Boston is all about history...

The Old State House is Boston's first public building and was the seat of British government.

From Cape Cod, it's an easy hour or two drive into Boston. Our first intention was to bypass Boston entirely, but realising how significant this city is to American history, we relented and spent several days there. On the way, we called into Plymouth, which is the very place the English pilgrims first landed to settle in the new world.

New and old architecture in downtown Boston. On the right, the Faneuil Hall, meeting & market place since 1742 .

Quincy Market (1824) in front of Customs House Tower (1849), long the tallest building in Boston.

Classical architecture abounds in Boston's downtown area.

Historical mansions in inner-city Boston are tastefully decorated for Christmas.

Faux gas-lights line this pretty street of 'clapboard' houses in Charlestown.

Boston downtown hotels are very expensive, so we did some (excellent, as it turned out) research and chose the Harborside Inn in State Street. The price was right at this hotel, but its website can be most off-putting. Firstly, they warn customers that the inner city is very noisy, and if you don't like that, stay outside of town. Then they advise that their quietest rooms are underground, but they have no windows. And they cautioned about parking problems. Being Sydney siders used to noise, we decided to take the plunge and stay here. We were very pleased with this hotel. We had a 'king bed atrium view' on the top (8th floor). The entire hotel seems to be in the atrium, with the outside of the building reserved for luxury apartments. So the atrium view was pretty poky, and we had no sensation of the weather, but we were entirely satisfied with the room itself. We recommend this hotel.

Our hotel window and its view into the atrium.

And parking was no big deal either, although expensive. The hotel directed us to a public lot in the basement of a building (maybe 200m away) with the flashest lobby you could ever imagine. But even after a discount for hotel validation, the cost was almost half what it cost to stay at the hotel! Ouch!

Derelict opening bridge over Fort Point Channel.

Boston's Washington Street seems to house a lively but alternative theatre scene.

Boston provided the unexpected for other reasons too. We had read that traffic is a nightmare, and that driving into the city should be avoided. We now suspect that the 'nightmare' traffic comment relates to commuters coming in from distant suburbs. In the downtown area, which represents our entire experience, the traffic is amazingly light, and the city is highly 'walkable' and pedestrian friendly. We were in Boston on business days, and apart from a very few through routes, there was almost no vehicular traffic at all. The inner city resembles a giant pedestrian mall. We compare that with Sydney, where the hapless current Minister for Increasing Traffic Jams, Duncan Gay, seems determined to drive pedestrians out! An urban planner once said that great cities are compact, diverse and walkable. Boston is all that, Sydney fails the last.

Moving & evocotive memorial to the holocaust in WW2.

In the immediate vicinity of our financial district hotel, there was a plethora of cafes, Irish pubs, 24 hour supermarkets, food courts. Just perfect for us city dwellers. And we even found a Wagamama, possibly our favourite restaurant, but sadly all gone broke in Sydney. We ate there the first night and pigged out on their brand of delicious, fresh and healty Asian fusion.

Dozens of Irish themes pubs surrounded our hotel, providing many choices at cocktail hour. Tens of thousands of Irish fled to Boston from 1847 to escape the potato famine.

Boston Common, with the gold domed Massachusetts State House in the background.

To us, the main appeal of Boston is its pivotal role in the War of Independence (1775 - 1783). (The effect this war with Britain had on the establishment of Australian colonies is often not appreciated.) Revolutionary history is everywhere in Boston, and the city has established a Freedom Trail which, among other things, emphasises much of it. We spent a full day walking and absorbing the Freedom Trail.

Replica ships and museum commemorate the 1773 Boston Tea Party where colonists protested unfair taxation imposed by Britain. Indirectly, this event led to the War of Independence.

The Granary Burial Ground, one of several in downtown Boston, hosts Benjamin Franklin.

Paul Revere's house (1680) is now the oldest in Boston.

Paul Revere riding to warn of the British attack.

The USS Constitution is the oldest ship in the US Navy (1797). Supposedly open for inspection every day, it's actually only 3 days/week in winter. But a friendly guard told us how to get this close-up.

View of Boston from Charlestown.

Site of the Battle of Bunker Hill in the War if Independence.

View of Charlestown & Boston in the background from the Bunker Hill battleground.

All in all, our three days in Boston was eminently enjoyable and relaxing. We didn't overdo it, we had a good time, and we found it to be a delightful downtown area. We enjoyed generally fine but overcast and very cold weather, with a few snow storms. Boston pedestrians take the weather in their stride.

Ice rink in Boston Common.

Oyster Bar near the Boston law courts.

Rotary brushes are the easiest way to clear Boston's sidewalks of thin layers of fresh snow.

Sydney's Central Station could learn a lot from Boston's South Station with many good food outlets, a pharmacy and even live music! The people watching the departures board are there because the platforms are not announced until the last minute.

In Search of Moby Dick

Illustration of the Whale from Herman Melville's 'Moby Dick', from Wikipedia.

