Salem, Massachusetts
Salem witch museum
Our second stop was a 10-minute walk from the witch house and was right in the heart of downtown Salem. We immediately went to the desk to grab out tickets and were informed the next tour would start In 10mins. We wasted the time by browsing the gift shop, it was full of Generic mercy branded with their logo, but they did have a few things that seemed to be exclusive to the attraction. After the time passed we were ushered into a small theatre where our guide laid out the rules, and then briefly explained the intro to the witch trials story, after her 5-minute presentation was finished she motioned our small group to exit through a door at the side of the stage which led to the basement. Once in the darkened basement, we were greeted by a life-sized set of animatronic statues that in the darkness looked extremely realistic. Once I snapped a picture with the flash on I could tell that these statues were far from real looking and resembled manikins that were painted and dressed to look like they were alive. Our guide did an incredible job of explaining the history and stories surrounding the witch trials and the animatronics and pre-recorded voiceovers brought her stories to life with details and movement that could only be expressed by lifeless dummies. Overall the tour was very unique and our guide was very knowledgeable and answered about 90% of our questions without hesitation. The only questions she could answer were all asked by a university student in our group that was writing a paper on one of the lesser known witches in the trials.
Grave matters tour
After lunch, we had a graveyard tour booked, the meetup point was right around the corner from the restaurant we ate at so we walked over. After getting our tickets we were instructed to go wait outside for the tour to start in about 10mins. After people watching for a few minutes, our tour guide came out to greet us. The group was larger so he had to wear a fanny pack speaker and talk through a mix so everyone could hear him. He instructed everyone to follow him as he led us 2 blocks away to the cemetery. Once we had arrived he gave us a brief history of when it was constructed and officially deemed to be a place of burial. He then started pointing out graves and explaining briefly who the people were buried there. After a few relatives of importance were pointed out and he told us of some of the meanings of the markings meant we heading over to a tree because it started to rain. He then continued to talk about a few of the graves surrounding the tree. Midway through the tour as our guide was trampling graves jabbering on about people’s lives he had never met I remember thinking this kid knows way too much about the dead.
The guide was very informative but his delivery of the information seemed Very unprepared. He jumped back and forth between tombstones and got off topic quite easily. Despite the downfalls of the tour, it was still very interesting and unique
House of 7 gables
We were making good time so we decided to conquer the attraction most out of our way on our agenda. The house of 7 gables was about a 20-minute walk along the water line. We passed a boatyard and the customs house along the way and also more cafes then I’d like to count.
When we entered the reception building that in front of the actuarial house we were greeted by a nice man whose name tag read “Dick volunteer” all in the same font so it looked like his actual name. Mr volunteer points us to the desk where we could purchase tickets so we did. We had about 15 minutes to kill so we decided to check out the rest of the grounds surrounding the house. The mansion itself sat right on the water and had a beautiful garden and courtyard sitting directly next to it in the center of the grounds. Just as we sat down at one of the cave style tables to enjoy the view we were paged by Dick that our tour was starting. We headed over to the back of the house where we were being greeted by our guide and ushered into the mudroom of the house. She then began to go through the rules of the house, no flash photography and don’t step over the ropes blocking off the exhibits. Just as we were about to head in one last couple barged through the door, an older gentleman and his younger wife who was visible trashed. The unusual pair had me questioning if she was a mail-order bride because she spoke terrible English and was at least 30 years younger then her husband. Either way, our group headed inside to the kitchen where our guide began explaining the various stages of construction done on the house over the years. After we checked out a couple of rooms our guide opened a door that was disguised as the side part of the mantle on the fireplace which led to an extremely narrow secret staircase. We all filed in one by one inching our way to the top like a legless serpent. Our guide took a different way upstairs and ended up meeting us. After the rest of the group made it up the stairs we were led into the main room which looked like an unfinished attic. With the air of a model of the house, Our guide began to explain the history of the gables and how they were removed and the added again lifting off portions of the model’s roof like layers of a Russian nesting doll. At some point during this captivating presentation, I lost interest and began looking around the room. I noticed in the far corner there was a case of water a medium sized cooler, a duffle bag and what looked like a small mattress rolled up. if I had to put money on it I would say our guide was living in the attic, but who am I to judge the way she talked about the house it was like she was having a love affair with it. After the lengthy gables explanation, we headed back downstairs to the den. On the way down the mail order bride slipped and almost fell all the way down the stairs luckily there was a bigger couple in front to catch her. After another lengthy explanation of how they used to entertain back on the 1500s, she showed us some tools that looked prehistoric. our guide then walked over to the wall next to the fireplace and began opening what looked like a wood panel but was a hidden liquor cabinet, at which time the bride began to cheer. Once the excitement settled we headed outside to be set free to explore the other house and gift shop that was on the grounds. The other house was Nathan Hawthorne’s birth home which was moved from down the street in the early 2000s because the owner of the land wanted to knock it down. We quickly explored the remaining areas on the grounds snapping a couple pics and then headed out to find dinner.
