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We've started putting a holiday together for next summer. So far the plan is to fly to Boston (from Dublin - BIG saving on flying from Manchester...We're 20 minutes from the ferry, free parking at the Port...taxi to an airport hotel then fly !) - 14 days booked, we've four nights in Boston then the next bit is to get a train to NY...spend a few nights there then where ? - get a car ? get a train ? I'm keen to get to Gettysburg again. Any itinerary ideas ?
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Interesting re the Dublin flights, if you have time to build that into your trip. Of course, as you say, from where you are its not too bad. Probably not much in it as opposed to going to London or something.
I'm going to NY next week coincidentally. Third time this year ( work stuff ) just for a couple of days. I seem to end up going out of Heathrow due to price although Manchester would be handier. ( One hour drive to MAN versus 3 hours to LHR )
Years ago, Aer Lingus used to give the internal "hopper" legs of Irish flights free to anyone who was continuing on their airline to an international destination. Oddly ( or maybe not so oddly ) enough that included travel to the UK so you could, for example, fly from Sligo or Cork to Dublin for nothing and then connect with a Heathrow flight or whatever so long as they were both Aer Lingus. Handy enough if you needed that direction of travel.
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Why fly when you could drive there in a little over 4 hours? Happisburgh is roughly another 2 hours further on down the East Coast.
:}
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Oooh, by the way, if you haven't done it before, go to a big baseball game. I went to the Yankee stadium to watch the NY Yankees versus Boston Red Sox a couple of years ago with a British colleague one Friday night. Got the train up and back from Grand Central.
Brilliant night, great atmosphere although neither of us had the slightest clue what was going on. We got kind of adopted by some locals in the crowd who tried to explain it all to us but it didn't seem much different to rounders.
The best part though was the fact that despite freely available alcohol, a totally integrated crowd ( the guys we ended up with were a mixture of Yankees and Red Sox supporters and included a NY husband with his Bostonian wife ) there was no evidence of trouble in the crowd and although it went on late there were plenty of obviously family groups in a spirited but well behaved crowd.
I've never seen anyone chuck a ball as fast or as accurately as those pitchers.
As a general observation, the batsmen ( if that's what they call them ) seem quite bad at hitting the ball, although, to be honest, I doubt I'd even see them at the speed they are delivered.
Good sausage stalls too. Beer stupidly expensive. Didn't matter.
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Tue 26 Nov 13 at 22:34
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Seconded Runfer's suggestion. If the Sox are playing at home try to book well in advance as they regularly sell out. I love the whole atmosphere at a big ball game.
We were in Boston recently, leaf peeping, and cannot suggest an itinerary as we drove up the coast as far as Bar Harbour in Maine. The B & Bs were a pleasant surprise and we stayed with a few eccentrics, and several unusual places...one B & B had a huge open fire in the bedroom.
Our 4 nights in Boston were booked via Priceline, a site I rate very highly. Choose your area of a city, decide on the standard of accommodation, put in your card details, put in the bid knowing the exact cost, then place your bid! Always 'room only' but we have got several 4* hotels @ £60 for the room. Eating out is never a problem, and works up an appetite before blueberry pancakes!
If hiring a car I always use Hertz. Probably more than other rental agents, but a new fleet and apart from when skiing in winter, I pay for a convertible because Hertz used Ford. I am not sure if that is still the case so do not take it as gospel. In Boston we got a spanking new Stang, metallic black, heated grey leather, roof down every day with heavy frost in the morning up in Maine. Shame it was only the 4.0 V6.
Last edited by: legacylad on Wed 27 Nov 13 at 08:42
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Also went leaf peeping last month, went to Acadia, stayed in a little hut in some woods next to a salt creek. Then up to New Hampshire as the leaves weren't very good in Maine.
One point, I flew through Shannon from Manchester and I believe it is the same through Dublin - you pass US Customs and Immigration in Ireland thus saving the hassle at the US end. However you pop out of Boston Airport from the domestic arrivals rather than the international.
My brother was waiting for me at the international gate just along from the domestic one.
The lobsters are cheap and everywhere in Maine - and good.
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If you want to understand baseball, and a lot else about America, can I recommend Bill Bryson's latest book. "One summer. America, 1927" which would be an absolutely fantastic holiday read for a trip to Boston.
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Thanks for posting that tip CG. I'll search that out for in flight reading on my American trip next week. I like Bill Bryson.
I expect I'll have time to read the whole thing while being shouted at in the usual welcoming manner when queueing for immigration at JFK...
