We decided to take a trip out to the town of Salem which is of course famous for the killing and jailing of a number of innocent people for witchcraft in 1692 after an outbreak of hysteria among the young girl in the mainly Puritan village. After getting the subway to the North station it was commuter rail to Salem about 30-40 minute trip . Alighting from the train it was soon clear we just had to follow the red line that was painted on the pavement which seemed to lead to all the “witch” attractions . First stop was the Salem witch museum .There we were treated to an audiovisual display educating us about the events of 1692 – and were of course reminded how this paled in insignificance compared to Europe and the Spanish Inquisition et al. After the we went to the the House of the 7 gables which was the setting for Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel – only it had 4 gables when he saw it .Anyway it was built for John Turner in 1667 , was added to by his son Jon Turner and the third John Turner , as he was a loyalist , lost it after the American Revolution. Some of the house is original and some is restored and some is added to so that it conforms closer to the novel ! We went for a walk round the waterfront , Salem’s true fame was as a busy trading port , then had lunch at a recommended cafe .
Following day we went in to town and redeemed our tickets for the hop on/off trolley . We hopped off at stop 8 and went for lunch and a walk in the park . Eventually we hopped on again intending to take it for the whole tour and be back at the waterfront for a cruise we’d booked – anyway it broke down ! We decided to walk back to the waterfront – didn’t get much out of those tickets!
From the waterfront we went on one of the Liberty Line cruises – but on the smaller vessel , which I guess is around 80ft in length .Without much wind it was just a slow cruise around the harbour , pretty much following the same route as the “Constitution cruise ” but at a slower pace – anyway it was a cool end to the day out of the heat.
