High style and low rent

Jan 24: Walk to Downtown Crossing and take the Red Line across the river, to Harvard Square, Cambridge, $2.50 per head single trip. Breakfast at COOP bookshop, walk on to Harvard Bookshop, where Annette scored The Sugar Barons, by Matthew Parker, $20. Back to Boston for early lunch at Wong's of Boston in The Corner Food Court, off Washington Street. Singapore noodles, vast portions, recommended. Quiet afternoon back at the hotel, where we split $16 pizza for supper in the hotel bar. Suitable.
Jan 25: Walk to South Station where we breakfast at Cosi, on the concourse: sandwich, oatmeal, two coffees, $9.50. We ride the 9:55 'T' train to Providence, Rhode Island, $20 round trip each. The ride takes just over an hour with numerous stops en route. We walk via the shopping mall, next to the station, across the river and climb up to the Brown House, 52 Power Street, for a tour of John Brown's House. This is not the home of the famous abolitionist, but a slave-trader responsible for the Sally slave-ship debacle and a friend of George Washington. After viewing his house I'd say his epitaph should be: "He lived well." Lunch at Cafe la France, 1 Citizens Plaza, Red Chowder and half sandwich. Walk on to Cafe Choklad, 2 Thomas Street, for coffee and cakes, $10.32.
Providence is a pleasant contrast to Boston, with many interesting old buildings, and an ideal distance for a day trip. We would have returned by Amtrak but delays meant we opted for MBTA. We bought some foot-longs at Subway for supper in our hotel room - menu fatigue is setting in.
Jan 26: Walk to Quincy Market. On the way we lament the loss of Filene's, the famed department store and former Boston flagship, which has been half-redeveloped and left to rot. We were planning to breakfast in Quincy Market, but there is a dreadful racket created by a keep-fit class. We resort to Cheers, a tired reminder of an aging TV show. The waiters are anything but cheerful. Scrambled egg, cheese omelet (not the veggie omelet ordered), plus coffee with refill, $26.94, $31 with tip. Pretty average. We walk to Christopher Columbus Park on the waterfront. It is too cold to linger so we backtrack to The Boston Athenæum which is a membership library and museum, founded in 1807. From there we walk across Boston Common to Boston Public Library, where I do some research into the history of The Sports Car Club of America, founded in this city circa 1944. We take a late lunch at Maggiano's, 4 Columbus Ave, $33.71, $41 with tip. Quite the best service since we arrived.
Jan 27: A quick breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts, where an old man is eating sardines from a can. By subway to the Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue, to see the splendid exhibition The Postcard Age, Selections from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Time also for a quick look at Art in the Street, European Posters. Then back on the Green Line to Boston Public Library for more research. Walking home we stop at Pho Pasteur, 682 Washington Street, where the noodles are cheap and cheerful.
Jan 28: Up early and after 08:00 visit to Post Office to send a post card, we walk to South Station for the SL1 airport bus, $2.50 per head. Logan airport is pleasantly quiet, if airports can be pleasant this gets close. We take the 11:20 Porter Airlines flight to Toronto City Centre Airport. The pedestrian tunnel to the island is progressing nicely, only spoiled by noisy strikers picketing outside. (If I was an investor I'd get straight back on the plane.) Like Toronto, Boston is showing signs of decline, with plenty of empty shops and offices. Parts of the public transit system are neglected and lack investment. Having said that there is much of interest to occupy a week in Beantown.
Pic by Annette.