After dinner, we had some time to kill until our next tour so we Wandered around for a bit checking out the shops in the downtown area.
We were walking past what looked like a Halloween costume shop when my girlfriend noticed a side that said ice cream and sweets on the window so we headed in. After scanning the flavours of ice cream for several minutes we decided on the milky way Ice cream. Which was life-changing.
Candlelit ghost walk
As the sun started setting we made our way back to the graveyard neighbourhood to the booth we were meeting up at for the ghost walk. There was a heavyset man sitting behind the booth mashing away at his phone while he was nodding his head to the radio. After a couple minutes of waiting the man sprung to life yelling “anyone here for the candlelight ghost walk gather around,” it became evident that the man was from New York by his thick accent and demanding demeanour. As we all gathered around he started a song on his phone streaming through the radio. A girl beside said something about it being Adele. As the song hit the new Yorker started singing along with it at the top of his lungs. Who would have thought such a big in your face kind of individual would love Adele music so much. He then stopped the music abruptly and yelled out ” I’m going to make this stupid simple for everyone, put your tickets to the left of the lanterns and then take a good lantern”. So one by one we did. Once we all had our lights the chunky new Yorker yelled “hey Joe they’re ready to go” and out of nowhere Joe appeared from the crowd and hopped on top the rock in front of us. In the thickest Boston accent I’ve heard since we had arrived, Joe began running through the rules of his tour and a brief intro to what it consisted of, after he told us to follow. I’m not going to ruin the tour for you but I will give you some details I lasted for about 45 minutes and was quite a bit of walking around the downtown area. Our guide how was very knowledgeable of the area even though he was from Boston and answers every question we had without hesitation. His delivery of the information on his tour was amazing and his sense of humour was on point. The tour was defiantly a must as it consisted of quite a bit of unique info which was a breath of fresh air considering the about of repetitiveness we had already experienced since we had arrived earlier that day
Day 4
It started off with rain and coldness. Our first stop was the pirate museum. We arrived 30mins before the first tour started so we decided to take a stroll around the block. Lucky for us there was a break in the rain. After a quick lap that took nowhere near 30mins we started heading back. We headed inside to roam and check out the gift shop. It was extremely small and was filled with the same generic mugs and tees as the other places we visited the day before the only difference being the branding and there were a lot more toys. After a few minutes of sleepy pacing, our guide entered the room and introduced himself, Joe. Dressed as a pirate and trying to mimic a pirates accent He ushered us into the museum, our group consisted of us 2 and 2 other ladies with 2 young children. Our guide began his routine act of the history of pirates in the area, overacting every chance he got. I could only assume and hope this was to keep the young children’s attention and wasn’t his usual attempt at entertainment. We made our way through all of the room, the sets weren’t as good as previous museums but still held a sl8ght entertainment value. Our guide continued to overact out the information and once in a while cracked a corny joke in a Sad attempt at being funny. The tour was relatively short but filled with a treasure trove of history of the area with or a single mention of witches.
Count Orlok’s Nightmare Gallery
Our second stop of the day was just down the street on the other side. GET NAME was a wax museum of classic and new school movie monsters. Upon entering we were greeted by the clerk in an extremely cramped space. We grabbed our tickets and the guy went through the rules, no photos and no touching the statues. Skeptical from past wax museum experiences we headed inside. The first exhibit was presented in a room just as tight as the entrance but I could tell by the incredible amount of detail in the figures that this was not your average wax museum. As we made our way through the windey path that carved through the building the rooms kept getting a little more spacious and the number of statues per exhibit kept expanding. We studied every detail and read most of the blurbs about the movies they had in front of the characters. Even though I knew they were made of wax the detail made them look so realistic I Constantly thought one was going to jump out and scare us. Midway through the museum I began to understand why photos were not allowed, this was truly an experience that had to be absorbed first had and any attempt at trying to capture it through a lens would just ruin it. Although it was probably the shortest tour we had partaken in so far it was by far the best quality. This is defiantly something I would recommend to anyone that visits Salem movie buff or not.
Witch dungeon museum
Our next stop of the day was on the other side of downtown just outside the downtown district. We started heading in that direction when it started raining again so by the time we made it we were wet and cranky. We were greeted by a less then sympathetic clerk who was kind of short with us when asking if they had a washroom, she pointed out the window to the port-o-potty across the street so back into the rain to make some drizzle of our own we went. Once done we headed back inside for a short wait until our tour started. We did a quick lap around the gift shop, besides the usual repetitive witch merch, I noticed a couple of things that were unique to this location. I ended up purchasing a statue of a hand with all the palm reading layouts on it which to my surprise when I got home and took it out of the box it was missing the top portion of the pinky. After a short wait, we were welcomed into the theatre, where we watched a live reenactment of the witch trials which was performed by 2 actresses and a hand full of manicans. As cheesy as it was the actress did a wonderful job portraying their characters accents and all.
