On Tuesday, October 2nd, we headed across the border after work and stayed the night with Donna and Terry. In the morning we drove the rest of the way to Seattle, where we left our car at a motel parking facility near the airport before boarding our 11:30am flight direct to Boston.
Almost five hours later, we landed in Boston, where the local time was almost 8pm. We caught a bus and then two different trains out to Somerville where our accommodation was, ate some dinner at a bakery cafe, and then lugged our carry-on-sized bags 1 kilometre - the last part of which was uphill. We arrived at Harris and Svetlana's home around 10pm, thoroughly ready to put our feet up. In fact, we sat down and watched the end of the first Presidential Debate with them!
Harris and Svetlana were not people we knew before this trip. They advertise on websites such as VRBO (vacation rental by owner) to rent out a couple of their bedrooms for short-term visitors to Boston, so that's how we ended up staying there. The room was nothing fancy but it suited us just fine, and we could use their kitchen and laundry whenever we liked. They were friendly and helpful hosts. This is their house:
On Thursday morning, we slept in (as became our custom all week!), and around noon we headed out to explore Boston. Throughout the week we travelled via the local public transport system: the train network known as "the T", and the bus system that links into it. For a 7-day pass allowing unlimited public transport use, we paid $18 each!
On Thursday afternoon, our first stop was a local farmers' market. This turned out to be extremely small, so we were soon on our way again!
Next, we hopped off the train at a station from where we could walk to a large mall called the Prudential Center. On the way, we saw the impressive Boston Public Library.
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| Boston Public Library, est. 1848 |
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| Across the road: old and new |
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| Hubway, a bike-sharing initiative |
After having lunch at an Irish restaurant, we spent a while shopping at the Prudential Center. Actually, we spent the whole time in Lord & Taylor, where I got a new pair of black boots since my old ones were wearing out, and Ben finally got a new hat to replace the one you have likely seen MANY times on this blog!
Then, around 4:30pm, we headed to Symphony Hall, home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Svetlana had told us the previous night that she thought people could get same-day concert tickets for $9pp by lining up at the Box Office at 5pm. We had been planning to buy tickets online, where prices ranged from $30 to $114, so we quite happy to hear about such a bargain when it was no trouble at all to be there that early to line up! We queued for about half an hour, which flew by as we were chatting to the couple in line behind us. And that's how we got $9 tickets to one of America's "Big Five" symphony orchestras!
After spending the next couple of hours relaxing in a smoothie/yoghurt cafe, we headed back to Symphony Hall in time for the 8pm concert. Symphony Hall was built in 1900 and is said to be one of the top three concert halls in the world in terms of acoustics. Our seats were in the VERY back row, and with a bit of an obstructed view due to a pillar a few rows in front of us... but when you're there to hear rather than to see, that doesn't matter!
Here are a few photos Ben took while we waited for the concert to start...
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| The front of the concert hall |
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| The back of the concert hall |
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| An usher |
The program that week was Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, Bernstein's Serenade, and Dvorak's Symphony No. 8 in G. There was a guest performer for the second piece, and this was American violinist Joshua Bell. We had never heard of him before, but when we got home and told one of our violinist friends about it, she was rather envious! If you've ever heard the story about the famous violinist who dressed down and played exquisite classical music on a $3.5 million Stradivarius violin in a Washington DC subway station at rush hour, as a social experiment to see whether anyone would stop and take notice (see video and article here)... well, that was Joshua Bell!
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| Joshua Bell |
So, we had a wonderful experience! We enjoyed the music, the atmosphere, and the expressive antics of the conductor and Joshua Bell.
Now I'm going to jump forward two days to Saturday, when we returned to Symphony Hall for a free backstage tour at 1pm. Our guide was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the history of the famous music hall - apparently the first in the world to be built with the principles of acoustics in mind. He told us that even during modern-day renovations/ maintenance, they are very careful to remain true to the original design - for example, by using the same materials to reupholster the chairs, and the same wood and manual woodworking techniques to replace the stage floor - all to avoid even the slightest change to the hall's world famous acoustics!
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| Corridor between the lobby and the music hall |
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| The grand music hall |
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| One of many statues around the walls |
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| An outside pillar |
It was very interesting to go backstage and down into the basement, where we saw storage areas, practice rooms, the elevator for moving the grand piano, etc. Our guide had many anecdotes about it all. One was about the first woman to join the BSO (in the 1920s, I think)... there was nowhere for a lady to change into her concert attire, so she - being a petite harpist - would change inside her harp case!
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| The view from the stage (we weren't allowed to step on it; this photo was taken from a doorway) |
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| A cupboard covered in stickers from visiting orchestras |
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| Symphony Hall basement |
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| Imagine changing inside one of these cases! |
So, that's the BSO and Symphony Hall. We recommend the $9 concert tickets and a backstage tour if you're ever in Boston!
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| A mural at the Symphony T station |
4 comments:
wow!!!! That looks absolutely fantastic!!
I agree with Delle, that looks awesome!!
That looks amazing, would have been awesome! $9 is ridiculously cheap too! And loving the bump! =>
YES I have seen the video before of Joshua Bell - such a cool story. Amazing bargain on the $9 concert and tour tickets, too! Nicely done! :)
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