'Call me Ishmael', Nantucket Island (first settled 1641), is a real bucket-list destination, evoking thoughts of whaling, Moby Dick, Starbuck, Queequeg and Cap'n Ahab. Our Plan A was to put our Jeep on the ferry at Hyannis, spend two nights there, and then come back to Cape Cod. After consultation with Sandy at the Anchor In and hearing how expensive the car fare was, we developed a day-trip to Nantucket Plan B, which we followed. Sandy's advice was good!

The Nantucket whaling museum would have been worth a visit, but it was closed. It is housed in an old whale-oil candle factory.

Our Hy-Line Fast Ferry pulling in to dock in Hyannis Harbor

We chose the fast Hy-Line ferry (a catamaran), with a one-way trip taking about an hour. Notices warned us it was 'choppy' but we found that the passage was remarkably smooth. Apart from us, there were absolutely no tourists on board, one of the delights of winter! The ferry was maybe 30% full of mostly construction workers travelling to jobs on the island. Commuting to Nantucket must be every expensive, unless they get an exceptional deal for being regulars. We were surprised to see the workers queue up well before time to go aboard, but later we figured they each have their favourite seat and want to get it.

Harborfront houses in Hyannis, from the Nantucket Ferry.

The Steamship Company car-ferry leaving Hyannis for Nantucket. Anchor In on the right.

Waiting for passengers off the Hy-Line Fast Ferry to Nantucket.

Sandy wanted us to take a guided tour of the island, but when she rang Gail up for us, she answered from Florida - Gail is no fool! So, on Nantucket we easily rented a car so we could explore the island (only about 100 square miles and shaped roughly like Tasmania). We used it for half the day, and spent the other half walking around the historical and beautiful downtown area.

Brant Point Light at the entrance to Nantucket Harbor.

Shopfront decorations relive old whalers.

The drive around the island was interesting, but the maps we had were poor and we had forgotten to take our GPS navigator with us. Even on that little island, we managed to get lost a few times, but that only gave us to explore places we didn't intend. From the sea, and confirmed by the drive, Nantucket is a flat sand-spit of an island. Its maximum elevation is less than 10m. The less commonly used roads are unpaved and others are simply covered by blown sand. Some are closed for winter, there being few people there to keep them cleared for. We didn't venture onto the unpaved roads in our Toyota Camry except to do some extended U-turns. We couldn't get to Coskata and the GReat Point Lighthouse for this reason. Nevertheless, we saw enough of the island to deduce its delicious flavour. Like on Cape Cod, it seems the popular recreational beaches are on the protected northern side, not facing the treacherous Atlantic surfs.

'Nantucket NASA 2002' by NASA Johnson Space Center - Earth Sciences and Image Analysis (NASA-JSC-ES&IA) - NASA. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Outside Nantucket town, the island seems to be a loose network of tiny clusters of tidy holiday houses. We couldn't call these clusters villages because they generally didn't have a centre, didn't have a single shop. The houses ranged from modest to quite grand, just like on Cape Cod.

Frozen surface and coastline around Polpis Harbor off Nantucket Harbor.

Sankaty Head Lighthouse on Nantucket's east coast.

One spectacularly beautiful village (we can call it that, it had a shop & a PO) was Siasconset, set on a ridge above the Atlantic facing south-eastern corner of Nantucket. What a little piece of paradise, a village of narrow streets and lanes whose buildings are uniformly clad with weathered grey shingles, some with fabulous ocean views. We bought stamps from the PO, but the shop was closed until April.

The only place open in town, the Siasconset Post Office.

Front Street in Siasconset would not take much traffic.

Fine name for a restaurant in Nantucket.

Nantucket township is a haven of postcard-worthy sights and numerous tourist traps, almost all closed for our visit. Most summer day-trippers, it seems, don't leave downtown where they can succumb to any amount of shopping and imbibing. Downtown apparently hosts the US's greatest concentration of pre-1850 housing, and also boasts some of its most expensive property, definitely reserved for the well-to-do. In a real-estate office in town, we noted that modest houses go for $1M, and saw a $20M price tag on a large 'estate' with some land around it.

Fine mansions in downtown Nantucket.

The town wraps around the harbour on the northern side, facing Cape Cod and Nantucket Sound. A large area around the harbour is quite roughly cobble-stoned which has the desirable effect of slowing the traffic down. There seemed to be a lot more cruising pick-up trucks than actual commerce going on, which is a pity. The cobbles are hideous to walk on, but there are numerous pedestrian crossings of smoother paving.

Ankle-twisting cobblestones in the streets of Nantucket town.

Doing a U-turn in our rental, near the Brant Point Light.

The Lighthouses of Cape Cod

Our initial plan for Cape Cod was to base our stay at Hyannis MA, and on driving in we made a very good decision to eschew the mainstream hotels and stay at one recommended by the Lonely Planet, namely the Anchor In on the harbour waterfront and within walking distance of Main Street restaurants and of the ferries to Nantucket. The Anchor In is a family run hotel and was an absolute delight. Sandy, the receptionist, was ever so helpful and allowed us to view rooms before we decided. She also gave us great advice on the ferries, where to go on Cape Cod and where to eat. Our room was as good as any we have stayed in, and we had lovely views of the harbour, the ferries and the sunset. The Lonely Planet recommendation was a good one indeed.