After the play, we were ushered into the basement where they had a recreation of the original Salem dungeon that they kept the accused witches in. In the first room, we were introduced to a 349yr old piece of wood that was the only remaining artifact from the original dungeon. We were encouraged to touch it so I did. After that, we were lead through the various rooms in the “dungeon” as our guide told us the various stories of prisoners that were held at the time of the witch accusations. Our guide was incredibly knowledgeable and the dungeon was insanely detailed, it almost felt like an authentic dungeon.
Show and trolley
Our last attraction to attend was a double, a show and a tour of Salem. The weather had taken a turn for the worst and was extremely cold and wet so it was a warm welcome to be able to cozy up inside for a show.
I didn’t know what to expect as the description for the show was rather vague on their website. I wasn’t really expecting much but what I got was a rather food entertainment experience. The was about the history of Salem but in a different lite. Instead of focusing primarily on the witches like so many of the attractions we had visited in the past few days it would concentrate around the myths and legends about the things that go bump on the night around Salem. From the historical creature whom the natives in this land feared lurking deep within the forest. To modern ghosts that haunt the streets of Salem to this day. They did a wonderful job with the use of lighting, sound effects, simple props and costumes to create an experience that had you literary jumping in your seat. They pick on one specific girl in the front row quite a bit. They would drop the lights to pitch black and have different creature pop up right in front of her when the lights came back on. She jumped and screamed EVERY time. After the 30 min performance price I would not ever forget we were ushered outside where we would wait into the pouring rain under a tarp for our trolley.
The trolley
The trolley came barreling up treating the side street as a highway it tossed the puddles aside like discarded trash. After a few minutes of adjusting and readjusting to try the align the door between the build-up of water on the sidewalk so we didn’t get soakers while climbing aboard the trolley it finally settled and parked. Out of the darkness a shadowy figure wearing a top hat and ghoulish clothing emerged and instructed us to board. The group of 20 something all ran like a heard of rhinos towards the trolley in an effort to avoid the raindrops. We were one of the first couples to board so we sat near the front. Our guide was making comment after comment about the other passengers as they boarded. Some hilarious other obscene but all in good taste.
Once we are so on board he introduced himself in probably the thickest Boston accent I heard the entire time in Salem “just jack, not jack it’s just jack”
He briefly explained what the tour consisted of and then went from the back to the front of the bus getting everyone to tell him where we were from. Every other passenger he made a smart ass comment or sang a song about where they were from. I could tell that despite the fact I couldn’t see anything out the windows because of the darkness and rain it would still be a good if not great tour because of just jack sense of humour. We weaved up and down the streets of Salem like a drunk trying to find his way home in the pouring rain. Stopping every once and awhile so jack could tell a ghost story and point out things we couldn’t see. After a while, there was a slight pause in his routine and we managed to catch our breath I realized that if it wasn’t for Just Jack’s constant onslaught of jokes this would have been the worst part of the trip but instead, it was becoming the best. Once he realized we could breathe again Just Jack continued to take shot after shot at his ex-wives and the driver of the bus who played along nicely letting each punch roll off his back. Luck for us because it kept us in a constant state of laughter. The tour overall visually was an extremely letdown because of the weather but just jacks constant hilarity and knowledge of the area made the tour the highlight of our trip. Just Jack is truly a comic gem in what would otherwise have been the most monotonous and boring part of our trip.
Feeling tired and with soar faces from all the laughter, we made our way back to the hotel. I was feeling perfectly fine then out of nowhere the overly exaggerated feeling of food poising hit me like a ton of bricks. I spent the rest of the night in and out of the washroom barely sleeping a wink. By the middle of the night, I knew this wasn’t food poising it was some strain of flu bug. The next morning was a struggle every action felt like grim death. I was lucky to have such a sweet lady at my side because I don’t know how I would have survived without her. We took the long way home driving through Vermont again; the weather was gloom and doom all day which felt like a reflection of how I felt. Despite what the skies were doing and how I felt the drive was still sheer beauty and we even got the chance to stop at the lookout point. too dark to photograph but still an amazing view that we spent a few moments standing in the rain soaking it in.
Salem was an amazing experience and although I was hesitant to go in the first place because of the “hocus pocus” surrounding the area, in the end, I was extremely grateful I was talked into going. The views were unique and beautiful, the food was scrumptious, and the history was rich. The friendliness and colourful culture of the east coast town was very welcoming. I learned a lot, not only about the rich witch history but about the pirates that frequented the area and the robust trading ports that existed there for generations.
I will definitely be back to this area again to explore more, especially Vermont.
Travelling Trev