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Well did you notice? There isn’t a “Stumbling Into Philadelphia” post preceding this one!!
Finally a stumble free journey from New York to Philadelphia!
We make it to our third city intact and have our first problem free journey!!
Smooth Travels
Our quintet is down by one as we wave Lisa off at 11am to fly home to Blighty. Then we set off for Penn Station to catch our train to Philly.
No dramatic tales to tell. In fact the only notable part of the journey is that when we get off the subway at Philadelphia at 5th Street we are a little confused as to what direction to head in.
When immediately a kindly older gentleman offers to help us. He is a bit unsure as to where we want to go, and then within a minute another guy offers to help us! Between the two of them they send us off in the right direction and we find our beautiful Airbnb house.
The keys were in the lockbox; the code works; the door opens!!
Success!!!!!
The house is gorgeous! It’s very old, but I knew that from the listing (hence its title of Historical Boston House). But I love it! Wooden floors, a tiny windy staircase, three stories, and three bedrooms! To top it off, an awesome free-standing bathtub and a huge fully stocked kitchen means we are happy travellers here!
I message the owners to get the code to the basement lock, and there is a laundry room down there. So the laundry is on! Plus there’s Amazon and Netflix on the TV, so no more awful adverts to sit through when we relax in the evening. Not that we would ever want to forget the classic brunch bar rendition of Total Eclipse of the Heart… Turn around, BARRY!
Historical District
After about an hour settling in we head back out into the Historical District of Philadelphia.
Since it is due to rain and snow overnight we decide we should go have a wander. It would be such a shame if the weather is as bad as forecast and we didn’t get to explore the city as much as possible.
We find Washington Square, Independence Hall, and the Liberty Center (where the famous Liberty Bell is housed).
Since it’s already late in the day, we plan to revisit on Sunday properly. I’m looking forward to actually have a mosey around the museum and learn a bit more about why the Bell is so important.
We also visit the Tomb of the Unnamed Soldier and various other statues around the area. Whilst there are many memorials to unnamed soldiers across the world, this is the only one dedicated to those who fought and were lost during the American Revolution.
City of Brotherly Love
Being tourists (although trying not to be too obvious about it) we pop into a Shopping Hall to look at the souvenirs. Hayley needs a Philadelphia Christmas decoration after all!
In the very first store we enter, we start chatting to the very friendly clerk.
Seriously, we’ve been in this city for mere hours and already I know why they call Philadelphia the City of Brotherly Love. Everyone is so friendly, helpful, and genuine. It is such a nice change of pace from the crowds of NYC where everyone is in a hurry, and tourists are being scammed all over the place.
We certainly feel much more at home here. And in hindsight, I’m sorry that we did a week in New York and only the weekend in Philadelphia instead of the other way around!
The salesclerk gives us a list of places to visit, including his favourite Philly Cheesesteak House: Jim’s. He provides us with directions and everything.
As he told us about Jim’s Steaks another customer came in and heard us talking, so chimed in saying he’d just been there, and it’s amazing.
Ding, ding, ding!! Sold! Dinner plans sorted!
The Philly Cheesesteak
Oh. My. God.
Who knew that fried ground beef, onions, and cheese whizz in a sub roll could be so amazing!
I 100% understand the fuss now!
In fact, as I write this I want another one! It is reason to go back to Philadelphia all on its own.
To make the experience all the more fun, Jim’s is truly an amazing place.
The walls are covered in signed photos and autographs from so many famous people you can’t take it all in. It really is the top place to get this classic iconic Philly dish.
Happy and full we dash to the food store nearby to get supplies for tomorrow,
We have decided to spend all Saturday holed up indoors having a proper chill out day. The weather is meant to be cold and wet, so Hayley and I plan to cook a roast dinner for the evening. Bliss.
A few home comforts
A nice lazy day is just what we need. And the quirky historic house makes is all the more fun.
I have the best night’s sleep I’ve had since leaving home. Even after getting up in the middle of the night to check all the doors and windows are locked…
As I say, it’s an old house, and thus makes lots of strange noises at night. And whilst I am checking for burglars and animals, Hayley it turns out is also awake, keeping an eye out for poltergeists!
I stay in bed till ten-ish reading my book, and then we have another delicious breakfast à la Hayley.
Blueberry pancakes, yummy!!
Whilst Hayley has a two hour long soak in the tub to soothe her weary bones, I go back to bed and watch TV on my laptop. And Alex and Ruth set up camp in the living room with their duvets and watch Netflix. It’s all very relaxed.
And what do I do after all this lazing about?
I have a bath! For about an hour reading my book and enjoying the awesome tie-dye bath bomb from Lush in NYC!
We so go for a brief walk to the shops to get flour, butter and cheese so we can turn boring cauliflower into scrumptious cauliflower cheese. Then we cook dinner, maybe getting a bit obsessed with the rising of our Yorkshire Puddings….
The whole meal is delicious! Roast chicken with all the trimmings! In the evening we all curl up watching a trashy movie, and drink some scrummy ciders and beers we got from a build your own six pack liquor store yesterday.
