Boston and Harvard

The walk along the linear park between the Charles river and the city of Boston was very tranquil and felt as if you were out in the countryside.  There was a strict policy of no feeding the ducks and geese and hence they were very quiet and just ignored everyone passing by.  There were water lilies in bloom on the quiet strip of water adjacent to the river.

At the end of the park is a huge open air 'shell' built in 1941, used as a performance stage for musical concerts.  Each year on the 4th July there is a very popular concert which ends in spectacular fireworks.  A photo on a poster adjacent to the 'Hatch shell', as it is called, showed an amazing night- time view of this concert.

Leaving the river I walked towards the old part of Boston known as Beacon Hill and along Charles Street. The tree lined roads and elegant brick houses with antique shops, boutiques and restaurants beneath have quite a European feel to them.  Charles Street was widened in the early part of the 20th century to make way for the motor car.  This was achieved by moving all of the buildings on one side of the street back by 20 feet !

Part way along the street is a very traditional looking post office.

(The two apparent bins in the foreground are all too modern blue US Postal Service mail boxes).

From the end of Charles Street I caught a train back across the Longfellow Bridge to Cambridge, past MIT and on to Harvard.

These few pictures show some of the buildings in Harvard Yard, the Central and historic part of the Harvard campus.

This photo shows the popular statue of John Harvard, benefactor and founder of the University.

This church was built after the Great War to commemorate men of Harvard lost in the conflict.

Despite the fact that it is vacation time it was buzzing with life, many visitors were enjoying student-led tours which I will do on my next visit or just relaxing in the shade under the trees where tables and chairs are scattered around for all to use and enjoy.

Our time in Boston having come to an end, we flew back to Dulles last night.

Today has been a day of catching up with chores and acting as 'greeter' at a Blood Drive for the American Red Cross at Reston Library.  It was quite a busy drive as the service has been advertising its urgent need for blood supplies over the summer period.  One of the reasons for this is that there are no drives in schools and colleges during the summer vacation and normally these contribute some 20% of blood collected.