E-Mail This Article to a Friend View to a thrill (continued)
	Pleased to meet view • Anthony’s Pier 4, 140 Northern Avenue, Boston, (617) 482-6262. • Barking Crab, 88 Sleeper Street, Boston, (617) 426-CRAB. • Boston Duck Tours, (617) 267-DUCK. • Boston Harbor Cruises, 1 Long Wharf, Boston, (617) 227-4321. • Bunker Hill Monument, Charlestown, (617) 242-5641. • Charles Riverboat Company, (617) 621-3001. • Custom House, 3 McKinley Square, Boston, (617) 310-6300. • Georges Island, ferry service: (617) 223-8666. • Jimmy’s Harborside, 242 Northern Avenue, Boston, (617) 423-1000. • John F. Kennedy Library & Museum, Columbia Point, Boston, (617) 514-1600. • Liberty Fleet of Tall Ships, 67 Long Wharf, Boston, (617) 742-0333. • Massachusetts Bay Lines, 60 Rowes Wharf, Boston, (617) 542-8000. • New England Aquarium, Central Wharf, Boston, (617) 973-5200. • No-Name Restaurant, 15 1/2 Fish Pier, Boston, (617) 338-7539. • Skyline Dining Room, Museum of Science, Science Park, Boston, (617) 723-2500. • Skywalk Observatory, Prudential Tower, 800 Boylston Street, Boston, (617) 859-0648. • Spinnaker, Hyatt Regency, 575 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, (617) 492-1234. • Top of the Hub, Prudential Tower, 800 Boylston Street, Boston, (617) 536-1775. • USS Constitution, 1 Constitution Road, Charlestown, (617) 242-5670. — JR

From the Charles River

Other than individually paddling a kayak or sailing a boat, there are two ways visitors can splash onto the Charles River: through Boston Duck Tours and the previously mentioned Charles Riverboat Company. The Duck Tours take place aboard renovated World War II amphibious transport vehicles. They were used to land troops on the beaches of Normandy; today they carry tourists through the streets of Boston and down the waters of the Charles.

The personable drivers/tour guides are skillful at maneuvering these bulky vehicles through the crowded streets of Boston, keeping up a running narration packed with humorous anecdotes and commentary. Motoring through the 1910 locks on the Charles and up beyond the Longfellow Bridge, there are up-close views of the Esplanade, the Hatch Shell, and the Boston Community Boat Yard on one side, and the Museum of Science, the Charlesgate Yacht Club, and MIT on the other. Looking into Boston proper, your eye is drawn to the 63-story John Hancock Tower, which dwarfs surrounding buildings, even the old John Hancock Building, with its beacon-like tower and flashing lights. The CITGO sign looms above Fenway Park.

The 75-minute "Charles River Basin Tour," conducted by the Charles Riverboat Company, goes beyond the area covered by the Duck Tours, and under two more bridges — the Harvard Bridge and the BU Bridge. Cruising past rowers and sailors on the Charles, you can see the former residences of Cabots, Lodges, and Lowells rising up on Beacon Hill; the buildings of Boston University marching down Comm Ave; and, on the other side, MIT and Harvard. The sunset cruise goes even farther up the twisting river, under the River Street and Western Avenue bridges, allowing you to catch the sun setting over the Harvard campus, its golden glow lighting up Boston’s downtown.

From the Left Bank (a/k/a Cambridge)

Two restaurants on the Charles River offer captivating views of the river and the cities sprawled along it. Spinnaker cooks up Northern Italian food for dinner and Sunday brunch. But it offers something more: it’s the only revolving restaurant in the area, with views that extend from the Financial District all the way to the Prudential Center. The Museum of Science, which straddles the Charles River, provides a unique vista from its sixth-floor Skyline Dining Room. The Skyline offers a buffet brunch every Sunday, with panoramas of the Boston and Cambridge skylines. The museum’s Galaxy Café, on the first floor, gives you a close-up look at the river.

A memorable non-dining view can be had from the Cambridge end of the Mass Ave Bridge, looking into Boston. The windows of the Hancock catch the late-afternoon sun and everything takes on a golden hue. Similarly, the morning sun lights up the glassy, ziggurat-shaped Hyatt Regency. Another lookout spot from Cambridge is the small park called Killian Court, just below MIT’s Great Dome, from which you can gaze down on the river and across to Boston.

From above

Two buildings provide an almost aerial panorama of the city. If you hike up the Bunker Hill Monument, located on Breed’s Hill in Charlestown, you may get as big a dose of geography as history, since, on a clear day, you can see all the way up to the North Shore. Back in the city proper, the second-highest building is the 52-story Prudential Tower, which houses a restaurant, Top of the Hub, on its 52nd floor, and the Skywalk Observatory on the 50th. The Top of the Hub is a lounge and restaurant serving both lunch and dinner, and its views are spectacular. Proper dress and reservations are expected for the white-linened, plush-chaired side of the restaurant, from which you can see the Charles. On the opposite side of the U-shaped dining space, you’re overlooking the Christian Science International Headquarters, with its "Mother Church" and reflecting pool; the South End neighborhood of red-brick row houses and tree-lined streets; and the Boston Harbor Islands. Way in the distance, you can see Blue Hill, rising up in suburban Milton. And you can watch all kinds of aircraft landing and taking off at Logan Airport.

Two floors below the restaurant, the Skywalk offers an audio tour that guides visitors through 40 views from its perimeter. There’s a children’s version as well. The tour is interactive and complements the exhibits lining the inside wall, which are currently being updated. Toward the east are five church spires, the most prominent being that of Trinity Church; you’ll also see two golden domes, the State House and the former Liberty Mutual building. And as you peer down into the Back Bay, with its bow-fronted houses, the bright-colored umbrellas at outdoor cafés on Newbury Street will surely put you in good cheer.

Johnette Rodriguez can be reached at johnette.rodriguez@cox.net