City of Brotherly Love – and the Founding Fathers

We had planned a couple of days in Philadelphia as we thought it might be fun to be there on July 4th.

Arriving early afternoon gave us an excuse to be lazy and we didn’t set out to explore until the hunger pangs set in and we wanted to fine somewhere to eat! That was fine: it was still hot when we set out at 4.30p.m. Our wandering was a bit aimless at this stage and we barely noticed the Liberty Bell centre or any of the other places we knew we should be looking out for in the historical city. We DID find Chinatown and a very authentic Chinese restaurant whose food we enjoyed.

Needless to say, the route we found back to the hotel was much quicker taking us nearer the Ben Franklin bridge, enabling us to see just what an impressive structure it is.

An early night, a good sleep and it was tennis time. I was very grateful to be able to indulge my love of the final stages of tournaments without missing out on other things or messing up plans. For once, the time difference worked to my advantage!!

The receptionist had mentioned the ubiquitous hop-on,hop-off tours when we checked in and when we mentioned them to her after breakfast she indicated that they would come to collect us. So that was it: the highways and byways of Philadelphia from the upper deck of an open top bus! The tour goes right out into the suburbs past the Art Museum and the Zoo. One of our aims was to see where the  July 4th fireworks would be. We decided we’d rather stay in our comfortable room overlooking the river and see what was on offer there.

Having spotted some of the sights on our way to the bus in the morning, we got off in time to savour the delights of the Reading Terminal Markets: reminiscent of Adelaide and Melbourne, but on a smaller scale, we felt, so it was hard to believe the Reading Terminal market is one of the largest in the world. Our late lunch consisted of Middle Eastern delicacies. From there we walked back to the hotel, stopping to view the Liberty Bell as we were pretty sure there’d be no chance the next day –  July 4th! It was much smaller than I had imagined.

 

 

An early Italian meal at Pizzicato and we were back at the hotel almost before there was time to think how far we’d walked, but glad to have walked off a few of those late-in-the-day calories!!

We had planned very little for the Fourth of July – but couldn’t have escaped it if we’d tried! We had found a programme of activities in the Tourist Information centre near the Liberty Bell the previous afternoon, noticed that the parade would be at its nearest point to the Hotel at about 12.30 and realised that meant we could watch the tennis and not feel guilty! So the day started with breakfast in our room and tennis. It was just after midday when we left and we were pleased to find the parade just beginning to move away from the Penn’s Landing end of Market Street. There were some good viewpoints and we had fun looking for interesting shots.

Once the action was over we began to walk up to the historic centre of the town, towards Independence Hall. While still on Market Street, amid the party spirit and fancy dress, we found a couple of genuine local characters – one a military man, proud of his country’s reputation in war, but in despair about its current situation, the other displaying his loyalty by the costume he wore.

As we reached the park near Independence Hall,  we found Ben Franklin himself addressing the crowds. These were the descendants of the men who had signed the Declaration of Independence. The Liberty Bell was ceremonially struck and there was a parade of flags – though the wind had blown up and the flag-bearers had great difficulty holding on to their hats. It was quite amusing to watch the different strategies employed for keeping a hat in place.

We wandered through the old part of town making our way towards Geno’s as we had been told we MUST eat their cheesesteaks. Hmmm. It was a long walk even in a smallish city and we were amazed to find a queue about 50 yards long, very limited pavement seating and the couple behind us discussing the fact that if you didn’t know how to order you’d be sent to the back of the queue!! Suddenly wondering why we had come!!

We reached the window without too much delay, placed an order successfully with a little advice (quite friendly) from the assistant, asked about drinks and was told – ‘Drinks and fries at the next window’.Huh? Actually we didn’t need either so took our fancy meat rolls and went to sit in the much more friendly shop next door which made the best frapuccino I’ve had in America and a smoothie which Somjit enjoyed. The walk had been worth it for the drinks.

We chose a different route back to the centre – via the Italian Market (sun hat bought) and some lovely simple residential streets which must hold many stories.

We walked past the home of Betsy Ross, credited with sewing the first Star Spangled banner and through Elfreth’s Alley – one of the oldest (and narrowest) streets in the city, past the Ben Franklin bridge back to the hotel ready to spot fireworks along the Delaware river. We could have gone up to the Museum area where there was to be a display – but we were quite happy firework spotting from the window and getting on with other things at the same time.

An enjoyable 4th! A good ending to a short stay in Philly before moving deeper into Pennsylvania. Watching fireworks all along the river, though at a distance, was, somehow, more appropriate than watching one big display: it was a reminder that this celebration of independence is for every citizen.