In writing this blog, I am aiming to be as honest as possible, while also focusing primarily on the positive rather than negative parts of the trip. In light of this, Day 11 is probably best left largely unchronicled – suffice it to say, as I use a ventilator to breathe overnight, I am in a constant struggle to get the balance of air humidity right, too humid or too dry and I end up with a cough which means I have to lie down for most of the day. Yesterday (day 11) was one of those days, so extremely frustrating and largely experience-less. Having said that, in-between coughing fits we did manage to pop to the shopping mall next door, and through here into the top of one of the tallest buildings in Boston, the Prudential Tower. This gives a fantastic 360-degree view of Boston and surrounding areas, which made me realise just quite how big Boston really is.
Moving on to Day 12, this was a far better day which we decided to use to get out of Boston with the car. One of the first big tourist spots going north of Boston is Salem, most famous for the site of a number of witch trials, and the location of Arthur Miller's The Crucible. As we pulled into Salem, my Dad coolly and calmly found a parking space and released the wheelchair restraints, without so much as a hint of stress...*cough*. However the temperature must have already been around 30° so this might have played some part!
First stop was the Salem visitor centre, to get a map of the area and plan our exploration. In the end, we decided to walk towards the port while stopping to look at any museums on the way. The first choice of museum, the Witch Village museum, was probably driven less by considerations of quality and value for money and more by the desire to get out of the oppressive heat and into somewhere air-conditioned! As such, it was a little bit of a disappointment as it consisted of an unreasonably perky tour guide showing us around some wax models and teaching us about the misconceptions surrounding witchcraft, and not what I had hoped for which was some proper exhibits and information about the trials. I say unreasonably perky as if I had to conduct the tour several times a day for months on end I would be considerably less chipper! I think we just picked the wrong museum, but it made us a bit reluctant to try many of the other private museums around for fear of being completely ripped off!
After the witch Museum, we headed down to the port and waterfront, where we found a maritime exhibit hosted by the National Park Service. Here they showed us a 20 minute video on the maritime history of Salem, for free I might add, which detailed the role of Salem’s ships in fighting the naval element of the War of Independence as privateers, and the subsequent glory days of international trade. Cheesy dramatisations aside, the video was really interesting and told us a bit more about Salem than what we already knew about the witch trials.
Moving on from this exhibit we took a look at a replica of an 18th-century twin-masted merchant ship, and further along the port, the House of the Seven Gables, the setting of the Nathaniel Hawthorne novel which I quite recently read. Not a particularly eventful novel, but one of the oldest houses still standing in New England, and nice to look at. After walking round the streets for a bit and admiring the attractive houses and harbour view, we decamped into one of the waterfront restaurants. Another food lesson for me, buffalo sauce is essentially just vinegar, and no longer something that will feature in any of my meals!
In the evening we headed back to Charley’s again, if anything for lack of other ideas as to accessible places to eat reasonably close to the hotel. Still, it's decent food so no complaints here. If anyone was wondering, it's 12 days that my Dad and I can spend together before we start to annoy each other - so this evening we decided to split up with me and Steffen popping down to the sports bar in Charley’s for a drink - a particularly good idea as I definitely needed some alcohol! And I'm sure it gave my dad a welcome respite from me as well!
Overall today was a very good day, good to get out and about, which is hopefully something we can do more before it's time to give up the car.
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