Sunset over Hyannis Harbor from the Anchor In.

We had some excellent and interesting dinners in Hyannis. One was at a tapas bar EmBarGo, perfect because we were after a drink and a light meal. We tried quahog, a large shellfish stuffed with lobster and chorizo. The waiter, Ben, told us this was a Massachusetts and Rhode Island specialty. Ben looked like a wannabe footballer, and gave us lessons on the game on that night, Baltimore vs the New England Patriots. The locals were clearly on the side of the latter, but we don't know who won in the end. Even with the football on, a trio played live jazz at the EmBarGo.

Empty recreational berths populate Hyannis Harbor, like all other marinas in New England in winter.

All up the Atlantic coast, we see cute lighthouses like this one in Hyannis Harbor.

These gulls seem cranky that they could not have a swim in the frozen water.

There are only two roads onto Cape Cod, both crossing the artifical Cape Cod Canal which cuts about 200 miles off the shipping journey from southern ports into Boston and Plymouth. With the canal, Cape Cod is now an island. We came in over the Sagamaore Bridge which is quite a bottleneck. Luckily (on a Sunday afternoon) we were heading onto the Cape, because the traffic heading back onto the "mainland" was backed up maybe 10km behind this bridge. We noticed at Sagamore a huge Park 'n' Ride depot where Cape residents can park and commute into Boston for work. Trouble is, they have to drive across that bridge!

A well integrated navigation system, like this one at Dennis Beach.

Cape Cod is a thin J shaped spit of land with 900km of coastline and beaches - it protects most of the coast of Massachusetts from the Atlantic Ocean. We toured what a map referred to as the Mid-Cape, the Lower Cape, the Outer Cape and the northern part of the Upper Cape over a couple of days. Cape Code is a lighthouse fiesta. The present-day lights distinguish themselves from each other for seaman by their colours and flashing patterns. Before the invention of rotating lights, other artifices like multiple lights side by side were used. Eastham was identified, for example, by a row of lights called "the three sisters" which are now redundant but have been preserved for posterity in the bush behind the present facility.

The Nauset Light is near Eastham on Cape Cod. Behind it are the now retired "three sisters" lights.

Moving sand at Chatham Banks at the tip of the elbow on Cape Cod.

We learned that Cape Cod is predominantly a holiday destination - there a multitudes of beach houses but the vast majority are locked up for winter. Their owners either stay in their Boston homes, or have moved to Florida to escape the bitter cold. That said, there is still a sufficient residual population to keep businesses open and we had no trouble finding cafes and bars to relax at. Most touristy art, craft, fashion and souvenir shops are firmly closed. Buildings are typically clad (walls and rooves) with timber shingles. These are blonde in colour when new (so recent renovations are easy to spot), and grey off to become quite dark if not black as they get old. Towns are uniformly grey for this reason and look quite charming.

The 1878 Chatham Light is maybe the prettiest on Cape Cod.

The houses are not beach shacks as an Australian would recognise them - they range from modest to grand but are generally well kept and neat & tidy. Cape Cod lives up to its reputation - it is evidently a summer playground for the wealthy from between New York and Boston. They are basically not here in winter, and during that period the Cape is mostly populated by local business owners and tradesman working on getting the place ready for summer.

The 1797 Highland Light near Truro is the oldest and brightest on Cape Cod.

The last 30km of the Outer Cape is effectively one road in and out to Provincetown, surely one of the cutest towns imaginable. What this compact town must look like in summer is, on the contrary, unimaginable, and the traffic up that road must be unbearable. But our visit was in winter, and the place was very quiet and all but closed. Each afternoon we look for a cafe for a warming cup of tea, and in Provincetown, we could only find one open in a main street of dozens.

Uninterrupted & close-packed beachside shacks and cottages line the Cape Cod Bay shore for miles along route 6A into Provincetown.

Kale grows colorfully in planter boxes in Provincetown.

In Provincetown, a Christmas Tree made of lobster pots and topped artily with colourful fishing floats.

All the townships we saw leading up to Provincetown were pretty as a picture. These include Chatham (fantastic lighthouse), Eastham and Truro. The coast on the east side is wild, being fully exposed to the Atlantic. The protected beaches on the west, inside Cape Cod Bay, are much calmer, and seem to be the popular swimming spots in summer. Nearer the canal, in the Upper Cape (this nomenclature is acknowleged to be irrational and confusing), there is a delightful town called Sandwich (the first town established by Europeans on the Cape, 1637!), which is separated by broad (and windswept) marshes from Cape Cod Bay traversed by a quite spectacular boardwalk.

The 1654 Dexter's Grist Mill in Sandwich still grinds cornmeal, in summer anyway.

Warming up at a welcome cafe in Sandwich. Coffee in real cups!

This long windswept boardwalk connecting Sandwich to its Atlantic surf beach dates back to 1875. On reconstruction in 1992 by the community, almost every board was engraved with a sponsor's name.