SALEM: 7/6-9/15 – Day 52-55 – Portland, ME to Boston, MA

We left the motel at eleven and got on the road, riding west over the bridge to South Portland. Resting behind a gas station, we found lots of giant mushrooms.

We made it that night into Portsmouth, NH, where we were hosted so graciously by warmshowers members, Fred and Nancy. They had a screened porch in the back of the house where they had placed some cots for us to sleep on. We were able to just lay our sleeping bags out and keep the tent packed up that night. It was perfect! In the morning, we ventured through Portsmouth a bit and found Caffe Kilim, a turkish cafe where Sermin got herself a wonderful turkish coffee.

From Portsmouth, we rode out to and along the coast. It was full of some wonderful views and we stopped frequently to enjoy the outlooks and Hampton Beach area.

The later half of the ride into Salem, MA was full of headwind and hills, making our first day in Massachusetts hard work. We didn’t roll into Salem until after dark and made our way to Winter Island Park where a campsite was reserved for us. We got the spot for two days so that we could explore Salem and all its witchery a bit the next day. There was a lot to see here, but somehow the city escaped us without a picture being taken. We visited the old graveyards where the 20 victims of the Salem witch trials were remembered and visited the Peabody-Essex Museum, which was a cool eclectic collection of things from around the world.

While camping in Salem we were able to make arrangements with some amazing hosts in Boston and we biked the 25 miles into Somerville/Cambridge to the place of our first host, Ryan. He was still at work, so we left our bikes in the backyard and walked around Harvard, just sight-seeing. Harvard Yard, Harvard Square, and lots of old, majestic buildings were there for our viewing pleasure. When Ryan had gotten home from work we headed back to his place, where he cooked us a great vegetable stir-fry and really went out of his way to make us comfortable. It was an excellent first night in the Boston area!

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