And now for a change of voice
It’s been a much needed rest day, and we are all ready to explore Philadelphia the next day!
And it’s Alex’s turn to take over the blogging for a bit…
Hello “dedicated” readers!
You’ll have to excuse the tone of this section. The author is a little more uncouth and rough around the edges than the woman normally writing it.
Our day began as many of our others have done. We feast upon bacon pancakes! Cooked up by the living manifestation of Breakfast Princess (from Adventure Time) herself, the Wonderful Hayley Rowe! If you’ve never had them, you are indeed missing out. She is a culinary chief!
Having filled ourselves with energy, we set off to visit the Liberty Bell.
The little museum is interesting… mostly because to get through security we had to lift the bottoms of our coats and do a twirl around.
Naturally, we all complied. But Hayley had to do it a little bit too much, exclaiming to the security guards that she felt like a princess!
The museum has a lot of information about the Bell’s history. Especially the various repairs they attempted, which ultimately only helped to crack the Bell more. The Bell itself is pretty cool, although smaller than I thought it would be for some reason.
You can find out all about the Liberty Bell here.
Upon leaving the museum, we see the same security guard we let us in. Gleefully he remarked to Hayley that there were “no dance lessons for her at this end”. That girl does leave an impression!
An old friend
We then make a slight detour from our original plan as we want to check out a statue which looks like our mate Barry.
A bit of backstory may be needed here…
Barry is a statue we had seen in front of Independence Hall. The plaque of which has nothing more than “Barry” on the front of it. We later find out he was the founder of the American Navy. A regal and daring looking man with both sabre and spyglass at his side, we took quite a liking to him.
As I was saying, our detour took us to a statue that looked remarkably like Barry (although it was a little high up). It actually turns out to be William Penn, the founder of Philadelphia, but we had some fun discovering it.
Fun and Games
Next on our explorations we find a little park type area where there were yet more statues (Philly seems to be full of them!). These however are more modern and are of a trio of toppling dominos, various chess pieces and even some checkers pieces.
It turns out to be a place called Board Game Art Park.
So of course we have us a little bit of fun as Jen and Hayley attempt to leap frog over a bishop piece.
Jen’s up first, and she manages to clear the bishop piece! Sadly her landing lets her down, gaining a 4 from me as she stacks it and lands on her bum.
Hayley’s attempt is much more successful though, managing to not only clear the piece, but also sticking the landing! She receives an 8.
(And yes, there is video footage of all of this saved for posterity!)
After some more mucking around (in which Jen attempts to slide down a bannister) we then head to the famous Reading Market.
Food Glorious Food!
My word! What an absolute smorgasbord of choices! There are so many stalls featuring so many different ethnicities of food! Indian, Cajun, Chinese, Mexican, the list goes on! There are stalls of fresh fish, fresh meat, olives, olive oil, and a huge selection of fresh fruit and produce. It is rather overwhelming to a certain extent.
Eventually, after perusing many of the stalls, Jen and Hayley buy some olives and we head to our next destination:
The Philadelphia Museum of Art (to see the stairs from Rocky, not the art).
Eye of the Tiger
On the way we pass through the Benjamin Franklin walkway.
It is a lovely walk with both sides of the road lined with a flag from each country.
There are also yet more statues along the walkway.
We eventually make it to the infamous 69 wide steps from the Rocky film. Hayley has been going on for days about how she is going to run up them, and with Jen out of action due to an injured buttock (tee hee), I take it upon myself to challenge her.
It is a little daunting as, to quote Ruth, “there are people who are actual joggers failing to make it half way…”
I do however triumph!
Alas the footage is lost in an ill fated attempt to compose a video edited to Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger. You’ll just have to take my work for it that I won.
We embark on our long walk home, with a quick stop in the library so Jen and Hayley can admire the architecture. Then whilst Jen detours to get her nails fixed, Ruth and I revisit Jim’s Steaks for a final Philly cheesesteak. And Hayley goes back to the house to make soup from last nights leftovers!
Absolutely delicious!
Having walked a total six miles that day we decide to have a quiet evening in and watch The Interview. A film that took us by surprise! It is very good, both Franco and Rogen delivering hilarious performances. And our joint memory of watching it together in Philadelphia has become one of our little Scooby Gang jokes.
I’ll now be handing back over to the Princess of Planning, the Master Motivator, Jen Littler.
Farewell Philadelphia
We awake to snow flurries and weather warnings in place for that evening. But as we walk to the subway station all we have to contend with is the cold and a light flutter of snow falling.
We have to be out the house by ten and our train isn’t due till one, so we take up residence at a table in the station café and play cards whilst we wait.
The snowstorm is coming in from the north and trains heading that way are starting to get delayed by midday. Those coming in from that area and heading south are just starting to get held up as well.
We get asked by a radio news crew where we are headed as they needed to interview passengers heading towards New York and Boston; alas we miss out on our five minutes of fame there! But all in all I’m happy to be heading away from the blizzard and not having that stumbling story to tell!
Our train is late by just ten minutes so all in all it is a stumble free trip from Philadelphia on to Washington D.C.
Previously: Exploring New York City
Up Next: Washington, D.C.
