Away for the holidays - Philadelphia - 2

The Philadelphia Bus Tour, what we did see

Big bus tour, Stops 1 to 8

Stop 1 was on the corner of Filbert and 5thStreets, not exactly where the map says to go, but it’s on 5^th street and you can see the busses, so it was not much of a problem.’

The problem was when we had to find our way there from the City Hall.  Having a handheld navigator, i.e. a mobile phone doesn’t necessarily make the task any easier, and I have been known to walk in the wrong direction.

At any rate, just up the way is Market street, and opposite the bus stop, is, you guessed it, a market.  Alas,, constrained for time, we didn’t get to visit it.

But...

There’s a bus waiting, and we’re on it.  New driver, different tour guide, an older person who may have a different slant on the history of the city.

It’s cold, gloomy, and not a dearth of people about, and that prolonged wait for more tourists to materialize has failed, and we’re off.

Stop 1

This is just a short hop, step, and jump from the Independence National Park where we could, if we had walked in that direction, seen the Liberty Bell, though I think the first tour guild had told us it was not the actual real bell.  I wasn’t quite sure what to make of that, because didn’t we come here to see the real deal?

Aside from the market, on our way along 5^th Street, and reaching Arch street, is the 5^th Street Burial Ground belonging to the Christ Church, and established in 1719, and where Benjamin Franklin was buried in 1790.

There are four other signers of the Declaration of Independence in the graveyard.

Further on there is the US Mint where free tours are available.  The original mint stood on this site from 1792 after the Coinage Act was passed, and build in Philadelphia because it was the nation's capital at the time.

I think I would have preferred to see the old building, not the new, and currently the fourth iteration of the mint.  The third had not been demolished and is now the Community College of Philadelphia.  Something to see on another day, perhaps.

Stop 2

After going around the block, and up some narrow streets, we finish up back in Arch Street, not exactly the widest of streets, and arrive at Betsy Ross house.

Of course, Betsy Ross was the maker of the first American flag, which is an interesting way to gain notoriety, and whom it seems may have been incorrectly credited because there is no archival evidence she was asked to make it.

She did, however, make flags for the Pennsylvania navy at the time of the American Revolution.

The house we get to see, albeit briefly from the bus, is purportedly where she made the flag.  The house sits several blocks from Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.

Stop 4

Still in Arch street, this has both the National Constitution Centre and the Independence Visitor Centre nearby.

The National Constitution Centre has just about everything about the US Constitution within its walls, including a hall with 42 bronze statues of the founding fathers.

Stop 5

Chinatown, what more needs to be said?

Stops 6 and 7

Bookends for City Hall, and Love Park, well, it might not be actually called Love Park but the sign certainly makes a statement.

Stop 8

This is us, right here.

The thing is, if we had more time, I would have probably seen more, even visited a few of the places along the way.

Maybe next time.

Away for the holidays - Philadelphia - 1

The Philadelphia Bus Tour, what we did see


To start with, we first joined this tour at stop number 6.

We had to find it first and that meant some pedestrian navigation, which took us first to the City Hall, a rather imposing structure, which we found later had a profound effect on Philadelphia sports teams.

According to the map, stop number 6 is Reading Terminal Market, Convention Centre, on 12th street on Filbert.  This was where we bought the tickets and boarded the bus that had a rather interesting guide aboard.

His favorite says was “And we’re good to go.”

Soon we would discover that his commentary was more orientated towards a younger audience, not that it bothered us.

Given the time restraints, we had, this was always going to be about looking and learning.


Stop number 7

City hall, Love Park.

This we had seen on our walk from where we left the car at the Free Library, near the Swann Memorial Fountain in Logan Park, the landmark that Rebecca had remembered from her last visit to Philadelphia.  Of course, then, it was not quite so frozen.

Love park, of course, was only notable to us in that it had a sculpture in place with the word Love rather stylized.  Apart from that, you’d hardly know it as a park

The city hall, well, that was something else, and when we looked at it, before going on the tour, it was a rather magnificent stone edifice.

After, well the guide filled us in, tallest building, highest and largest monument on William Penn, you get the gist.  37 feet tall, when eclipsed, the Philly sports teams all suffered slumps of one kind or another, until the problem was rectified.  Interesting story.


Stop number 8

18th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, or Logan Circle

This is the location of the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul.  A place where the Pope decided to give an audience and sent the city into a spin.

The same church that has very high windows for the reason in the early days there was a problem with people wanting to throw Molotov cocktails through the windows.  A bit hard when they’re so high up.

Benjamin Franklin Parkway, of course, is interesting in itself as an avenue, not only for all of the flags of many nations of those who chose to live in Philadelphia.  We found ours, the one for Australia

This was also the stop where we needed to get off once the tour was finished, and time to head to the car, and go home, but that’s another story.


Stop number 10

Is that the stature of the Thinker, made famous, at least for me, from the old Dobie Gillis episodes, of God knows how many years ago?

Or, maybe it's just the Rodin Museum on Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

There's a whole story to go with that Statue and the fact it is one of many all over the world.

This one was made in France, cast in 1919 in Bronze, and is approximately 200cm x 130 cm by 140cm.


Stop number 11

Eastern State Penitentiary.  NW corner of 22nd Street and Fairmont Avenue.

This had a rather interesting story attached to it and had something to do with ghosts, but I wasn’t listening properly to the guide's monologue.

But, later research shows, the fact it was once the most famous and expensive prison in the world.  Many also think it is haunted and is a favorite for visiting paranormal visitors.

