Winter Sightseeing in Boston

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D AY T R I P
Winter Sightseeing in Boston
BY JANET MENDELSOHN
The Boston Symphony Orchestra during a performance. Photo by Michael Lutch, provided courtesy of Boston Symphony Orchestra.
W
Winter is the perfect time for a day trip to Boston or
Cambridge, Massachusetts. Take a brisk walk through
Back Bay or Harvard Square to warm the soul. Linger
over afternoon tea. Visit a favorite summer destination
in the snow. With a friend, with family members or on
a solitary adventure, spend a few hours or an entire day
and evening exploring previously unfamiliar museums;
browsing off-beat and upscale shops; attend live theater
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ACCENT January/February 2007
or a concert. You can even skate on a rink at Boston
Common.
It’s time for a day out of the ordinary. You’ve
earned it. Here are some ideas—and remember, some
of the less well-known places are also less crowded.
Yes, it’s winter, but don’t let that stop you. Take
yourself on a one-day vacation. Remember to send
postcards home!
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Destination: Boston
Fort Point Arts Community Gallery
Near Boston Harbor, a creative neighborhood has emerged
where dozens of artists’ studios and lofts are open to the public
each spring and fall. At the heart of the scene is the Fort Point
Arts Community (FPAC), a nonprofit association of about five
hundred visual artists, the largest organization of its kind in New
England.
Through January 19, the FPAC Gallery’s mezzanine features
work by photographers Don Eyles and Denise Bosco, whose
2005 trip to Egypt and Rome focused on the experiences of
people currently living in the shadows of ancient worlds. Bosco’s
large, color panoramic images capture movement and context;
Eyles’s black and white studies are colder, more sinister.
The FPAC Gallery is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
except New Year’s Day, and is wheelchair accessible. Parking (for
a fee) is available nearby, though challenging. Fort Point is a short
walk from the T’s Red Line at South Station.
Fort Point Arts Community gallery in Boston. Photo by Bob Souther, provided
courtesy of the Fort Point Arts Community.
scheduled at 10:30 a.m. on January 11 and 18, and February 15;
and at 7:30 p.m. on January 3 and February 21.
Symphony Hall
Music and architecture lovers can go behind the scenes on a
Symphony Hall tour for a close-up view of the stage, orchestra
lounge, conductor’s private rooms and art in one of the finest
music halls in the world. Volunteer guides describe the centuryold building’s history and traditions. The free, sixty- to ninetyminute tours are handicapped accessible. All ages are welcome,
but children younger than middle-school age may not appreciate
the experience. Subject to change, tours are given on the first
Saturday of each month at 1:30 p.m. from October through May
6, and on Wednesdays beginning at 4:30 p.m. from January 3 to
May 2. Meet at the Massachusetts Avenue lobby.
Boston Symphony Orchestra open rehearsals
Boston Symphony Orchestra open rehearsals allow you to
observe and listen to the conductor and musicians perfect their
teamwork. Tickets are $17 each (open seating), a great, low price.
Open rehearsals this season take place at Symphony Hall and are
Afternoon tea
“Afternoon tea” — the very words are soothing. Boston offers
inviting settings for every mood and wallet.
At The Lounge at the Ritz-Carlton hotel, a harpist plays
while you’re treated to an elegantly served traditional tea
Wednesdays through Sundays from 2 to 4 p.m. Menu options
range from $20 to $40 (with champagne) per person; $16 for
children. Reservations are recommended.
If you’re more spur of the moment, there’s Tealuxe, located
among the city’s most stylish boutiques — in case you’re inclined
to shop. At Tealuxe, you can select from more than eighty teas,
light meals, pastries and hot chocolate. (Tealuxe is also at 0
Brattle Street in Harvard Square.)
For a quiet escape, consider the Boston Public Library
restaurant, Novel. This beige, apricot and green dining room
serves afternoon tea from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The prix fixe menu is $14.95 for scones, tea breads and desserts,
or $19.95 with tea sandwiches. Reservations are recommended.
HALF-PRICE TICKETS
Fenway Park
Counting the days until pitchers and catchers report to spring
training? Feed your baseball fever on a Fenway Park tour. The
home of the Boston Red Sox welcomes fans inside the ballpark to
touch the Green Monster and see the field from the press box
year-round, seven days a week, except Christmas and New Year’s
Day, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (or three hours before game time
during the season), subject to availability.
Half-price tickets are sold by ArtsBoston at Bostix on the day of
show for touring blockbuster shows, local productions and sports
events at TD BankNorth Garden. Sales are in-person only,
beginning at 10 a.m. (11 a.m. Sundays). Find ticket kiosks in
Boston’s Faneuil Hall Marketplace and Copley Square. For more
information, visit www.artsboston.org/bostix.
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Tours leave from the Souvenir Store
across Yawkey Way. Walk-up tickets for
tours are $12 for adults, $11 for seniors,
$10 for children or those with military ID.
