Day 3 of going into Boston and today I tossed tea into Boston Harbor. Well, not real tea. And not actually into the water. But I reenacted the Boston Tea Party at the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum. I also had a yummy breakfast and drank a flight of cider, all while attempting to survive the high heat and humidity in the city.
Did you know that there’s not one, not two, but three lighthouses in Boston Harbor? The Boston Harbor Islands National Park hosts a weekly tour of the Boston Harbor lighthouses and today I learned about all three of them on my two-hour boat tour.
Happy 4th of July! I’ve spent Independence Day everywhere from Yosemite National Park to Dublin, Ireland to the Outer Hebrides in Scotland to Munich, Germany to Denali National Park, but this year I’ll be spending it in one of the most historic cities in the U.S.: Boston, Massachusetts. I’ve done the concert and fireworks on the Esplanade in the past so today will be more of a low-key celebration.
Since I don’t have any major trips planned for this summer, I’ve decided this will be the summer of day trips and local adventures. And my first stop is none other than one of my favorite New England cities, Portland, Maine. Since I’ve been to Portland many times before I wanted to do a couple of things I hadn’t done before.
Another cloudy morning, but that didn’t stop me from going out for one last walk around the Amsterdam canals before heading to the airport.
Well, today turned out to be kind of a bust. Not entirely, it just wasn’t the day I had been hoping for. It was another gray day but I wasn’t going to let that derail my plans. I ended up spending a little time in the village of Broek in Waterland, visiting a hidden church, and eating my way through Amsterdam.
I thought yesterday was going to be the best day of this vacation. I mean how can you top seeing millions of flowers all in bloom in beautifully manicured gardens? Well, you can take a day trip to explore three (or more) scenic villages that make up the area known as Waterland, just north of Amsterdam in North Holland. I don’t mind cities, but I hate crowds. And the two usually go hand in hand. And even though I loved the gardens yesterday, they were crowded. So today’s adventure felt like it was worlds away from the crowds I’ve encountered in the past few days. I began my day in Edam (pronounced “Ay-dahm”), walked to Volendam, took a ferry to Marken, and then headed back to Amsterdam.
Tulips, tulips, and more tulips! Today was the day I had been looking forward to the most on this trip. Keukenhof (known as the “Garden of Europe”) has almost 80 acres of gardens planted with 7 million flower bulbs each year. The tulips are in full bloom in mid-April and it was the primary reason for my visit to the Netherlands.
I’m thankful that I had indoor activities planned for most of the day today since the weather was gray and drizzly all day. I most definitely did not sleep for 11 hours again last night. I was wide awake at 1:45AM and never went back to sleep. So the weather and my lack of sleep left me dragging myself around Amsterdam today. Nevertheless, I managed to hit up two iconic Amsterdam attractions: the Anne Frank House and the Rijksmuseum.
I fell in love with Amsterdam today. And like Hazel falling in love with Gus in “The Fault in our Stars”, it happened slowly, and then all at once.
Traveling with Laura 