July 20, 2019

July 20, 2019

Our hotel in Boston is next-door to the Boston Commons. In this urban green space, they have a Shakespeare in the Park performance. Last night we rented two lawn chairs and watched Cymbeline, a play I had never heard of. I am glad I read a synopsis of the very complicated plot beforehand. With the Middle English dialogue, I can only understand about half of what is spoken. Overall it was enjoyable and the acting excellent.

This morning, we checked out of our hotel and stored our luggage with the front desk. That gives us the freedom to explore today. We took the Boston subway to Harvard Yard. We were going to take a campus tour but they were sold out for the day. Probably student tour guides cancelled with the heat wave Boston is having today. We proceed on to the Peabody Museums.

We start with the Archaeological and Ethnology Museum. Although it had a lot of artifacts, it was not earth shattering. It had one interesting exhibit about warfare with lots of examples of armor and primitive weapons used by people from around the world.

The Natural History Museum was much more extensive. A large portion of the exhibits were specimens used for study. It included a large variety of stuffed animals from around the world. I admit I am shocked sometimes at the size of some of the larger animals. I wouldn’t want to meet either a jaguar or tiger in the wild.

They also had some gargantuan aquatic skeletons that were impressive. Both a baleen whale and a toothed whale for comparison, and also a terrifying Plesiosaur sea monster. Jurassic Seas must have been a tough place to swim.

One famous exhibit is the glass flowers. Preserving flowers for study is very difficult. Almost 200 years ago, a rich benefactor hired skilled European glass artisans to recreate specimens in glass for the botany department. They are truly astounding and it is hard to believe they really aren’t real. Apparently the craftsmen started out making glass eyes before Harvard hired them.

The museums were a good break from the record heat that Boston is having. We returned to the hotel to retrieve our luggage and then on to the airport. We are looking forward to the cooler weather of Iceland. We hang out at an airport wine bar and then catch an overnight flight.