Hurdy-Gurdy on the Freedom Trail

July 22, 2013 at 3:02 AM

We wanted to see the sights, but my first priority is always to find the best coffee in town. I think I did pretty well this morning, with Thinking Cup -- YUM! Good coffee (Stumptown) and made with much care, plus a stunning line-up of pastries.

Being tourists, we did what tourists do in Boston: we followed the Freedom Trail through the historic parts of the city.

We saw all kinds of neat sights: the Mass. State House; King's Chapel; several historically significant cemeteries and the Old Corner Bookstore -- which is now actually a Chipotle! One of the many lovely historic buildings we saw was the Old State House.

But for me, the most exciting thing I saw was right next to the Old State House: this gentleman, sitting on a bench with his dog, playing the hurdy-gurdy!

I don't think I'd ever seen a hurdy-gurdy up-close. "I had this hurdy-gurdy made for me 32 years ago, and we've been falling apart at about the same rate," he joked. He was happy to lift the lid of the instrument and let me look inside, and even take this picture for you. What a fascinating instrument! It has two strings, and the wheel, which is wound with a crank that you can see on the left side of the picture, acts as a bow. The buttons on the bottom stop the strings.

I enjoyed the music, too: one string acts as a drone and the other has more the melody. For the first song, he joked, "My dog wrote that song!" (No way!) When I told him I was a violinist, he broke into some Vivaldi "Spring" and then a bit of "La Folia" and even some Beethoven Violin Concerto. What a treat!