New Campus, Boston Common & OMG My Poor Aching Feet

After I left the Poe statue I continued down Boylston Street and was surprised to stumble on Emerson's new campus.  I totally forgot that they moved to this part of town.  To me it seems very crowded and cramped compared to the brownstones and dorms on Beacon.  But at least the whole campus is one place, instead of being as spread out as it was in the 80s.

Of course I had to stop into the bookstore to pick up a couple of souvenirs.  In my day the bookstore was awful, and in the basement of 100 Beacon Street.  It was tiny and cramped and stuffy.  There was a nicer store that sold tshirts and stuff in the Student Union.  Now it's all in one Barnes & Noble and is very nice.

Turning the corner onto Tremont Street, I noticed this ancient cemetery in Boston Common.  If I knew this was there in the past, I totally forgot about it.  I really didn't remember ever seeing this before.  

Across the street from Boston Common is this awesome tilework on the Masonic Lodge.

Another statue in the Common on the Tremont Street side.

By this point I was really humping it to get back to the bus station....it was 12:40 and the bus was set to leave at 1:15.

Downtown Crossing again.

Uh-oh!  The British are coming! The British are coming!  

Wow what a great day!  The weather was perfect...not too hot at all but comfortable for this epic walking tour.  And that's what's so great about Boston, you can do the entire city in just a few short hours (if you skip museums and tours).  I made it back to South Station by 1:00 pm and home by 2:30. My feet were absolutely screaming when I got on the bus and my back kinda went out a little bit too...this was an ambitious first walking day trip of the year. This is a map of the area I visited with a poorly drawn red line to show where I walked.  Started on the right side, worked my way to the top, then over to the far left and back to the right.  No idea how many miles it was, but I'm guessing at least 4-5.

I hope you enjoyed my tour of Beantown!

The Public Gardens and EA Poe

One of the reasons I wanted to get to Boston ASAP this spring was that the Public Gardens were in full bloom and it truly is a sight to see.  I entered the Gardens through the Arlington Street gate at the George Washington statue.

That is one of the famous swanboats.  I did it once many years ago in the mid 80s and hope to again one of these days.

Next thing on the list was the new Edgar Allen Poe statue at the corner of Boylston and Charles Streets.  Although he is associated with Baltimore, he was born in Boston and apparently hated the city.  He is facing the direction of the home in which he was born, although I did not venture down to see it.  

The Telltale Heart.

The Raven.

And some quotes embedded in the sidewalk as well.

 Phew! What a tour!  Almost done!

Copley Square and Stuff

Continuing on my walk and very ambitious itinerary, I found myself on Huntington Avenue by mistake which is behind the Pru, and I couldn't figure out how to actually get to the Pru itself because I wanted to go to the observation deck.  A lot of new buildings have gone up in the past 30 years so I couldn't cut through to get back to Boylston Street without back tracking by several blocks.

When I finally found the road through to Boylston Street, I found I overshot the skyscraper and I just didn't feel like heading over there as time was rapidly growing shorter, so I continued on my way.

Finish line of the Boston Marathon which was of course the site of that awful bombing in 2013.

Old South Church, another fave of mine with great architecture.  This is on Boylston Street.

Old and new John Hancock Buildings. The 'new' one opened in 1976 and for awhile some of the windows would pop out and crash to Copley Square below.

I worked in the old one at Boston's Hot Hits WZOU, The Zoo, answering the request line, my senior year in college.  It's hard to see, but that spire is a weather beacon with it's own little rhyme:  "Steady blue, clear view. Flashing blue, clouds due. Steady red, rain ahead.  Flashing red, snow instead." Although in the summer flashing red means the Red Sox game was canceled due to bad weather.

Boston Public Library.  I never really appreciated this place in the 80s, as it was a place I had to go to do research for classes and papers, and it was always filled with homeless people (esp. in winter) who could be somewhat aggressive. My roommate told me she was in there sitting at a table doing work and a homeless guy sat down right next to her and started eating coffee grounds.  She had to cut her visit short. Plus you had to dodge pee puddles on the carpets and the place smelled really bad.  You literally ran in and out to get what you needed or hit the microfiche room.  I don't know if that's changed at all in 30 years but I hope it has.

Old South Church again.  I could shoot this for hours too.

Trinity Church in Copley Square.

The tortoise and the hare in Copley Square.

Sort of looks like Gringotts, but I think it's supposed to be the State House.

Arlington Street Church.

By this point my feet were literally screaming for me to end the torture...but I still had a lot of things to see, and less than an hour to get my bus.