seat. ok.. maybe we got used to the service in the US; much faster! and now became too impatient for the dutch waiters. on tuesday we went out to dinner in utrecht, and we had to wait over an hour for the main course! even after asking the waiter he did not show any effort or compassion... dessert; same story, even so the cook just had to slice some applepie and put it on a plate. although the food was good, they did not once ask whether it all was fine and whether it was enough (probably it was enough... but i would have liked a bit more fries, im here only a few days!! and they were soooo good!). he forgot to bring the drinks several times... etc etc. thats because in the netherlands waiters get a decent salary and do not depend on tips (like in the us); you thus are not at all obliged to give a tip, and defenitely not 20% as is common in the US. in utrecht most waiters are students that have this job on the side and they just do not care at all! so... that would be the next point in my travel guide; if you find the service bad; do not tip! maybe then they will finally learn....... and you will save money; dont forget; you are in the netherlands, so why not behave as a dutch?! :)

When retired...

... you can do the entire day what you want... no? 

we were having a walk a week or 2 ago, on sunday. got out at haymarket, but there was no market, so we turned the other way and ended up in the north end, where we hadnt been before. small houses, small streets, many restaurants and tourists. in one of the many boston travelguides we have i read that in the mid to late 19th century many immigrants arrived here and by 1920, 90% of the population was italian. apparently nowadays still 50% of the people there are of italian descent (that is something i noticed; many americans are real proud to be a real american. but! dont forget and please be aware that in fact they ARE 1/4, 1/8 or 1/16th european on their mother's/father's side, and yes, still would like to visit that country once...).

anyways.. then we came by a deserted ice-skating rink, and next to it were quite some old men, smoking, playing jeux de boules or watching the game from a comfortable chair. i was taking some pictures through the glass, but then we were invited inside (bugh, what a smoke!), and we talked a little (and i took this one crappy pic..). yes yes, they were all italian (see flag) and all retired and playing this game every (every!) day... in winter here inside, in summer closeby outside....

Welcoming visitors

as seen at park street/downtown crossing. on the other side of the street is boston common, with the brewer fountain. nice! :)
yesterday we went to new hampshire, and upon entering that state we saw the following welcoming sign: "live free or die". we made jokes about that the rest of the day. we also imagined that being the welcoming sign to the netherlands ("leef in vrijheid, of.. sterf!!!" hmmm). right after that, there were state-owned liquor stores on either side of the highway, with a huge sign: "no tax, stock up and save!" now isnt that a warm welcome! then we climbed a mountain and enjoyed the fall colors (very nice, nicer than in boston, actually) and beautiful views. we didnt meet any NH people, luckily, what if they would determine whether we were free or... ?
today i caught up with my wikipedia reading and learned that "live free or die" is NH's state motto, adopted in 1945. the phrase comes from a toast written by general john stark in 1809. and yes, every state has a motto! the one for mass is: ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem that you ofcourse immediately translate into: by the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty. but i like californias motto best: eureka!!!

Big glasses

this man is sitting at one of the benches surrounding the fountain on the boston common. he caught my eye because of his camera and his enormous glasses. both made me wonder... was he giving his camera a rest? was he filming the fountain? was he secretly picturing other people posing in front of it... ? he did notice me taking a pic of him but i didnt dare talking with him, somehow..
this fountain is usually surrounded by tourists but why was never clear to me. a little googling around taught me that this fountain is 142 years old, and that makes it the oldest one of the 21 fountains in boston. last year it underwent repairs costing more than 630,000 dollars!! in fact, it comes from europe, and it is the only known surviving copy of the original featured at the 1855 paris world fair, where it got a gold medal. it was imported from switzerland by gardner brewer, a wealthy merchant, who gave it to the city of boston in 1868.
maybe he was just thinking about all that.. while sitting there... :)

State house

the small cute building is the old state house. our travel guide uses such a beautiful sentence: "dwarfed by the towers of the finacial district, the old state house.. etc etc". it was built in 1713, and is the oldest public building in boston. what i like about it, is that it currently is the entrance to the subway! originally wine cellars, now function -since 1904- as a downtown subway station. upstairs there apparently is a "sound and light show" about the 1770 Boston Massacre (gezellig!).

Boston common

on sunday we were in Boston Common, a central public park in Boston. it is one of the oldest parks in the US of A, dating from 1634. however, at that time it was not a park! (so how can it be the oldest park?!), at that time cows were grazing here, but they did that too much and then there was no grass anymore... ah, and it was also used for public hangings until 1817, first on an oak (which one, it was not indicated as far as i saw), but later on a gallows (a word i just learned; if u dont know it; catch up on your wikipedia-reading!). but only in 1830, when the cows and gallows were gone, it became a true public park. in 2007, 2 teenagers were shot there, but on sunday it seemed a nice and quiet park with nice green grass, many squirrels, children, policemen on horses, and this balloonman. i observed him for a while. he was mostly just standing there, waiting till someone came by. he did not make an effort to attract children. and in a way it was so sad to see him just standing there with all those stupid balloons attached, while it was so hot! on the picture above he had just made a nice balloon-thingie for the girl, and then her father had to take care of the financial side of this balloon act...