On Thursday we awoke in Newport, Rhode Island. A charming place and, for American standards, real “chocolate box” stuff.
Virtually all the buildings were clapper board ……
……. including the White Horse Tavern dating from the 1700’s.
Others were of brick and just as charming.
We saw this and thought of Pauline the “cup cake queen” of the canals!
This reminded us very much of San Francisco’s “Painted Ladies”.
Newport is, and always has been, a very ‘well-healed’ place. We were open jawed during our four mile walk along the magnificent eastern coastline. The houses (which were referred to by their first owners as “cottages”!) were as awesome as we’ll probably ever see.
They were built for the hugely wealthy of New York around the turn of the 20th century as country retreats. A few are now in the hands of the Newport Restoration Foundation and open to the public.
The path took us along some very nice coastal scenery (these couple of pics are just to prove ……
……. that we were there!
This is “Rough Point” and was built for F. W. Vanderbilt. Bought later in 1922 by James Duke who died in 1925 and left his 12 year old daughter Doris $80 million - she lived in it until her death in 1993. (Great story!)
These massive ‘piles’ just go on and on along this lovely coastline.
Centrally placed in the town is St Mary’s Church where John F Kennedy married Jacqueline Bouvier on September 12th, 1953.
Today we arrived in Boston, Massachusetts at 10 ‘o clock for a relatively long day ashore (12 hours).
There were shuttles laid on to the town but we like to take the local transport…
…… which was a diesel powered bendy-bus which turned into an electric tube-bus and went underground into the city centre. It seems a brilliant idea.
In the last ten years Boston has been transformed but there are many older buildings nestling among the newer stuff.
One of the most imposing buildings is the Massachusetts State House adorned with a gold dome.
There’s a lot of water in and around Boston and the odd bit of canal to keep us feeling at home.
The old part of town –Beacon Hill is very quiet with its tree-lined narrow streets and terraced houses.
Just a part of Beacon Hill’s charm - it says 24 hour service but that might have been a few years ago!
James wasn’t sure which one to kiss!
We popped in to the “Cheers” pub in Beacon Street to have a look. This is a reconstructed version of the famous bar. We didn’t stay long – it smelled of chip fat!
More well kept houses along the roads of this very clean city.
We made a visit to the Eagle in Tremont Street to quench our thirst after another day of very enjoyable ‘foot-slogging’ before getting the bendy-bus back to the ship. As is always our experience, we’ve been taken aback by the kindness of the American people – the bus driver made a quick detour and dropped us as close to the ship as he could get.
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