PHILADELPHIA

NYC - PHILADELPHIA (OCTOBER 19-20)

19

Saturday morning. Out at 8.11 am, car, the city. Drive along the Hudson river down to Holland tunnel to cross to New Jersey. Some traffic but not too bad. Tunnel - two narrow lanes, it is hard to imagine how it looks like with rush hour traffic. New Jersey - we were not taking the turnpike (toll road) so we ended up at small road with the traffic lights. After crossing the river we were quickly in very different world. Vast network of freeways, swamps and waterways (some boats and containers), train tracks in several directions. And really sad look of those industrial sites, many of them abandoned and/or run down. The same applied to many bridges, roads, and houses. It looked and felt like very different life story. More less two and half hours of uneventful driving. Except for some construction, our drive into Philadelphia was very smooth and easy. We parked underneath Independence Visitor Center. The beginning of our city adventure. It is always sunny in Philadelphia. It was actually a bit cloudy and breezy. Some maps in the visitor center. We also got free tickets to the Independence Hall for 3.00 pm. We walked across the street and wanted to see the Liberty Bell - there was really long line of people - we gave up for the moment.

Our plan was to make a loop through the center of the city and return for our tour. Obviously, walking. After we left the overcrowded Historic area, we were in more pleasant and emptier place. Some older buildings, some high rises ... nice and normal city. Chinatown - few block that we walked through were pretty normal - it was far from all the rush and bustling of San Francisco Chinatown. Reading Terminal Market. Within the area of many hotels and convention center. Deceiving looks from outside - just like a store or something like that. Huge hall inside with hundred (s) of small shops and relatively narrow walk ways. And ... very busy. Interesting. J. had tuna salad hoagie, I had Philly cheese steak - nothing really special, probably would not buy it again. City hall building, we walked through and around - it is magnificent structure in the middle of the city. JFK plaza with "Love" statue - apparently one of the "must see" places, nice park, but ... Continue ... many other buildings and streets. Some more interesting, some less. I guess like any other place. Rittenhouse Square - small farmers market, a protest against fracking, people with dogs. Really nice park. We saw bunch of people with t-shirt saying "Urban Dare". Apparently it is some type of race to fulfill bunch of task (take a photo, find something) within the city (happens in many cities across the the whole country). We saw many people doing this monkey business (some walking, some almost running). Signs of fall season all over the place. Continue. Antique Row - few antique store, few other stores - maybe called like that for the character and charm. Relatively narrow street lined with trees and old houses. Peaceful and pretty.

Through and around the historic park, quiet streets and busy streets. Printing shop - demonstration of the printing. Interesting. Some run down blocks and houses. Elfreth's Alley - short and narrow street - apparently the oldest continuously inhabited street in America. A bit strange, small piece of history within living city, next to it was high wall hiding the freeway. Back in the historic park - walk through the security into the part of fenced Independence Square. We were a bit early, small exhibit in one of the houses (plant drawings). We did not get in for the tour of the Congress hall. Sitting and waiting. The tour of the Independence hall - small introduction and then two halls where all of it happened. Interesting - they still have chair that Washington sat on. I am not quite sure that those people would understand today's politics. Unrelated note, the walk guide lady in Boston was not happy how the Tea Party term is used today. Apparently there are many people with the same feeling in Boston. End of unrelated note. We had time and the tour of Congress hall was coming up so we waited few minutes. The home of the US congress between 1790 and 1800 as Washington, DC was being build. Nice place. Unrelated note, in Valley Forge the ranger said that Paul Revere was half French. End of unrelated note. We were done with the Independence Hall by 4.42 pm. It was across the street from the Liberty Bell. There was no line and they were supposed to close by 5.00 pm. We walked in and there were just two people in front of us going through the security. It was a lot of security there. Really necessary? We saw the bell. Walk to the river front - river, New Jersey across it, some big as. boats (army as well?),  no people. Walk back to the Historic park and go to the car. Getting dark and rainy. Bunch of liars - It is always sunny in Philadelphia. Drive across the river to our motel in New Jersey. There were no reasonably priced options in the city. Nice day.

