Day 3 of our Va-cape-tion: Boston and The Freedom Trail!

This was our first trip to Boston and only had a day and a half to explore, so obviously we wanted to make the most of our time and see everything we could. We decided to go with a self-guided audio tour that has 57 stops! Of course we didn’t have time to visit all the stops on the tour, but most of them were along the Freedom Trail, so we decided to do that on the first day. The Freedom Trail is a great way to see a lot of the city and learn about its history. This 2.5 mile bricked path winds throughout downtown Boston, taking you to 16 historic sights such as meeting houses, churches, memorials, and burying grounds that tell the story of the American Revolution. Here are a few of the stops we visited:

The Massachusetts State House which has served as the seat of Massachusetts government since its opening in 1798.

The Old State House where the Declaration of Independence was read for the first time from the Balcony. The Boston Massacre occurred in the square in front of the State House.

The Granary Burying Ground, a historic cemetery with approximately 2,300 markers marking the gravesites of some of the most notable people in U.S. history such as John Hancock, Paul Revere, and Samuel Adams.

Faneuil Hall which hosted America’s first town meeting and was the site of the Sugar Act and Stamp Act protests.

The Paul Revere House, which is the oldest remaining structure in Boston, built around 1680 and home to Paul Revere.

The Old North Church which is Boston’s oldest church, and where Paul Revere hung his lantern in the belfry during his midnight ride to alert the town that the British were coming. (Statue of Paul Revere in front of the church)

The Bunker Hill Monument which commemorates the first major battle of The Revolutionary War.

We had a lunch break in the historic North End, aka Little Italy area, which is Boston’s oldest residential area where some of the city’s oldest buildings stand. Here we were enticed by the many Italian restaurants and pastry shops. We saw lots of people walking by giving us FOMO by carrying boxes from Mike’s Pastry shop, which is well known for their fantastic cannolis, so of course we had to get some for ourselves! (When in Little Italy?)

We ended up walking back to our starting point, since we figured we could walk faster than it would have taken to wait for the bus to take us back, so we accidentally end up doing The Freedom Trail twice! Those cannolis were definitely a nice treat after all that walking!

Before heading back to our hotel, we made a quick visit to Beacon Hill, which we will put in our next post, so stay tuned!

If you’re interested in learning more about the walking tour we did on this day, click here.