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Ice skating
Ice skating is altogether different when
you’re surrounded by city skyline with the
golden dome of the state Capitol nearby,
perhaps on a night filled with stars. The
tenth season of the Boston Common Frog
Pond Skating Rink continues until about
March 17.
Last year, more than 110,000 skaters
came here. Public skating is $4 per
person, free for children age thirteen and
younger. Lockers are $1. There are eight
hundred rental skates at $8 a pair. Hours
are Mondays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.;
Tuesdays to Thursdays and Sundays from
10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays
from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Also available are twenty picnic tables
and a snack bar with nachos, fries, hot
chocolate and more. Open January 1
from noon to 5 p.m.
Destination: Cambridge
Ice skating on the Frog Pond in Boston is a wintertime tradition for some. Photo by Karen Sparacio, provided
courtesy of Boston Parks and Recreation.
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Harvard Museum of Natural
History
Just across the Charles River in
Cambridge, you’ll find kitschy shops,
brain-tingling museums and more great
people-watching.
The Harvard Museum of Natural
History is smaller than Boston’s betterknown Museum of Science. It’s also more
intimate and quieter. Kids will marvel at a
seven-foot-long, 6 million-year-old turtle
shell, and the forty-two-foot-long
Kronosaurus dinosaur skeleton, 135 million
years old, with teeth the size of bananas.
Adults are dazzled by the worldfamous, permanent Ware Collection of
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STEWART BRADLEY
Glass Flowers. More than three thousand
beautiful and botanically accurate models
of plants, displayed in cases, were created
by father and son glassblowing artists
beginning in 1886. Twenty-minute gallery
talks about the glass flowers are held on
Tuesdays and Thursdays at 3 p.m.
The museum’s newest exhibit,
Arthropods: Creatures that Rule,
welcomes explorers to the world of
centipedes, crabs, arachnids and their ilk.
Finally, Echoes in the Ice, a multimedia
exhibit of work by Rik van Glintenkamp,
opens January 25.
Bring your curiosity to HMNH any
day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., except most
major holidays. Wheelchair accessible.
Admission is $9 for adults, $7 for college
students and seniors age sixty-five and
older, $6 for children ages three to
eighteen, and free for children younger
than age three and those with a current
Harvard ID. Parking is difficult in the
area, but it’s a short walk through
Harvard Yard from the T at Harvard
Square.
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GETTING TO BOSTON
Here’s a tip: Take the T, Boston’s public
transportation system. The Metropolitan
Boston Transit Authority (MBTA) can
spare you the hassle of city parking and
getting around. Most subway fares are
$2.00 one way (or $1.70 with the “Charlie
Card”), but if you plan to hop on and off,
a one-day pass ($7.50) gives you
unlimited travel on MBTA bus and
subway lines. See schedules, maps and
more at www.mbta.com.
Wellington Station on Route 16 in
Medford has parking for 1,300 cars.
From the north, park here and take the
T’s Orange Line into town. Be sure to
pick up a free T map to your destinations.
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L.A. Burdick Handmade Chocolates
Walk across Harvard Square to warm up at L.A. Burdick
Handmade Chocolates, 52 Brattle Street, where we dare you to
finish a huge mug of what may be the richest hot chocolate in
town. They also serve espresso, latte and teas to accompany
desserts. The signature Chocolate Mice ($2.50 each) and Penguins
($3 each) are irresistibly cute. In addition to heavenly chocolates,
you can also purchase cocoa powder, spice balls and other
ingredients for baking and confectionary making at home.
American Repertory Theatre
Complete your city sojourn by attending a matinee or evening
performance of the American Repertory Theatre. Inventive sets,
avant garde direction, new productions and adventurous
adaptations of the classics are the hallmarks of this Harvardaffiliated theater company.
Through January 14, is Oscar Wilde’s comedy of identity
fraud, The Importance of Being Earnest. On January 20, there’s
Britannicus, part political thriller, part family drama, set in the
Emperor Nero’s palace. Neil Bartlett’s staging of Oliver Twist runs
February 17 through March 24.
Friday and Saturday evening tickets are $53 and $76;
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weekend matinees, Sundays and Tuesday through Thursday
evening tickets are $38 and $66. Discounts are available for
seniors and students.
Freelance writer and editor Janet Mendelsohn is a contributing
editor at Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors magazine.
Resources
Boston Common Frog Pond skating rink in Boston, Mass.;
617 635-2120; www.bso.org
Boston Public Library in Boston, Mass.;
617 385-5660; www.bpl.org
Boston Symphony Hall, BSO and Boston Pops in Boston, Mass.;
617 638-9285; www.bso.org
Fort Point Channel Arts Community in Boston, Mass.;
617 283-6458; [email protected]
Fenway Park Tours in Boston, Mass.; 617 266-6666;
www.boston.redsox.mlb.com
Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge, Mass.; 617 4953045; www.hmnh.harvard.edu
Tealuxe in Boston, Mass.; 617 927-0400; www.tealuxe.com
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