Boston

Our room on the 33rd floor has wonderful views of the city and we are very happy to be here.  It was an easy six and a half hour flight and the British Airways crew were amongst the best ever; super friendly, efficient and good humoured.  We were spoiled for choice of films but both watched The Lego Movie which had us giggling most of the way through. Of course, the quest had to be for the “piece of resistance”, didn’t it?  As for the “wanted” poster, with the bright yellow Lego face on it – the same as every other Lego face, when you think about it!  Silly, but so very clever!

It wasn’t much after 2pm when we checked in and we weren’t so surprised to find that our room wasn’t quite ready.  Actually, we had a couple of immediate errands to run and now seemed as good a time as any, so we left our luggage behind and went straight out.  Mary wasn’t due to arrive for a couple of hours, so we went through the Copley Square Mall to the first stop.

The Post Office!  There were CDs to send to one of my Hero’s American music chums and the small prepaid US Mail box fits the bill perfectly.  Once again, we wished our Royal Mail offered a similar flat fee service – so quick and easy to do.

A new store had opened in the Mall since our last visit and the shop window drew our attention immediately.

The Microsoft store looked remarkably like another computer store just across the street with their evangelical staff wearing brightly coloured T shirts and plenty of products out there to play with.  We spoke to one of the young men, who told us it’s a new concept and that this is one of the first of such stores in the USA.  Interesting.

By this time, we were ready to return to the hotel, to unpack, shower and change before Mary's arrival.  We passed by the blue bear which commemorates the 50th anniversary of JFK’s visit to Berlin and returned to reception to pick up our keys.

But our room was still not ready.  For some reason, they’d allocated us a room where the previous occupants had been given a 4pm checkout!  What use was that?  After much muttering, a grudging apology of sorts from a staff member and finally, the offer of a drink whilst we waited, at 5.30pm we heard the good news.  Our room was ready.  I’d like to say that the fantastic views more than made up for the aggravation, but that’s not true – yet.  I might have to vent my spleen on Trip Adviser

At least Mary had arrived now, so we had plenty to chat about and of course, the story of the 2014 Road Trip begins here.  Supper at Legal Seafoods hit the spot nicely and kept us all going – Mary is working four hours ahead, we are five hours behind, so between us there’s going to be at least one who’s doing their best not to drop off!  Since it’s now 22:21 according to this laptop and we’ve been up since 6am UK time, I think that’s exactly what I’m going to do now.

Goodnight!