20

Sleeping in, some. Leave the motel and park few blocks away at the diner. Unfortunately we only got mediocre breakfast. Sunny, breezy, and really pleasant. One of the "must see" things in Philadelphia was Fairmont Park and Kelly drive within the park. And that was where we were heading. We crossed the Walt Whitman bridge (and paid five dollars) and drove towards the park. Some nice views of the city, few glimpses of the river and some really big boats, city streets and relatively pleasant driving. As we were about to enter the Kelly drive we found the road closed and blocked by police car. There was some monkey business going on - 5K walk or something. In several blocks we attempted to enter the park again but found the barrier and police car again. (Los Angeles marathon all over again.) We drove along the park (or in the park) - it looked like pretty nice place. We drove through some areas that had some really nice old houses - completely run down - it looked like some parts of Detroit.

Laurel Hill Cemetery - we also attempted to visit it but had to leave with just some outside views as we could not find the road to get in. It was confusing and sad. We crossed the river and tried to drive along the river but the road was closed. We had enough. We drove to the park where we wanted to visit Japanese garden, there was really cool picture of it in the travel magazine. Found. Parked. Sad - the garden was pretty but nothing special and really small. We walked around - they opened at 11.00 am - peaked in and decided not to wait and just walked a bit around the park - trees with colored leaves, fountains, hundreds of mums and other flowers still blooming. Blue sky and incredible weather. Perfect fall day. At that point we were done with Philly and drove away. About half an hour to Valley Forge National Historic Site (Washington's army winter campout site). Pretty straight forward drive compared to our driving in the city. Park - surprisingly many people visiting. Visitor center - map. Theater and short film about the park, history, and how they lived through the winter here. After the movie we took a short walk with the ranger to the site of few replica huts (there was over thousand of huts). Really interesting and entertaining presentation - also pretty incredible lecture into the history. See the hut - there was a fella inside with the fire and short talk about the military. Walk back and drive around the whole park (probably ten miles). Rock monuments at places where different state armies camped.

Several replica huts all over the park, cannons too (do not know if real or replicas). Quite a few statues of soldiers and important people. http://www.nps.gov/vafo/index.htm We drove across small covered bridge (twice - there and back). Rolling hills, leaves changing colors, blue sky, sun, and amazingly picturesque landscape - it was just great day. Washington headquarters and former train station and few replica huts - that was next stop. Small exhibit in the train station building (there is still track, apparently used for cargo trains only). There was a guy telling a story for free (no idea what that was about) - we stopped and sit down and got "television game show" story). It was pretty funny. Did you know that king George the third wrote a books about agriculture (under the pen name). Always something new. House that Washington lived in - nice exhibit. Drive. Time running out. Washington memorial chapel - not part of the national park. We debated the stop but decided to turned into the parking lot. The church is still active. It was open, it looked pretty from outside, it was incredibly pretty inside. We got couple of minutes when there was no one else inside and it was almost magical - the architecture, the statues, the stained glass windows. Something special. Walk around a bit and leave. End of the park. Main road. Drive. Some freeway, some toll road, some other road with lights and traffic. Quick grocery stop in Bridgewater, New Jersey. Freeways towards New York City.

Toll road. Few views of Manhattan. Swamps, freeways, industrial sites - it was like the city dumped all the uglier stuff across the river, the city needs all of that, just not on their island. Horrible traffic as we were trying to get on George Washington Bridge. Took forever, got dark, few glimpses of Manhattan lights - looked really pretty. It is funny that the city is the most interesting from the distance, in the night, and from the above. Slow traffic on the bridge, after we paid 13 dollars toll. Sign Welcome to New York. Finally leave the bridge, get on Harlem river drive and in no time exit onto 8th Avenue (our street). Around thirty blocks on that avenue - pedestrians, double parking, stupid people driving stupidly. Finally - parking garage and our temporary home. Welcome to New York City.