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O BUSINESSMAN would spend the whole day inside the hotel, although the Fifteen Beacon is so well appointed it would not shame those who opt to conduct meetings inside. The sitting area is comfortable, with a fireplace (operated from the console near the bed) and a selection of magazines to complement the newspaper that is delivered at one’s door each morning. (I opted for The New York Times, which converted me on this journey, even if for a traveller more inclined to Handelsblatt I find its typography trying. I could not get the local Boston Times, which for this city was usually my preference.)
   Even the lobby is pleasant, with its black-and-white-themed décor; I had missed how delightful it is here when I initially arrived, tired from the flight from Seoul. However, Beacon Hill is too nice to ignore: a brisk walk rejuvenates and one can absorb the culture. Old Boston is nearby: the original town hall, for instance, the new State House, and Boston Common. The Granary Burying Ground, where Paul Revere, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Robert Paine and other patriots are buried, is on Tremont Street, one of the main roads leading to Beacon Hill.
   The narrow streets of this district bear familiar signs with names such as Barnes & Noble and countless Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts that seem to contrast uncomfortably with the red brick buildings in the federal style, built 150 to 200 years before. Nevertheless, these streets are well worth a wander as I took more time to stroll once the meetings were cleared (for the time being).
   This so-Bostonian part of the city features the Somerset Club and the Harrison Gray Otis House, the latter an example of post-Revolution Boston’s upper classes. Tours are available through this magnificent building, also in the federalist style on Cambridge Street, although I declined given my schedule.
   The Federalist, the Fifteen Beacon’s engaging restaurant, has a cuisine to impress the fussiest epicures but those looking for alternative do not have to walk far. In my limited time in Boston, I decided to absorb a little more culture and while the city is known for Cheers, around the corner on Bowdoin Street is the 21st Amendment. It was not for my taking clients to—I was well served within the Federalist—but I did not want my time in Boston to take place inside Fifteen Beacon exclusively. In my journeys to America I had never frequented a pub there. It is what one might expect from an Irish pub in any western country: sports channels on the TV and regular patrons, though with room to dine should one desire.
   I was served by a young lady who described herself as an ‘honorary New Zealander’: she had been conceived Down Under before her parents went to the United States. She had, however, been back to the country.
   A walk to the Boston Common takes less than 10 minutes, though set aside an hour to admire the one thing that is missing here: the pressure of being in a major American metropolis. It is hard to imagine that cattle once grazed here with both Boston old and new emerging as skylines in the distance. The famous common is less populated than Central Park; like an antipodean park one can actually relax and switch off temporarily before returning to the next appointment. There are tourists, predominantly from other parts of the country; as usual I was mistaken for a local, something that tends to happen to me in every country I go to.

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