Boston National Historical Park

15Nov15

Any time I’m in Boston I have to walk the Freedom Trail, the highlight of the Boston National Historical Park.

Starting at the Boston Common you follow the red brick walkway throughout downtown Boston before ending across the Charles River at the Bunker Hill Monument and the USS Constitution.

That’s two and a half mile journey and well worth the investment of time and sore feet.

This past July, for the first time maybe ever, I actually walked the entire Freedom Trail. The pathway marks historical sites from the Revolutionary War time period. And for the most part, I stopped at all of the important spots along the way.

The Old South Meeting House, the Old State House, Faneuil Hall and Quincy Marketplace are so well preserved to such an extent you can almost imagine Samuel Adams, John Hancock, John Adams and Paul Revere at each and every one of these historic sites.

If you get tired of going into historic buildings you can stop by the many “burying grounds” (cemeteries) along the Freedom Trail. There’s also the famous Paul Revere Statue outside of the Old North Church. Unfortunately I visited the statue at the worst possible time of the day with the sun hovering over it, ruining not only my photos but also temporarily my vision.

My favorite stops on my most recent trip to the Boston National Historical Park were at the end of the Freedom Trail. That’s probably because I rarely got on the other side of the Charles River to see Bunker Hill and the USS Constitution. In fact, this was only my second visit to Bunker Hill and just my third to the Constitution.

Since I have chronicled my stop at Bunker Hill a couple of months ago, I will focus instead on the USS Constitution. My previous two stops at the venerable ship – and I’m not kidding – came during a semi-blizzard and a hurricane. This July was perfect.

The only problem is that the Constitution is in dry dock for repairs and you can only tour the upper deck of the oldest commissioned ship in the United States Navy. That’s still a very fine consolation prize but it would have been nice to go below and see the entire ship. I did that over two decades ago but can’t remember what I saw.

Regardless, the Constitution is impressive and is made more so by the dry dock, giving you a goo visual feel for just how big the warship is.

After touring the Constitution I made the long trek back along the Freedom Trail and my hotel. It’s a journey I would take any time I am in Boston.

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