I love Boston

Download large version

This is the view from my bedroom. I am very, very fond of it. At different times of the day and year it looks more or less spectacular and I sometimes try to capture it with my camera. In sunshine, rain, snow and fog, at dawn and noon, dusk and midnight, it always amazes me. This is what I see as I fall asleep and as I awaken. I will miss it if I move.

The part of Boston one can see is called Copley (after the famous artist John Singleton Copley, who moved to Boston from London) and it's at the heart of the part of town where I spend most of my time (ie: Back Bay, South End, Downtown, Beacon Hill and North End).

The building on the extreme left is the Prudential Tower. At the top is a restaurant and a viewing platform. When the tower was built it supplanted Boston's Customhouse Tower as the tallest building in New England.

Moving right from the Pru' is 111 Huntington Ave (could they not have named it better?). This award-winning skyscraper was built in '02 and sits so well within the group that it's hard to imagine the scene without it.

The rightmost pair of buildings are the Hancock Towers, named for local revolutionary hero, John Hancock (he of the famously large signature). The one on the right is older and is distinguished by an illuminated pillar at its top that tells we Bostonians the weather forecast:

Steady blue, clear view
Flashing blue, clouds due
Steady red, rain ahead
Flashing red, snow instead.

The taller of the Hancock Towers is newer and is the current tallest building in New England. It was recently sold for US$1.3Bn. It is one of several splendid buildings in Boston designed by celebrated Harvard architect I.M.Pei. Though the Hancock, like the Pru', has a viewing platform, it was closed after 911 (a good pretext to make a killing by selling-off the publicly-mandated platform as office space). Personally, I love the way the Hancock reflects one part of the sky whilst being set against another: it often looks stunning. I also love the way it reflects Trinity Church (located at the tower's base) which is considered America's finest gothic building.

There are lots of things I love about Boston. This wonderful view is just one.

Visit to Montreal

We've had no snow, as yet, in Massachusetts, which is very ood. However, I did get to see some snow when I was in Montreal, earlier this week. Parts of the city are quite pretty and it's always cool to practice one's French.

More Photos HERE

Christmas 2006

I don't get a lot of vacation time, so my xmas trips are necessarily short. However, I was able, this year, to get around and visit a number of friends I hadn't seen for a while :-)

High Speed Train To Philly

Fed up with the indignities, absurdities and inconveniences of air travel, I took the Acela Express high speed train down to Philadelphia. The Acela is America's only high-speed train-set and I was interested to comapre it with recent experiences with the EU's HSTs. Acela (WIKI) is certainly not as polished as ICE, TGV or Thalys and it's frustrating to be plodding along at 70mph, at times, but it's still a lot less hassle than dealing with contemporary domestic air-travel. The journey was more expensive than the airline equivalent ($340 vs $300) and took a little longer (5hrs vs 4hrs), but I was able to get a lot more work done on my journey and I was treated far better than one may expect when flying, these days.
More Photos HERE