Built around 1829, it was the first prison to have separate cells for prisoners.  It held, at various times, the likes of Al Capone and Willie Sutt


Stop number 18

The Philadelphia Museum of art, where we stop for a few minutes and look at the steps which were immortalized in the movie Rocky, yes he ran god knows how far to end up on the top of these steps.

Sorry, but I’m not that fit that I would attempt walking up them.  The view is just fine from inside the bus.  Of course, they might consider cleaning the windows a little so the view was clearer, but because it’s basically Perspex and scratched so that might not be possible.


Stop number 17

Back at Logan Circle, or Square if you prefer, but on the other side, closer to the Franklin Institute.  Benjamin Franklin’s name is used a lot in this city.

After that, it’s a blur, the Academy of Music, the University of the Arts, Pennsylvania Hospital, South Street, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the USS Olympia, Penn’s Landing and past the National Liberty Museum.  I’m sure somewhere in that blur was the intention of seeing the Liberty Bell, but I think I heard that it was not on show, and only a replica could be seen.

So much for the getting as opportunity to see the real liberty bell, crack and all..

We get off and stop number 27, or Number 1, I was not quite sure.

What were we after?  The definitive Philly Cheese Steak.

Away for the holidays - New York - Philadelphia - Day 3

We are up early and I mean early because we decided to take on Philadelphia the next day, and instead of taking public transport because all the fares I could find were ridiculous, we hired a car.

Again the words 'or similar' foiled us.  All charged up and excited its quarter to eight in the morning we arrive at the Avis center just a five-minute walk from our hotel.

Shock number one.  We finish up with some crappy Nissan the desk lady was using as her personal car.

She lied about the car being full of petrol, it was not.

We asked for a GPS and all it was was a glorified phone.  She switched it on, the first didn't work but the second displayed a screen and that was enough for her to say it was set up and working.

You guessed it, another barefaced lie.

We put it in the car, switched it on, and it was in French.  She hadn't checked the language of the last user.

We took it back and she had the audacity to call us 'stupid', blaming us for breaking it, and then she couldn't fix it so she gave us another one which I'm sure she checked for English.

Question, if she could set these things up, why couldn't she instantly fix it.

Sorry, the woman was arrogant and very nasty, and not a good advertisement for Avis or the U.S.A as a place to visit.  I shall never use Avis in America again if she's the best they can put at the front desk.

Still seething from that encounter it was a good thing I wasn't driving.

I remember when I was writing Echoes From The Past I had a sequence of events starting in Lower Manhattan and ending up in Philadelphia.  In that narrative, I was not sure if the main character used the Lincoln tunnel, which, on this occasion, we did.

As it turned out the drive was reasonably accurate in that we also followed the i95 turnpike and a number of tolls along the way.  Unfortunately, our mode of transport was not quite as luxurious as my characters.

Once in Philadelphia, we managed to find the Swann Memorial Fountain at Logan Square

 and parked the car outside the Free Library. 

From there we walked to the city center, what some might call City Hall, a rather large and impressive stone structure, and then ended up at stop number six of the big bus tour.

Big bus tour

There are 27 stops of which we got on at 6 and got off at 1, managed by a miracle of fate to get back on at 1 and got off at 8 where our car was parked.  By then we were frozen solid.

But...

There's always an intervening adventure with our outings and the quest was to find the best place to have a Philly Cheese Steak.

Between stops 1 and 6 when we were not on the bus, we hailed a cab, deciding not to wander around the city looking for a Philly Cheese Steak place ourselves.

We had a side mission to the side mission and got the cab driver to take us back to the car so we could lengthen the parking time.  This done, he took us to what he believed was the best Philly Cheese Steak place.

It was a long and convoluted ride that showed us the real Philadelphia, where the citizens live, not the showpiece tourist attractions.

It was somewhere in little Italy. A place called Geno's steaks, a new and shiny restaurant where there was only seating outside.  Mid-afternoon, it was cold.

But were they the best Philly Cheese Steaks.  I'm not an expert so I don't really know.  What I do know is the cheesy steak in a roll was absolutely delicious.  Freshly cooked in front of you, the steak slices were still dripping juices as they were put on the roll with a layer of cheese and onions which you have to ask for.

And at ten dollars each, it turned out to be less than the cab fare to get there.

Of course being dropped in Little Italy in America on the 20th Anniversary of the Sopranos, conjured up too many nightmares to be walking the streets in the fading afternoon lights.

Two boys on bikes who looked like thugs in hoodies scared us into a cab and back to the bus stop to do the last eight stops before going home.

All in all, a very interesting if not at times scary adventure.

And...

As you would expect, the adventure didn't end there.  Since the Maple Leaf's were playing the New Jersey Devils at the Rock, otherwise known as Prudential Stadium, it was someone's bright idea we should go there and see if we could get some tickets.

We got there at 4 minutes to 6.  The door to the box office closed at 6.  We make it by four minutes, get the tickets for considerably less than those for at Scotia Stadium at Toronto, and went home happy.

Until...

We returned the car to Avis.  You see, if it doesn't come back full they charge you like wounded bulls for the petrol you didn't put in it, which because we couldn't find a petrol station on the New Jersey side, and the only Manhattan station was in the middle of a fuel delivery, so the eventual cost for the days hire was close to 300 dollars.

Not something I would do again without knowing all of the pitfalls, which I hope we now have covered.

Back at the hotel, all we had to do was figure out how we were going to get there on Thursday.  Public transport was the go so investigations would be necessary before then.