Bookshops of Beantown

Jan 21: We flew down to Boston on Porter Airlines from Billy Bishop Airport, Toronto. Arriving at Logan we caught the free hybrid bendy-bus, Silver Line 1, to the South Station in Boston. After going through the 'Big Dig' the bus halts and switches to overhead catenary electric-power for the undergound ride to our destination. We walk a few blocks to the Hyatt, refurbished since our last stay in 2004.
We then walk to Max and Dylans Restaurant Bar, 15 West Street, for supper. I try the onion rings starter followed by Clam Chowder. $39.06 plus tip for two, rated 75%; came highly recommended by the hotel, but only so, so. Served Heineken beer in a bottle, had to wait too long for a glass. Team service always difficult to do well.
John Lennon's "Instant Karma" is playing in the hotel lobby. The only worse fate is your music isn't played at all.
Jan 22: Walk to Black Seed Cafe, 131 Tremont Street, fronting onto Boston Common, for breakfast. Veggie omelet, fry-up and two large coffees $16.32. Cheap and cheerful. We walk on to the Commonwealth Bookstores (2 Milk Street, 9 Spring Lane), which specialise in used books. I purchase: Unlocking The Sky, Glenn Hammond Curtiss and the Race to Invent the Airplane, By Seth Shulman, $15. We note the large Borders bookshop is closed up. The little guys have outlasted the big guns in this case.
We lunch at Bruegger's Authentic Bagels. On to Brattle Bookshop, 9 West Street, which has a large outdoor selection. I picture some bibliophile being found frozen to death at the racks. I go indoors before it happens to me. We walk to Salvatore's, 545 Washington Street, for supper at the bar. I try the Chicken, Wild Mushroom and Squash Risotto special and Samuel Adams Boston Lager. Dinner for two $52.38 plus tip, total $61. Service OK but not particularly engaging. I recommend booking a table in advance.
Jan 23: 08:00 walk to Boston Common for Green Line light rail to Boston College. There are no trains due to an electrical fire. We take stock in Starbucks, then managing to catch a crowded bus to Kenmore, where we switched to the streetcar. Some of the rolling stock looks like it came from a badly run museum. We arrive at the Burns Library at 10:45. Annette gets down to some serious research re Mad Jack Fuller. It is perishing cold. Back home on the Green Line we hop off at Boylston and take supper at Boston Common Coffee Company, 515 Washington Street. Veggie soup, quiche and cookies, $23.75.
Pic by RLT.

Brompton coffee break

I've rebuilt the rear suspension on the yellow Brompton bicycle with retrofit kit to lock/unlock the rear triangle. I also fitted the hard rubber block which gives more tractive effort and less "kangarooing." Yesterday was a chance to test the bike, in a break in the weather, so we rode to the Good Neighbour on Annette Street for half pints of hot coffee. Pic by Annette.

Aston centenery celebration

A parade of Aston Martin cars precedes the Nurburgring 24 Hours today, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the company, expected to include Stirling Moss in a DBR1. Meanwhile in practice two Matthew Marsh qualified the #100 hybrid Aston Martin in 84th position with a time of 9:48.636. Pic by Colin Marsh.

That was the year that was....

I've been having a rest from blogging while writing much other material.
This last year I have been travelling to many different places. January in Philadelphia for the 112th edition of the New Year’s Day Mummers Parade – a distant cousin to bonfire. Spring break in Louisville, Kentucky. May in California for the car racing at Laguna Seca. June riding through France on my Brompton bicycle, from Le Havre to St Nazaire, via Le Mans – 600 kilometres. July touring the southern states by smart car, including Nashville and a visit to see Elvis in Tupelo, Mississippi. September on the train from Toronto to Vancouver, returning via Sacramento to Denver on the California Zephyr train. October in Watkins Glen, New York doing some research. October/November in England on Rocket FM for Lewes Bonfire.
When the double-decker California Zephyr pulled into Sacramento Amtrak station I said: "Now that is a train!" We soon reached the massive Union Pacific yard at Roseville, CA, and climbed to Cape Horn with its view 1500 foot straight down to the American River. Through the snow sheds to Donner Lake and Truckee, California. Riding into Reno, NV, where the station is buried in a huge concrete trench and the view between there and Sparks does not suggest a tourist destination. More trailer park than tinsel town. Elko, NV, where we stopped on the Bonneville trip, is followed in the middle of the night by a stop in Salt Lake City. Bearded Amish folk in straw hats are waiting to board the train. You feel like you've gone back in time at least a century. After some 36-hours you arrive in Denver, after endless mountains and desert