We were off the ship at 9 am this morning and, because we were off so early,  managed to get one of the waiting taxis.  Apparently only City of Boston Taxis can pick up fares within the cruise terminal.  Independent taxis can drop people off but they cannot get a new fare.  The Boston City Taxis line up for fares when the ships come in but once they have found a fare they don’t come back automatically for another one.  So if you get off the ship later in the morning you must phone for a taxi ;and wait for it  to come get you.

We had the taxi driver drop us off at Boston Common – the oldest public garden in the USA.  The apartment we have rented for the week is not too far from the Common in the old Beacon Hill area.  We were told we could drop off our luggage at 11:30 but check-in wasn’t until 3.  The day was beautifully warm and sunny so we just sat on a bench and people watched (well, Ialso  worked on a word puzzle for awhile) for a couple of hours until it was time to go over there.

Sitting in Boston Common in the sunshine

We dragged our suitcases about 6 blocks and met Chen, our landlord’s sister just as she was coming to clean the apartment after the previous people left.  She let us in, we climbed up to the fourth floor, got the key and left our luggage so we could go exploring.

We found a nearby pub and had lunch then walked further down the street.  We saw a people-bridge that crossed the busy four-lane highway and went to the shore of the Charles River and the Esplanade walking trail.  Once more we sat on a bench and enjoyed the view of the sailboats and “Duck Trolleys” plying the water.  Then we wandered up further and investigated the hours and prices at the Museum of Science (a place we plan to visit) before meandering back to Garden Street.

There is a Whole Foods and a CVS Pharmacy just over and down a block and lots of restaurants in the area.  We bought some food for supper and breakfast and got back to the apartment at 3 pm to ‘check-in.”.

We spent the rest of the day catching up on email, Facebook and blogs before making dinner, reading for a while, and I did this blog.  Our 6:30 am start was beginning to slow us down so we headed off to bed a bit early.

I liked the reflection of the old building in the glass of the new one.

Tomorrow we are meeting up with Carrie’s (our daughter-in-law) sister and her husband, and maybe their daughter.  We met them all at Joseph and Carrie’s wedding in Scotland in 2013 and look forward to visiting with them again.