Natalie and Jason's Travelblog

North End (aka Little Italy)

natalieandjason — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 23:06:20 +0000

Yesterday we did a walking food tour of Little Italy. It was a wonderful experience. We met at the edge of the area known as The North End. The view of the city is awesome. Yet only a few years ago this view was pretty awful, they had an above ground highway much like our Gardner. They buried it. There’s mixed feelings about it, mostly pride that “the big dig” happened, and look at all the new greenspace it created. But the downside is the $15-18 billion price tag. I say $15-18 because each time we’ve heard the cost it’s about a billion more than last time. We first heard $15 billion. I expect by the time we leave it’ll be a little over $25 billion. Or perhaps they’re adjusting for inflation?

The tour began with a bit of a history lesson. About how the area has often been a home for immigrants who typically move in here when they first arrived, but as they become more wealthy they move on to other areas. For a long time it was Irish, then Jewish, then Italian. Today it’s much more of a mix, but about 40% Italian. An interesting note: everyone here spoke perfect English.

The first stop on the tour was a pastry shop. As with each stop, we’d learn a lot about how things are made, styles based on regions of Italy. Also we learned about the proprietor of each place because their own history weighed on how things were prepared. Lots of great stories. The tour guide, Jim, was excellent. He often went on tangents, but the were good ones. More like filling in more pieces of the story. He himself was a chief and retired from that, now does these tours fulltime as he has been for four years. After the pastery shop it was a grocer where we learned about spices and whatnot. Next was a fruit and veggie grocer. This shop was very small. The owner didnt’ bother with displaying prices or even a cash registar. He did it all in his head. Next we went to another shop which was a delecitancent, among other things. That’s where this picture was taken, as Jim was handing out some treats made on bread they baked there with some Prosciutto and vinaigrette. The next stop was a The Cheese Shop. It was probably the most interesting for me because we learned a lot about olive oils and vinaigrettes including how they’re made and how to shop for them. I look forward to checking out my kitchen cupboard to see how I’ve done. After that it was a wine shop. It’s a well regarded one. They have a famous collection, all imported from Italy. We bought a little bottle of Limencello to have that evening. It was Jim’s personal favourite, and indeed it was good. After that we grabbed some lovely sandwiches from, funny enough, not an Italian place. But it was recommended by Jim and it was great. We explored more of the city. The tour bus pass was good for two days so we took advantage of that some more. I noticed that there’s quite the TD Bank presence down here.

After a while we trekked out to Salem by commuter train. It was a rather quick trip, express to Salem.

Our hotel room is gorgeous!

After arriving we wandered a little bit and discovered a really cool artsy bar. They had terrific macaroni and cheese. It was baked, it had goat cheese and roasted red peppers inside. Tres yum!

Today’s been another good day, all spent here in Salem. I’ll write about that another time.

No blog post tonight, due to dodgy wifi connection.

natalieandjason — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 02:23:45 +0000

Cambridge, Day Two

natalieandjason — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 04:09:43 +0000

Had another wonderful day. We woke early and hit up the IHOP near our hotel as preveiously posted. Then took the subway (during rush hour) to the New England Aquarium.

The place is awesome. We walked in just in time for the penguins to be fed.

They have 80 penguins and claim that there are 80 different personalities. I could totally see that. It was fun seeing them come up, one at a time in a very orderly fashion to be weighed and fed. It was really cute. Each one wore a different coloured bracelet. Males on left and females on the right wing (or the other way around). The penguins that have mated wore matching colours. No gay penguins, but they’ve was a sister and brother that mated (I don’t believe they’ve been informed).

In the centre of the build is a giant water tank, with a spiraling stair ramp around it. Awesome views.

Inside the big tank there was another scheduled feeding (there are several throughout the day). Natalie and I agreed that this must be a really cool job to have. All the people here appeared to love their jobs.

We saw all sorts of crazy species, and were even allowed to touch some of them. Some totally totally alien.

I also think I saw an alien egg.

Next we went to The Chart House for lunch. It was rather posh. Check out the food we ate. Natalie ate clam chowder. I had a tuna sandwich. Then we shared their signature lava cake, which we had to pre-order. It was heavenly.

