Cambridge (Boston, Washington: hotel, construction, mall)

[marcth]

I'll be visiting Mass General Hospital and staying at the Holiday Inn on Blossom Street. I have a day to spare and was thinking of going to the CambridgeSide Galleria Mall and maybe taking the Charles Riverboat tour or Duck Tour. I wanted to ask if I was walking from my hotel to that location, is it advisable. If so, how long would it take. Thanks!!

[ogre]

I'd recommend taking the short walk to the Mass. General T station and riding one stop to Kendall Square, then walking to the Galleria from there. Trying to walk to Cambridge across the nearest bridge would not be advisable, as that bridge has a lot of vehicular traffic and is not set up well for pedestrians.

If you wanted to walk the entire distance (approx. one mile according to Mapquest), your best bet would be to walk in a generally northeasterly direction from your hotel, and continue to the vicinity of North Station and cross on the Charlestown bridge (N. Washington St.), which has a better setup for pedestrians. It's a safer bridge for walking, than crossing the river down the street from your hotel.

The walk from Kendall Sq. to the Galleria appears slightly shorter than a walk the entire distance from your hotel via the Charlestown Bridge, so if you figure in a few minutes' wait for the train if you took the T to Kendall, either the T to Kendall and a walk to the Galleria, or a walk the entire distance via the C'town bridge would be about the same in terms of time.

[missionhill]

Longfellow Bridge is under construction but has sidewalks on both sides and I imagine at least one of them is in service during the construction. From the Cambridge end it's an easy 10-12 minute walk to the mall. The more direct way from Blossom and Cambridge streets is to walk up Blossom around the MGH complex to the end, cross Charles St (which is a highway at that point) over the footbridge, and walk on the Esplanade (Boston side of the river) up to the science museum bridge and cross over to Cambridge there. The mall is right at that end of the bridge, by a little lagoon. The whole walk is no more than 30 min. Both Longfellow and Science Museum bridges are walkable.