Gardens, museums and art galore in historical Boston

After packed-to-the-brim days in Philadelphia and New York City, the final stop of our East Coast train trip was here. Ashley, my twin sister, and I had been to Boston before separately but we both had things we wanted to see for the first time, or again, so it was an easy choice to add the city to the itinerary.

While in Boston, we stayed in an eight-bunk female dorm in HI Hostel Boston (19 Stuart St.). I stayed here previously during my monthlong train trip around the country and knew this was a good location for our visit.

After dropping off our luggage, we walked about 20 minutes to Boston Common and Boston Public Garden, which make up the north end of the Emerald Necklace, an 1,100-acre stretch of parks in Boston and Brookline.

I learned on a walking tour during my first visit to Boston that the Common is the oldest city park in the country, and the Public Garden was the first botanical garden in America. Both parks are beautifully maintained, and even though Ashley and I were there on a cold January day, it was still so nice to get to walk the grounds.

Remembering my first visit, I had to show Ashley the “Make Way for Ducklings” statues in the Public Garden. The series of ducks – one mother duck, aka Mrs. Mallard, and her eight ducklings – were crafted by Nancy Schön and pay tribute to “Make Way for Ducklings,” a children’s book by Robert McCloskey.

In the book, the birds fly all over Boston looking for the perfect place to call home, before eventually settling in the garden. The statues are adorable as is, but are often made even cuter throughout the year with the addition of clothing like holiday sweaters or tutus, a collaboration with the Boston Ballet.

After moseying through the parks, we stopped for lunch at DeLuca’s Market (11 Charles St.), a family-run supermarket with a deli in the back. The veggie wraps ($10-$11) were made fresh, and we were grateful for the chance to rest our feet at the market’s cafe seating before we continued on to the Boston Public Library.

The central branch of the library (700 Boylston St.) is an architectural treasure, designed by architect Charles Follen McKim as a “palace” that would inspire and elevate the people of Boston.

We were greeted by the Staircase Hall, which is made of yellow Siena marble and adorned with two lion statues in honor of those who died fighting in the Civil War. Surrounding the staircase are murals by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, who painted the murals in Paris then shipped them to Boston, where they were installed between 1895 and 1896.

Each of the eight panels represents a discipline that can be studied in the library – philosophy, astronomy, history, chemistry, physics, pastoral poetry, dramatic poetry and epic poetry.

From there, we stepped into Bates Hall, known for its 50-foot-high barrel vault ceiling. The reading room is in use during library hours, so be respectful to those studying. I suggest taking a lap around the room. While you walk, you’ll notice everything from collections of city records to history texts and books about the arts line the bookcases, which, along with the tables, have been in use since 1895.

Next, we visited the Abbey Room, which features another museum-worthy collection of murals. These murals, painted by Edwin Austin Abbey, depict Sir Galahad’s Quest of the Holy Grail. There are written guides in the room that detail what’s happening in each panel.

On the building’s third floor, the Sargent Gallery features murals by John Singer Sargent, which focus on his chosen theme, “triumph of religion.” The panels feature “moments and iconography from early Egyptian and Assyrian belief systems, Judaism and Christianity as he had come to know them through study,” according to a brochure about the art and architecture of the library.

After enjoying the library, we spent a little time at the hostel before grabbing dinner at My Thai Vegan Cafe (3 Beach St. #2), where Ashley and our mother had eaten on a previous visit to the city. After a cold day spent mostly outside, the warm wonton soup ($5.25) was a tasty way to thaw out.

From My Thai it was a short walk to the train station, where we traveled to Somerville, Massachusetts, to see comedian Romesh Ranganathan perform at the Crystal Ballroom (55 Davis Square). Ranganathan is a British comedian Ashley and I have liked for years, so it was serendipitous that his U.S. tour aligned with our East Coast trip.

The next morning, our only full day in Boston, started back at the Common and Public Garden, as Ashley and I set off on a self-guided tour of the Freedom Trail, a red brick-lined path that takes you to more than 20 historically significant sites around the city. We used the National Park Service’s Freedom Trail Audio Tour for our walking tour.

Was it smart to do this walking tour in “feels like 19 degrees” weather? No, but Ashley and I can’t say no to a good bit of history, so off we went. From the Common, we walked to the edge of the park to the Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Memorial, which commemorated one of the first African American regiments of the Civil War.

Across the street from the monument is the Massachusetts State House (24 Beacon St.), the next stop on the tour. From there, we walked to Park Street Church (1 Park St.) and Granary Burying Ground (on Tremont Street between Park and School streets), the final resting place of John Hancock, Paul Revere, Samuel Adams and Crispus Attucks.