Next up we took a bus tour which was a great overview of the city. Upon I saw the Crane, Poole & Schimdt building:

After that we strolled around. Some some great little artist shops. I got a wicked t-shirt that you’ll have to see in a future post. Then we got bloody soaked. We went for some Boston pizza, in Boston. It was a nice place, but I’m sure I would have enjoyed myself more if I wasn’t so soaked… I hate being damp. Anyways, after that (and a few glasses of wine) we went back to the hotel and dried off. I hope our shoes will be okay by morning!

First thing tomorrow will be a walking tour of the Italian food districted. Yum!

Breakfast in America

natalieandjason — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 01:27:37 +0000

Naturally, we had to go to an IHOP.

It’s like a required expericance when south of the boarder.

Cambridge, Day One

natalieandjason — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 00:21:13 +0000

We had a lovely flight in, and the trip to our hotel was painless. In fact, it was amazing. The transit here is very impressive. The bus was a true hybrid. When we boarded it at the airport, we drove for a while. Arrived a stop and the bus driver turned off the engine, left the bus, a few seconds later she re-boarded and turned it on, but now it had a different sound. What I think happened is she connected the bus to the overhead electrical feed. The rest of the trip was underground connecting us to the subway, which took us to a five minute walk to our hotel. It’s nothing to write home about… and yes I recognize the fact that I am, in fact…. writing home about it.

Had a wonderful evening just strolling around. We hit up a beautiful bookshoppe. Wandered around Harvard Campus.

Later we went out for a few pints and some yummy soup.

After which we went out for most amazing cupcakes.

Be sure to hover the mouse over each picture for more details!

Ready for boarding

natalieandjason — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 15:05:10 +0000

We’ve arrived at they airport having braved the ferry. (braved? Honestly, the boat was roughly the same size as the channel we crossed!)

The airport is lovely, as expected. Even though those self check-in kiosks are just a useless as they are in every other airport.

View from security.

From the lounge.

Natalie found herself a newspaper, enjoying her complimentary latte.

I’m amused that they are running everything on giant Apple computers that are running old IBM Terminal emulators. Haha!

Ferry!

natalieandjason — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 13:50:53 +0000

And so our journey begins…

natalieandjason — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 13:08:33 +0000

Like every adventure, ours begins with a bus ride. Unlike so many adventures it also starts off with a ferry ride too!

A reminder, once again, to any would-be house thieves who pary on travel bloggers, facebook junkies and twit-heads who are away: we have someone staying at our house with our cats. So back off.

Sunset

natalieandjason — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:39:05 +0000

While I was composing the previous post by our bedroom window, this was happening:

The Sound of Music

natalieandjason — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 16:37:16 +0000

Hell yes this tour was worth it. Kitch, yes. But the satisfaction was just as high.
The first stop was at the house used as the rear of the Von Trapp home and lakefront garden. It looks just like it did in the movie. Also there is the road (and trees) that the baron sees children climbing as he drives past.
Next stop, the gazibo. It’s not in the orignal location. It was built by the film production and given to the city of Salzburg. It was actually on the “Trapp home” location. But the present owners got tired of the tourists tresspassing. So it was moved to a public park not too far. Also near the park is the “Confidence in Me” road, further down this road is where the front of the Trapp home was filmed. Neither locations are where the real family lived.
On the way to a different town where the wedding church is located we made a quick stop along the way at the city inwhich Mozart’s mother was born. It is called Wolfgang, she named her son after her hometown.
We got to the very cute small town of Mondsee where the famous church resides. Lucky for us it just completed a four year renovation. We stopped for lunch with some fellow Candians and had some nice apple struddle.
The tourguide, Gary was awesome. I’m sure he’s heard the music more than enough times, told the jokes more times than he can count but I must say he really made it seem original and well loved. He also reminded me of an Austrian Bob Barker if you can imagine.
It’s our last night in Salzburg. I’ll be sad to go. But we are both looking forward to getting home. Though, not the trip itself. Air Transat isn’t exactly in our good books.
We’ve got a little time to spend in Frankfurt not sure eactly what we’ll do there. I hear there’s a great Irish Pub there that serves Thai food. Yup. You read that right.
-j

Natalie is making an “A” for Amy, because she is her Liesel.