Breakfast was in house here with a modern breakfast facility and was really big. Only a light breakfast of yoghurt, banana and OJ today. We had planned to get a Taxi down to Fenway Park the famous home of the Boston Red Sox baseball team to start the day and we asked reception around 9.00am to call a Taxi for us to make sure we arrived in time for our 10.00am tour and he said dont pay $70- catch the train instead for only $2.40 ! So we bought what they call here a Charlie Card to get us around.
We got the instructions from him on how to get there using of the Red Line from the Andrew station which was about 900 metres walk away from our hotel. What a coincidence that Andrew station was located on Southampton Street named after my birthplace town ? We then changed 4 stops later at the Park Street station to the Green Line. It was pretty easy and we did not have to wait very long connecting to the new train and we arrived at Kenmore Station at 9.45am but we had some issues from there !
The information we had read online about the tour (including travel reviews) referred to a very strict bag policy at Fenway Park and as we were going to be out for the whole day we needed to take the backpack with some drinks, snacks, umbrellas etc. as it was forecast to rain and we needed extra layers in case it got windy again. Forecast is cloudy and cold around 12 degrees and possible rain in the afternoon. So I knew I could not take it inside Fenway Park for the tour and all the information guided me to using their storage facility at nearby Lansdowne Parking Garage.
So as we make the short walk from the train station to the ball park I am trying to find the parking garage and to avoid wasting time I sent Kerry off to Gate D where the tour starts and I tried to hunt down these storage lockers on the opposite side of Fenway Park only to find out the lockers are portable and only arrive on game days around 2 hours before the game starts. Its now 9.55am and game time is 7.10pm so Houston, I have a problem. I
head around to meet Kerry at Gate D and there is a big line up of people about to start the tour and I found someone working there and asked about the bags and he kindly sent me off to the Fenway Beer Shop on Van Ness Street where I was able to leave my backpack for $5- and I ran back to Gate D (Run Forrest Run!!) and made it back as the last person was entering the security gates.
Well now for the tour and let me say this place is steeped in history and the tour guide we had was very passionate about baseball and the Red Sox. He talked a lot about the past players and came up with some funny stories including one about a guy called Lawrence Berra known as Yogi Berra who had a long career playing for the Yankees before finishing with the Mets and later being a manager and coach. In fact Yogi Berra has the record for winning the most World Series titles with 10 between Yogi Berra came up with a lot of famous quotes and one of these related to a question he was
asked about going to a popular restaurant in Boston and he said goes there any more as it is too crowded ! How can it be crowded if goes there ? It just does not make any sense and he has many more quotes like this people often refer to in baseball folklore as Yogi quotes.
Some of baseballs most famous players have played here such as Babe Ruth, Joe De Maggio, Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson to name a few that I had heard of. The ball park opened in 1912 and is not a perfect shape which gives it some distinct characteristics which add to the beauty of this place. We were taken to several different parts of the ground which started with the Green Monster seats which are considered one of the best seats to watch baseball and sit high above a 37 foot tall wall which is high enough to make it a challenge for players to hit over 3rd base to score a home run. We also went into the Press Box and other parts of the park to see different views of the field.