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Could be useful for next year's trips to see the colours? www.yankeefoliage.com/ Anything by Bill Bryson is a good read for me, holiday or not!
Last edited by: Meldrew on Wed 27 Nov 13 at 11:17
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>> I expect I'll have time to read the whole thing while being shouted at in
>> the usual welcoming manner when queueing for immigration at JFK...
>>
The OP won't have time for this. All US immigration control done in Dublin airport. Off the plane and out of the airport with no stops. Easily the best way to travel to the US.
alfalfa
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>> If you want to understand baseball, and a lot else about America, can I recommend
>> Bill Bryson's latest book. "One summer. America, 1927" which would be an absolutely fantastic holiday read for a trip to Boston. >>
I am reading that book at the moment.
Borrowed from the public library, it's only available in hardback and it's quite a weight to be holding up. I haven't tried reading it in bed - much too heavy I fear.
A fascinating read.
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Read it on my Kindle -much more convenient :-)
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>> Read it on my Kindle -much more convenient :-) >>
Another Amazon worker had to sweat blood to get that to you!
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From 2010 to today, according to Amazon, I have placed 118 orders with them.
Some were quite substantial, too!
I'm helping to keep Amazon workers in jobs!
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>> >> Read it on my Kindle -much more convenient :-) >>
>>
>> Another Amazon worker had to sweat blood to get that to you!
>>
I don't think Kindle orders are touched by human hand - electronic see!
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Orders for Kindles are picked by hand!
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Not really - it is delivered electronically
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OK, Kindles are picked by hand:
Kindle BOOKS are sent electronically.
OK?
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Behaving ethically is not straightforward. Should We not use Amazon because of their working practices and deprive someone of a job? Are electronic books kinder to the planet than their paper equivalent or or vice versa. I bank with the Co-Op who were hailed as an ethical alternative and find they lost billions and their chairman was an incompetent Cocaine sniffing porn addict
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>> and their chairman was an incompetent Cocaine sniffing porn addict
Point of order CGN: the pillar of Methodism was/is a crack smoker and user of ketamine, and liked all-night parties with rent boys.
The crack habit may well help to explain the florid complexion by the way. Compared to those violent chemicals ordinary coke taken in sane quantities is classy and relatively harmless. I wouldn't recommend it of course. The thing about all drugs without exception is that some people take to them and others don't. Those who do are then at risk of getting greedy, overdoing it and so on. Big drug habits are very expensive and can lead to trouble in other ways. Many here will have come across the odd alcoholic or sixty-a-day man with incipient emphysema.
I still do a sort of mental double-take when I think of the man Flowers. Just can't believe no one rumbled him in the nonconformist world or the banking one more or less on sight.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Wed 27 Nov 13 at 19:51
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We went to Boston last year and had a great time. Staying with friends helped get inside info. I recommend:
1. A Duck Tour - they even let me drive it in the harbour - very tippy.
2. Plimoth Plantation, just outside Plymouth, to the south of Boston - a living museum of how the area was when the Pilgrim Fathers landed, seen from both the Pilgrim point of view and the native American's point of view.
3. The Science Museum.
4. Cape Cod area generally. Very pretty. Hyannis where the Kennedys have their base is a bit of a Mecca for some Americans.
Just make sure you hire a 'proper' American car, and not some tiny econobox. We had a Grand Voyager and GMC Acadia SUV when we were there - both with in-line 6 cylinder 3.6l engines.
Last edited by: Boxsterboy on Wed 27 Nov 13 at 22:07
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Great tips. Thanks, especially the Immigration one in Dublin. Looking forward to the flight. I watched that Amazon Panorama thing. I would have done that in my youth. Hard work never caused anyone any harm. BBC failed to trip my guilt trigger.
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>>BBC failed to trip my guilt trigger.
I agree, I think the worst shift the worker had to do was 10 hours, presumably with appropriate breaks. Well, poor soul ! That would be a short day in the world I've worked in for more than 3 decades. I began to wonder if it was a spoof.
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We went to most of the sites mentioned some years ago. Only couple of other items: Cape Cod was excellent, especially Provincetown for whale watching. Nantucket Island trip was enjoyable: lobster sandwich at a "shack". Also, found many casings of "horseshoe" crabs on the shore. Early pioneers were greatly disappointed as the flesh was meagre. Neurotoxin too, apparently. Nasty. Upside is one quart of horseshoe crab blood (which is blue from the copper basis) costs around fifteen thousand dollars. Used for research into infection control.
