Martin um die Welt: Franzi's 4th Boston visit: holiday season, Blue Man Group, biking and hiking, and Boston Celtics

In late November I prepared for Franzi's arrival by organizing tickets and a to-do list she could open as a daily surprise. After she arrived in Boston (28.11.) we started the to-do list playing frisbee at Sunday afternoon (29.11.) and then went to Café St. Petersburg to meet with Franzi's english learning group for Russian dinner. On Monday (30.11.) we watched the christmas tree lightning at Copley Square. It came with free drinks (egg nog, hot chocolate, coffee, and water), free cookies, and a small enternainment program. The christmas tree shined in three colors - as expected for Americans^^.

Copley Square christmas tree lightning

Wednesday (2.12.) we visited the Museum of Fine Arts. We were surprised about how much great art there was collected and not even saw half of it within our 2 hour visit. I was particularly impressed by their collection of old Egyptian art, such as sarcophagus. Thursday (3.12.) we shortly visited the christmas tree lightning at Boston Common, but left early to watch the Blue Man Group at Charles Playhouse. We truly laughed a lot during the show. And right at the beginning I was even involved in it when they told a fictous story about me. Probably knowing my name from my credit card payment at the bar just before the show started^^

Photo after the show :)

On Friday (4.12.) we wanted to play frisbee again, but somehow we missed that they canceled the game. Instead, we ended up doing just a bicycle night trip^^. On Saturday (5.12.) we prepared picnic and started early. A 15km bicycle ride brought us to the blue mountains. On the way we saw a huge car procession led by a long black car, probably carrying a coffin, followed by three massive SUVs and 40-50 additional cars... interestingly, we solely saw black people in the cars. Dorchester/Mattapan are obviously home to many African Americans. In the Blue Hills we went hiking for 3 hours. The weather was amazing with blue sky and sun all day long. Our picnic spot was on a big rock that we climbed. We finished our hike at the Chickatawbut Observation Tower with having the second half of our picnic before riding the 15km back home. After the exhausting trip, we enjoyed a house party at Thibaud's place - a french colleague of my friend Patrick... and as so often, a cool french guy :D

Awesome weather for a hiking day!

Prudential and John Hancock towers seen in the distance

love hiking when the sun is out :)

On Sunday (6.12.) we initially planned to visit the Museum of Science. But due to the great weather we skipped that idea and went on a bicycle trip to Pleasure Bay and had picnic at Head Island, next to Castle Island. We then took a walk around Castle Island and Pleasure Bay before visiting a christmas market in trendy South End. The christmas market and art markets around were rather like expensive flea markets. We then visited Faneuil Hall with its christmas holiday light show blink. We met Christina and Abby and watched the light show together. The lights were nice but the show rather funny having the christmas tree blink in rythym to songs. I used the time to shoot some photos. Then, instead of having dinner, Franzi preferred to go shopping at USA's first Primark at Downtown Crossing :D Back home we opened the christmas presents that Franzi brought from my family... Nikolaus :)

Starting the day with picnic at Head Island enjoying the sun

Sunset view of Boston Downtown from 4th street brigde

Christmas tree and Old Custom's Clock Tower from Faneuil Hall

Holiday lights at Faneuil Hall

Old Custom's Clock Tower and Quincy Market

Old Custom's Clock Tower from Columbus Park

Monday (7.12.) morning, we went to the German International School Boston (GISB). When I was honored with a dissertation award by MLP, one of their partners - the initiative MINT Zukunft Schaffen - asked me to hand over an award to the German School in Boston... and so I did :) Even a video is available. I was a little unstructured as I was told to cut my text by 60% just before the video started. But it was still fun. Franzi talked a lot to the school's director concerning their school programs. We then enjoyed one of Boston's best bagel for breakfast at Kupel's bakery before I went to work... definitely a nice start into the day^^
On Wednesday (9.12.) we played frisbee again and on Thursday (10.12.) we attended the christmas party organized by the German Academic International Network (GAIN), German Consulate, and the Goethe Institute. A lot of delicious German christmas food including Stollen and Lebkuchen and they made Glühwein :D
On Friday (11.12.) we went to see Celtics against Golden State Warriors at TD Garden. Franzi was shopping before the game and didn't know that bringing a backpack was forbidden. So we left the backpack at a nearby apartment building with the protier - very helpful! The basketball game then was great. A very close game with three overtime extensions. The shows during the breaks were cool too. After the basketball game we picked up a car from car rental at Boston Logan airport to go on a trip the next day...