King’s Chapel (58 Tremont St.) and the King’s Chapel Burying Ground (40 Tremont St.) were next, followed by the first public school site (45 School St.), which is marked with a mosaic on the sidewalk.

The Old Corner Bookstore’s (283 Washington St.) long history includes periods as a bookstore and an apothecary. The building, which was saved from demolition in 1960, now houses a Chipotle.

The Old South Meeting House (310 Washington St.) and Old State House (206 Washington St.) are just down the street from the Old Corner Bookstore. At the base of the Old State House is the next stop on the tour, the site of the Boston Massacre, which is marked with a round memorial plaque at the corner of State and Congress streets.

Our final stop of the tour was at Faneuil Hall (1 Faneuil Hall Square), which was once the site of Revolution-era protests. Today, the building houses a marketplace with more than 40 local vendors and dozens of dining options. After browsing the choices, both sweet and savory, we chose a tasty veggie burrito bowl ($11.75) and empanadas platter ($10.95) from El Paso Enchiladas.

There are nine more stops on the tour, including Paul Revere’s House, Old North Church and the Bunker Hill Monument, but we had to call it quits early to make it to our timed entry at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

The museum brochure puts it best: “You are about to experience a museum that is unlike any other.” Stewart Gardner was passionate about traveling and art. Upon receiving her father’s fortune in 1891, Stewart Gardner began collecting the works now in her museum.

There is little rhyme or reason to the placement of each piece, with most walls a hodgepodge of art styles and sizes. Sergeant’s “El Jaleo” is a standout, as is the Chinese Loggia. Stewart Gardner’s collection also features works by James McNeill Whistler, Édouard Manet and Henri Matisse, as well as pieces by Titian, Botticelli, Anders Zorn and Peter Paul Rubens.

While the kookiness of the museum is enough to draw visitors in, many also come because the Gardner was the site of an infamous theft in 1990 during which 13 works of art were stolen. Empty frames mark the former locations of the artwork.

From the Gardner, we walked to dinner at the Bebop (1116 Boylston St.). Long story short, when I visited Dublin years ago, I had a delicious vegetarian shepherd’s pie from a place called River Bar. I’ve been dreaming of that shepherd’s pie ever since and was thrilled to see the Bebop, a proper Irish pub, had it on their menu. The mix of veggies and lentils topped with golden brown mashed potatoes ($12) was just as incredible as I was hoping it would be.

To end the night, we walked to SpeakEasy Stage Company (539 Tremont St.) to see “Ain’t No Mo,’ ” a co-production with Front Porch Arts Collective. The Jordan E. Cooper-penned play imagines a world in which the entire Black population of the United States has the chance to take a one-way flight to Africa. The show intersperses scenes at the airport with vignettes about Black American history and identity, some silly, some somber.

It’s a beautiful show that I hope makes its way to a theater in Spokane so I can see it again.

After breakfast at our hostel, the final day of our trip began with a train ride to Cambridge to see the Harvard Art Museums (32 Quincy Street), which are free to visit. We didn’t have time for a walking tour of campus, but what we did see was lovely.

I don’t know why I expected the art museums (the Fogg Museum, the Busch-Reisinger Museum and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum) to be quite small, perhaps because they’re on a university campus, but this is Harvard after all, so the galleries were as diverse as any major city’s art museum.

I was pleasantly surprised to see more work by Kerry James Marshall, who we first saw at the Philadelphia Art Museum, and a piece by Joshua Johnson, the earliest African American known to have made a career from his art.

Seeing Sargeant’s “Study for Seated Figures in ‘El Jaleo’ ” was another fun surprise after having seen the completed painting the day before, as was having a chance to enjoy paintings by Jacob Lawrence, well known for his 60-panel “Migration Series.” Lawrence was a professor at the University of Washington from 1971 to 1986.

After grabbing lunch from the museum’s cafe, which sells pastries, salads and sandwiches for under $10, we traveled back to Boston. We decided we couldn’t leave the city without a treat from Dunkin Donuts (1 Summer St.), so we grabbed two whoopie pie specialty donuts (about $2 each). It was a sweet way to end an amazing trip.

From there, there was nothing left to do but grab our things from the hostel and sadly head to the airport. On the way home, Ashley and I were already scheming about our next train trip. We’re thinking about heading down to northern California to see our grandparents before heading to the red rocks of the southwest, but we’ll just have to see where the rails take us.

This is Part 4, the final piece, of Azaria Podplesky’s twin travels on the East Coast. Visit spokesman.com/travel to read more about her past stops.