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>> >> and their chairman was an incompetent Cocaine sniffing porn addict
>>
>> Point of order CGN: the pillar of Methodism was/is a crack smoker and user of
>> ketamine, and liked all-night parties with rent boys.
>>
He also was caught ordering "Charlie" from a drug dealer and his computer was found to contain large quantities of porn when it was handed in for repair.
John Wesley must be spinning in his grave.
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>>Why fly when you could drive there in a little over 4 hours
Direction, direction.
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>>can I recommend Bill Bryson's latest book. "One summer. America, 1927"
Bought it at the airport the other day CG. More than half way through already. Fascinating book. Thanks for the recommendation which I wholeheartedly second.
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>> We've started putting a holiday together for next summer. So far the plan is to
>> fly to Boston
I'd drive, tho you could get a private plane into Peterborough.
(from Dublin - BIG saving on flying from Manchester...We're 20 minutes from
>> the ferry, free parking at the Port...taxi to an airport hotel then fly !) -
>> 14 days booked, we've four nights in Boston
To many, I'd split that up and spend a few in Kings Lynn. Got a magnificent new Sainsbury.
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Whilst in Boston, I'd recommend here:-
tinyurl.com/l8wqoy4
for good food and drink at very reasonable prices.
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There's a long story I'll not bore you with as to why, but we spent nearly six hours in a Wetherspoons the other day, with one meal and one lemonade each until 10:30pm.
There were comfy chairs, bookcases full of books, no music, polite staff and as a haven from the dark and cold in a strange town it was just fine.
Never been in one before and had to have the system of ordering explained to me, but then they left us alone. Quite happy with that.
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Oh ! Is there a Wetherspoons in Boston Mass. ? :-)
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My friend from Birmingham says New York is Boston.
( Oh go on Crankcase tell us anyway, I'll admit to being nosey enough to want to know ! )
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My music teacher is a professional player. He was ill and couldn't drive but the show would be cancelled if he didn't get there, which would have been a disaster for the theatre and a refund of I suppose a couple of thousand tickets.
So I drove him to Swindon arriving at 12 noon. Then we had to kill time until the end of the last show at 11pm. Not that easy on a Sunday. So we did the museum, and we were lucky enough to get Cleo Laine's seats, the last ones in the house, for one of the shows as she was unwell. After that, Wetherspoons as above.
Then at 11pm it was the three hour drive home. Such larks.
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I was going to suggest it was your Wedding anniversary treat
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Long day out then !
@RP - did you know, that in the little box to the right of the screen ( yep over there > ) your "handle" comes up as "byRP"
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>> There's a long story I'll not bore you with as to why, but we spent
>> nearly six hours in a Wetherspoons the other day, with one meal and one lemonade
>> each until 10:30pm.
You then proceed to tell us the story and it wasn't boring!
>> Never been in one before and had to have the system of ordering explained to
>> me, but then they left us alone. Quite happy with that.
"Had to have the system of ordering explained to us"
Do what!
The system of ordering is just like every other pub in the country. You make a note of your table number, one of the party goes up to the bar, quotes that table number, orders food and drink, return to your table with the drinks and the food is delivered to to your table some twenty minutes or so later.
Is that the first time you have been in a pub in Britain? You aren't - you aren't - American - are you?
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I've never done that table numbering thing, before, no. On the rare occasions I've been in a pub, I've either ordered food at the bar and they bring it to wherever you are, sometimes with a wooden spoon numbering arrangement, or it's a waiter/waitress arrangement. (It seems obvious that a free meal can be garnered by taking your own numbered spoon and just sitting anywhere, but that's by the by.)
Wetherspoons, or as my quirly little spelling checker has just suggested, Weatherpersons, appeared to be some kind of amalgamation of the two - on entering a lady asked if she could help. I didn't know if that was a "table for two please" question or a "are you still serving food" question". It turned out to be a "here is a system unknown to me" question.
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>> The system of ordering is just like every other pub in the country.
but its not. There are various ways food is served in pubs, I have:
Sat at a table and been served by a Waitress
Been given a number on a stick and they bring the food to where ever you are sitting
Not been given a number on a stick, and they come and find you anyway,
Given a name and then had it shouted across the bar to go and fetch food (amusing that one if you are quick off the drawer in giving amusing and funny names)
been handed a bleeper/buzzer thing that tells you when the food is ready and you go fetch
And (on Sunday Carvery day) gone up and queued with plate in hand at the food counter.
