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  Day 1 - Boston





May 26, 2017: the day had come. At 3.55 pm we left from Munich airport and headed towards Boston. We had opened a Whatsapp-group before and had invited some friends to follow us there on our trip. Every day in the evening, Peter Engels made a little summary. I will always add the original text here:

"The arrival was absolutely perfect: there were absolutely no problems at Munich airport. The aircraft was only half occupied and we had a lot of space. The staff super friendly and the food ok.

Four members of the crew asked us about our buttons and were fascinated of our story.
We landed over one hour early. And that for several reasons: first the time frame was set quite generously. Then the new aircraft was just a bit faster and we got a special corridor in 13100 meters height. That is unusually high but also makes the flight shorter.

Finally, arriving there was just great. No lines, no waiting times. Everybody just friendly. From leaving the plane to standing on the street not even half an hour. Then into the taxi. We had calculated a fee of 30$. And even though we did not take a „legal“ taxi for sure, the driver said 28$ from the beginning. He was very friendly, too, helped us with the luggage and even spoke some German.

The apartment is also as beautiful as expected and the location just perfect.

We took a short walk through the historical Beacon Hill. Just next door was Kennedy’s last official home address besides the White House. This had also been the address on his driver’s licence that he had with him in Dallas, too.
Then we passed Boston’s most exclusive parts and the house of John Kerry. We walked for about 20 minutes and stopped at the famous „Cheers“ (from the soap with Ted Danson).

Boston welcomes us with a bit patchy weather. Cloudy at about 15 degrees. While we were in the apartment there was a bit rain, during our walk everything dry, when we were at „Cheers“ rain again and when we walked back it was dry again. Everything ok... today it will be a bit better.“

There is not much addition needed to this. The journey to the USA had really been very easy and in this case as uncomplicated as it has never been before. Boston is now using „do-it-youself terminals“ for the passport control. A picture was taken as well as our fingerprints. However, an immigration officer still checked our passport. We finally got to the lobby area and got the feeling: here we go!

A special highlight was our apartment in Boston: we had not chosen it randomly, but it had been the result of research and early booking. The building is the former Hotel Bellevue in the heart of the city. Back then, the grandfather of the president had made it his retirement home and given his grandson a home in 1943 during his candidacy for the senate. The picture shows the young John F. Kennedy at that time in his apartment. Pay attention to the picture of his parents on the mantelpiece – you will find it later again. Today the building is a private house, that also includes our holiday dwelling. It has been owned by our landlord Jonathan Frank for many years, whom I had found in the internet. He was very generous and gave us the apartment for our trip in 2017 for the price of December 2014.

Next: Day 2 - Boston