about the time capsules

about the time capsules

[ Sept.2016 ] I continue talking about our walking tour in Boston with Fran.

Basically we followed the route called the Freedom Trail.

This Trail takes us to all the significant places related to the historical events which led to their independence and it is about 4 km (2.5 miles).

So our walking tour was full of history.

One of the places I remember well is the Old State House.

This House was built in 1713 and it is one of the oldest surviving buildings in the US but now it is surrounded by new tall office buildings.

The famous declaration of independence was composed on the balcony here.

There are two statues on top, one is a lion and the other is  unicorn.

According to Fran, the lion statue fell in 2014 and they found a time capsule inside.

It was from the year 1901 and there were photographs of then politicians, letters, newspaper articles and so on.

So when they restored the lion, they put a present time capsule, too in which they included an iPhone and the 2013 Boston Marathon trophy, the marathon terrorists attacked.

In front of the Old State House, there was a monument to the Boston Massacre.

I knew of the Boston Tea Party, but I did not know there was a massacre, too.

We moved to north of the city, to an area called North End.

Until the beginning of this century, this area was cut off from other parts of the city by first a canal and then a motorway, but now it is easy to get there crossing the park.

Currently many people of Italian origin live here and the streets are lined with Italian restaurants, but originally Jewish people lived and after that Irish people came.

There is a church called Old North Church here which had an important role during the War of Independence.

They informed people which way the British forces came, either by river or on land, by the number of the lanterns they lit in the tower.

I was surprised when we entered the church because the space was divided by many boxes.

Apparently the rich families bought the boxes and every time they came, they sat there.

The poorer people sat in the gallery upstairs.

Our tour ended around here and we went in one of those Italian restaurants and ate Cotoletta alla Milanese.