Salem Tour October 18th 2021

We arrived in Boston and stayed at the Logan Airport Hilton. This is a hotel that is great for convenience if you are arriving late in Boston as we did but other than the opulent lobby there is nothing else over the top about the hotel. I may just be spoiled by having a great mattress at home, but I didn’t experience the mattress as great. We were only there for about 8 hours so I can’t say much else about the hotel. They did provide prompt shuttle service to the hotel after midnight when we arrived, and we were able to shuttle to the rental car area easily enough.

Our first stop was Salem and we lucked out and the weather was beautiful for this time of the year. It was probably our coolest day in Massachusetts starting in the high 50s but later warming to the lower 60s. Plenty warm in the sun and great for outside touring. Salem was very crowded, with tours and people on their own like us so we were lucky that the weather was fair. We arrived a little later in Salem than we would have liked so even though we found a great breakfast place, we didn’t have time to enjoy it since we had booked a tour at the Witch House and they are very strict about tour times since it was very busy. Keep in mind we were there on a Monday, so these were primarily vacationers like us.

The only tour we took while there was of the Witch House and although I am glad we went, they are very strict about everything so if you can get past that, you will learn a lot not only about the “Witch House” which is so named because of the judge who lived there and presided over many of the witch trials and was personally responsible for the demise of many innocent people. Besides learning more about the people who died during this time that were accused of witchcraft, I learned a lot about the way people lived, the aristocrats, and the poor. I learned a lot about their superstitions and medical interventions that probably lead to poor health and early demise.

There are a lot of older graves in Salem dating back to the early late 1600s and many houses preserved that originally existed in the 1700s, although many of these homes have been renovated and even moved like the Witch House. Salem was worth the stop and was very Covid Conscious, all staff were wearing masks, and masks were required at all inside dining areas, tourist shops, and attractions. I felt very comfortable there and since most activities were outside, it made it much easier and comfortable.