Not Known for Cheese (without steak!)

Well, the things you learn on a tour... Philadelphia Cream Cheese is not from Philadelphia. I mean, really, what next? The New York Giants are not based in New York?! (In-joke - they moved to San Francisco!)

But there is little else to complain about the rather stately city of Philadelphia (and there was cream cheese to go with my bagel at breakfast). And appropriately in the city of brotherly love, I met up with one of my friends from Twitter for the day. As a result I chattered all day and didn't take many photos... This photo of Market St with the City Hall in the distance was from the afternoon before when I arrived by train.

I managed to find my way from the Amtrak 30th Street Station - which has the most beautiful art deco main hall (check out the Blog Gallery) - and on seeing its statue I remembered immediately that I had seen the hall before in my all-time favourite movie from the 80's with Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis, and Lukas Haas (and even a rather young Viggo Mortensen!) - Witness. Where Harrison's character hides out with the Amish to protect a young boy who has witnessed a murder in the bathrooms at this railway station (I decided to wait and use the one at the hotel...).

I had an easy afternoon, mostly chasing banks, post offices, and all the everyday stuff you still need to do when travelling. When I met my friend the next day, I naturally demanded that the first thing I see was the Liberty Bell! I thought I would just see a bell, but there is a whole (free) museum that surrounds it. My friend was telling me that immediately post 9/11 all the first emergency reactions in the city were around protecting the bell.. then they thought about the people and buildings!

Check out its picture in the Blog Gallery - I was expecting something taller... ;-)

But let me get back to the Amish. From Wednesday to Saturday, they have a couple of stalls in the local market. So I had an Amish lunch which included homemade lemonade and a beef and gravy sandwich. Then I bought one of these amazing donuts for later. I will for the rest of my life regret that I only bought one... :-( Best donut I have ever tasted (I went with custard coconut).

We then caught the hop-on-hop-off bus to see all the sights. This included the Museum of Arts (the one that Rocky runs up the stairs of in the movie of the same name - and yes, there is a statue of him there that attracts more tourists than all the amazing works of art sitting around it!), and an abandoned prison in ruins (the first penitentiary in the US that now runs ghost tours there). We also saw the parkway (modelled on the Champs Elysee), Penn's Landing, the Franklin bridge over the Delaware River, the laneway with the oldest continuously in residence houses (tiny things they are!) and more on our 90 minute circuit. But it was hard to photograph from the top of the covered bus, so no pics, I'm afraid.

We then visited Love Park (as the locals call it - but I think it was JFK Square), so named for the famously copied logo (which the artist sold without any residual rights... most silly!). We waited for the lighting of the Christmas tree - but it didn't seem to be happening anytime soon, so we headed off in search of some dinner I've included a pic from the Internet of what it might have looked like if I could have got near it for all the people!).

My friend later emailed me a picture of the lit tree - pointing out the missing panel as further testament to them not getting their act together!

So, continuing our food theme, I had been promised all day the opportunity to try a cheese steak stuffed pretzel. Cheese steak is a very Philly thing, but getting it inside a pretzel seemed something worth trying. It tasted a bit like an empanada - quite tasty, even if it looks like a prickly pear in its photo!

I seriously underestimated the amount there was to do in this lovely city. I stayed in a rather posh area of town just outside of the old city, where all the antique stores are. It was quite lovely to walk around it - spotting the thousands of murals that the city is famed for.

And of course, while it is nice to catch up with people, it is at the expense of seeing the sights that I do when alone. I only thought to take a picture of the city as I was leaving. The building on the left of that picture is the railway station where the statue I mentioned above resides.

Despite needing to pack, I didn't get home from the Irish pub until after 11pm that night (yes, I had that good a time). And I hate travelling by train when tired as it's all too easy to drift off and miss your stop, not to mention missing the scenery along the way (although this was largely all stark trees and brown fields!). I can't believe how close these big cities (New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington DC) are - only 3 hours or so between the first and last, which I will cover in my next post as I spend my last days in the USA in its capital.

Until then - cheers! Aveline. xxx