Globe Corner Blogs

Downtown Lich--photo by Cecilia

Two years after our last visit to Germany for Christmas, we are back again. We got to the Frankfurt airport at 5:30 am, our family waiting for us already, and we drove home to Lich in the state of Hessen. Lich is a small and nice medieval city about 45 minutes from Frankfurt that was founded as a small community around 790 A.D. A castle was erected in the 12th century and the town gained the right to be called a city in the year 1300. You still can see the history on a short stroll through downtown in its beautiful half-timbered houses and the castle. If all this is not enough to make one to visit Lich, knowing that this city is home of Licher Bier, one of the best known beers in Hessen, will do it.

This time, we are there in spring and we notice already on our way from the airport that everything looks so green and seems fresh and colorful. The colors come from the flowers and vegetables we see in the fields. And among them, I can see what makes me think of spring in Germany as “Spargelzeit,” literally “asparagus time.”

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A New England Autumn by Ferenc Mate

Today, it is fall in Boston. Perhaps not on the calendar, but certainly in the air. The crickets of late-summer have stopped their song. The sky is low and gray. The local Farmer’s Market was full of crisp apples and fat heirloom tomatoes. Chrysanthemums are blooming and the leaves on the trees have turned dull in preparation for their brilliant costume change.

Autumn is a dressy affair in New England. When the trees finally do put on their finest, people migrate north en mass to drive the Kancamagus Highway or even hike the Long Trail in Vermont. I myself am looking forward to fresh apple cider, apple pie, apple cobbler, and those sugary maple candies they make in cute shapes.

Until then, I watch the skies darken further and hope the rain doesn’t pull down the leaves prematurely. And I rejoice in the excuse to wear sweatshirts and curl up inside reading all day.

Unidentified Flowering Tree--photo by Llalan

After over three months of riding home on sweltering subways tucked under a stranger’s sweaty armpit, elbowing my way over simmering sidewalks between armies of tourists in mirrored sunglasses, and sticking to La Brea-like tar while waiting for egregiously late buses,  I needed a break. Hailing from the corn fields of the Midwest, I wither away under the glare of glass skyscrapers and blinking neon.  Without a car, the choices seemed limited. I could go to Boston Common and pretend not to notice the necking teenagers and muttering homeless. I could wedge myself between sunbathers on the Charles River bank and laugh at the runners. Or I could sit in the mini front garden of a Beacon Hill home when I thought no one would be home.

Fortunately I found there was a better way to get my seasonal dose of Vitamin Green: Boston’s Arnold Arboretum. At the end of the Orange subway line lays 14 acres of dignified oaks, poky spruces, ancient bonsai, wispy silk trees, and everything else in between that I couldn’t identify. The paved paths that wind through the Arboretum are not only a great place to identify plants, but also an ideal people- and dog-watching spot (by which I mean rambunctious children with training wheels and puppies who can’t believe so many trees exist in the world). Continue Reading »

Mt Ascutney, VT -- photo by Jess

When choosing a day hike, I think it’s always important to have a sense of the vertical rise of the mountain and the total distance of the hike. That being said, I also know that hikers really seek a stunningly rewarding summit view that screams “take my picture!” and congratulates them for their hard, sweaty work.

With all this in mind, Mount Ascutney, located in Southern Vermont on the border of New Hampshire and Vermont, is a fun and challenging day hike good for all ages. Even if you lack tons of hiking experience, or are hiking with younger children, Mount Ascutney is quite managable and the Weathersfield Trail has a couple of convenient scenic stopping points ideal for a GORP (good old-fasioned raisins and peanuts) and a water break. Continue Reading »

Lake Rescue, Vermont--photo by Jess

For better or worse, I’ve spent a good hunk of time touring the New England region in the past couple months. I’ve taken the train to coastal Connecticut, the commuter rail to the North Shore of Boston, the train to New York City, and I’ve driven to southern Vermont, northern New Jersey, and Hartford, Conn. For lack of more exotic travel dispatches, here is some advice on traveling not-so-far from home:

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The Islands of Boston Harbor by Edward Rowe Snow

The day was Sunday, and my parents were on their way. They have visited me many times in Boston, but before there was always a school event already planned for us.  What was I to do this time?  Where would I take them?  The idea of going to the Museum of Dirt again popped into my head, but then I realized I needed an appointment.  This was my dilemma.  Whenever my parents come to Boston we have to go do something. Why, you might ask?  Because I live in a disgusting house with eight other people, and I know that they don’t even want to come in. This is why I need an event for them at all times when they come to visit.