And of course, been in pubs where you have to remember your table number
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 29 Nov 13 at 08:45
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>> >> The system of ordering is just like every other pub in the country.
>>
>> but its not. There are various ways food is served in pubs, I have:
>>
Ok. Ok. It was a sweeping generalisation.
But less than a million miles from the norm.
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What I didn't understand was how it worked when they were busy. If I go in and find a free table, say 45, and we go to the bar to order, what's to stop someone else picking 45 before we get it all sorted? Ok, I suppose I could leave Mrs C at the table looking fierce, but if I were on my own?
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>> What I didn't understand was how it worked when they were busy. If I go
>> in and find a free table, say 45, and we go to the bar to
>> order, what's to stop someone else picking 45 before we get it all sorted? Ok,
>> I suppose I could leave Mrs C at the table looking fierce, but if I
>> were on my own?
Its a weather spoons. You have to put on your "Look at me I am 'ard" look, roll up your sleeves to reveal your "ink" - its called the "Nick my table and you are a dead 'n" posture.
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It wasn't at all like that. There were two gentleman having a discussion in a tongue alien to me. One of those languages where it sounds like "I will castrate you and feed the bits to my donkey, you revolting excuse for a human being" but probably means "Another pint, Bill?".
There was a girl on her own reading.
There was a young lad and an Italian girl and he was trying to teach her English, rather sweetly.
There were a couple snuggling and watching the tv with subtitles. And us.
And that was it all evening. Seemed quite civilized really.
Oh, and Mrs C left her handbag on a chair, we moved tables and she forgot it. When she went back, disaster, it was gone. Panic, then a staff member came over and said it had been handed in and was behind the bar, so all was well. And everything was in it.
I have to say I did warn everyone this was a long and boring story, and I was asked to tell it...
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>> What I didn't understand was how it worked when they were busy. If I go
>> in and find a free table, say 45, and we go to the bar to
>> order, what's to stop someone else picking 45 before we get it all sorted? Ok,
>> I suppose I could leave Mrs C at the table looking fierce, but if I
>> were on my own?
As I did yesterday. Leave your coat on the back of the chair and go up and order. You could ask the people at a nearby table to keep an eye out for you.
If you are with Mrs Cranky, it doesn't need two of you to order drinks and food. She (or you) sits down and you (or her) goes up to the bar to order. She doesn't have to look fierce, her good looks and charm will win over any punters that are looking for a free table. If you sit at the table while she goes up to order, your ugly mug will frighten the strongest of men.
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>> Whilst in Boston, I'd recommend here:-
>>
>> tinyurl.com/l8wqoy4
Are Wetherspoons naming all their pubs "The Moon Under Water". There are lots about.
Is there a George Orwell fan on the board of Wetherspoons, perhaps with a sense of irony?
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>> Are Wetherspoons naming all their pubs "The Moon Under Water". There are lots about.
>>
>> Is there a George Orwell fan on the board of Wetherspoons, perhaps with a
>> sense of irony?
>>
Link to The Daily Mail. Sorry.
tinyurl.com/6fq425
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Orwell's requirements for the ideal pub:-
The architecture and fittings must be uncompromisingly Victorian.
Games, such as darts, are only played in the public bar so that in other bars you can walk about without the worry of flying darts.
The pub is quiet enough to talk, with the house possessing neither a radio nor a piano.
The barmaids know the customers by name and take an interest in everyone.
It sells tobacco and cigarettes, aspirins and stamps, and lets you use the phone.
there is a snack counter where you can get liver-sausage sandwiches, mussels (a speciality of the house), cheese, pickles and [...] large biscuits with caraway seeds
"Upstairs, six days a week, you can get a good, solid lunch -- for example, a cut off the joint, two vegetables and boiled jam roll—for about three shillings."
" a creamy sort of draught stout , and it goes better in a pewter pot."
"They are particular about their drinking vessels at "The Moon Under Water" and never, for example, make the mistake of serving a pint of beer in a handleless glass. Apart from glass and pewter mugs, they have some of those pleasant strawberry-pink china ones. In my opinion beer tastes better out of china."
"You go through a narrow passage leading out of the saloon, and find yourself in a fairly large garden. Many as are the virtues of the Moon Under Water I think that the garden is its best feature, because it allows whole families to go there instead of Mum having to stay at home and mind the baby while Dad goes out alone."
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Boston Holiday... - Runfer D'Hills