The Boston Harbor Cruise was the event of the day.  I had never been, and neither had my family.  Since it was such a gorgeous day and we all enjoy boating, it seemed like the proper choice.  So off we went on this historic cruise: a cruise of islands, forts, sewage treatment plants, and abandoned buildings.

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The Good Beer Guide to New England by Andy Crouch

Last Friday night I traveled across the U.S. and back. I went straight from work to Delaware. Then I headed down to North Carolina, skipped across to Colorado, then California, up to Oregon, to Michigan, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire, and surely a few others I’ve forgotten before finishing in Baltimore, Maryland.

Well, okay — I actually spent the evening in a cavernous underground room in Boston at the American Craft Beer Fest. (Boston is so fortunate to be the home of BeerAdvocate!) With 75 brewers and over 300 kinds of beer, I easily taste-tested my way across the country and back. The place was packed: there were beer connoisseurs of every level, but also a few gaggles of plaid-shorted boys who probably would have been satisfied with red plastic cups of Natty Lite. I wore my “Beer Geek” T-shirt just to be sure my postion was clear. But most importantly, the intense three and a half hours of beer tasting inspired me to plan a trip to each and every microbrewery and brewpub in New England. And I’ll certainly be bringing along Andy Crouch’s book that outlines the history and personality of each brewery along with recommendations for beer, food, how to get a tour, and how to take the beer with you. Hm, on second thought maybe I’ll just bring Mr. Crouch, himself, along.

Explorer's Guide Cape Cod

Most of my trips to Provincetown seem to revolve around the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum. I can usually find $5 parking nearby, it’s good for orienting myself, and I always erroneously think that a public bathroom is located in the museum.

This time, however, I spent an inordinate amount of time staring at it. One of my friends spends the summers performing there and I went down to see his show at the Gifford House. While we were enjoying cocktails on the veranda during one of his breaks he mentioned the “magic of the monument.”

Apparently if you look at the tower at just the right angle, it looks like Donald Duck. Everyone except for me seemed to see Donald’s likeness right away. Even after a few more cocktails, squinting really hard, and having numerous visiting Canadians try to point it out to me, I never saw it. I just saw a really tall tower — the tallest all-granite monument in the entire U.S. at 252 feet and 7.5 inches to be exact, according to An Explorer’s Guide to Cape Cod. Continue Reading »

Cooking with Shelburne Farms by Melissa Pasanen and Rick Gencarelli

Having spent the last four years attending college in rural Vermont and now finding myself back amist the horn-honking, always-in-traffic city life of Cambridge, I cannot help but feel nostalgic for the Green Mountain State. To alleviate my suffering, I picked up the Cooking with Shelburne Farms cookbook written by Melissa Pasanen and Rick Gencarelli. Shelburne Farms, located along Lake Champlain in Vermont, is not only a National Historic Landmark, but also a nonprofit environmental educational center that works to educate community members on the importance of local grown food and maintaining sustainable farmlands in Vermont. Continue Reading »

I have been a Boston resident now for almost four years. I like to think that I know the city fairly well, and have seen a decent portion of what there is to see. This was true for the most part until the other night.

It was towards the end of the evening when I was working when I happened across a particular book in our Boston section. The Museums of Boston it is called, and boy did it throw me for a loop. I have been missing out completely! …Did you know that there is a Museum of Dirt, and a Museum of Bad Art? Continue Reading »