Morning all!
It certainly was interesting staying with Mike and Doria. They came back from their concert around 1am and so still were not out of bed when I had to leave this morning to head into town. I was worried about what to do with the key and front door - I didn't want to walk off and leave it open. I took my case downstairs and was just writing them a note when Mike heard me moving around downstairs and quickly rushed down. After some directions on how to get to Independence Hall, I left the house to start my uphill walk to where I parked the car. Doria managed to say goodbye as I went out the door. So I think that I got to spend about 20 minutes with them in total.
Drove into the city and parked underneath Independence Hall Visitor Centre. Expensive, but it meant that I could get around easily and then just drive straight out of the city when it was time to head to Pittsburgh. I queued up for my free tour tickets to Independence Hall and was given a 9:15 time.
I had to go through a security bag check at the side of the building before going and waiting for my tour. There was another tour at 9:00 that had space, so I managed to jump ahead. The tour guide gave us an overview that it was originally built as the capital building (state house). He discussed a brief review of the history and then took us to two groundfloor rooms. The first was where the supreme court was held. At the back of the room (where the black painting is now) was where the British coat of arms hung but this was pulled down by rioters after Independence and then dragged through the streets before being burned. Guess that was their subtle hint that they were no longer ruled by the Brits.
Then I went into the actual room where the Declaration of Independence was signed by the delegates of the 13 colonies on 4th July, 1776. The desk is where it was signed and it is the actual chair where George Washington sat. It is a lovely Georgian building. Behind it is where the Declaration was first read out to the public.
I then went and got in the queue to see the Liberty Bell. Thank goodness I went early as later on the queue was around the block! It is housed in the Liberty Bell centre which was set up to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Charter of Privileges (Pennsylvania's constitution, enacted in 1701 by William Penn).
The bell is made of bronze and weighs 2080lbs. It was made in the East End of London by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1751. The inscription reads: 'Proclaim liberty through all the land, to all the inhabitants thereof''. One little fact....Pennsylvania is spelt incorrectly on the bell...it only has one N on there.
The bell was secured in the belfry of the State House (now Independence Hall) and tolled (among other important occasions) on the first public reading of the Declaration in Independence Square. The bell became badly cracked in the 19th Century and finally became unusable in 1846 after tolling for George Washington's birthday.
As I only had a few hours here, I bought a ticket for the hop on-hop off bus. It meant that I could make my way around the city and see as much as possible in the shortest time. I saw lots of things...so here is a summary....
#Paddys pub - from the show "Things are always sunny in Philadelphia"
#Artwork - There are lots of little hidden gems of artwork throughout the entire city. It is also meant to be the birthplace of graffiti. I also loved the architecture of some of the older buildings
#Betsy Ross House - Betsy Griscom Ross sewed the first US flag. She was an upholsterer and seamstress. The flag consisted of 13 stars in a circle to represent the 13 colonies. She is buried on the grounds in a grave on the left.
#Friendship gate in Chinatown - 3rd biggest Chinatown in the US after San Francisco and New York.
#City Hall - finished in 1901, it is 548ft tall. It is the world's tallest masonry constructed building without a steel frame. There is a 27 tonne bronze statue of William Penn at the top of it.
However, I feel that there is a wee bit of a design fault with this statue as you drive away from it.....can you see what I mean???
The building on the left of this picture is the Verizon building. When built, as they are a telephone company, they designed it to look like the old phone jacks. Then an internet company came and decided to have a little joke with their competitors and built their skyscraper to look like a USB port to show that the old phones are obsolete.
#Logan's square - one of the original parks from Penn's design. It is surrounded by the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, the Free Library of Philadelphia and the Franklin Institute.
#Rodin museum - has the 'Gates of Hell' behind 'The Thinker'. Apparently lots of wedding/engagement pictures take place here in front of the gates that actually say 'abandon all hope, ye who enter here'. I thought that was pretty ironic.
#Fairmont Park - 9200 acre park dissected by the Schuylkill ("Hidden River"). It is actually the biggest park in the country. Lots of different activities happening, including lots of people getting their BBQs out!
#Rocky!!!!!! - I had a compete geeky moment and had my photo taken with the Champ!
#Philadelphia Museum of Art - or as I like to call it, the Rocky Steps. I did what any sane person would do...took a photo at the bottom, ran up them like Rocky himself and then took the victory photo at the top!
#Trinity Church - there are a lot of churches with this name so far on this trip, guess it's like Notre Dame for the French.
#colonial buildings - cute houses with their 3-way mirrors for seeing the tax man coming. Back in the day, you were taxed for every wall and every window so they built terraced housing and would use these mirrors to know when to close their shutters. The tax man couldn't tax windows that he couldn't see!! Clever beggars!
#Christ Church - George Washington and Benjamin Franklin worshipped here. Ben Franklin is buried in the corner of the cemetery. People come and flip a penny on his grave hoping to get good luck. The collection of pennies helps to maintain the grounds.
#Vietnam vets memorial
#Optical illusion - these three buildings are all exactly the same height, but due to their differing widths, it plays tricks with your eyes and so look to be shorter/taller.
#White House - these window frames show where the original White House stood. It was only moved during John Adams' term as President as they moved to get him away from the Yellow Fever spreading throughout the city.
#Musical finale - beautiful colonial style music in the visitors centre. There are also people dressed as Franklin and Washington as well as artists using styles from that era.
To finish the day, it was a 7.5 hour drive to Pittsburgh to meet my next host, Cindy. It should have been 5 hours but there was a lot of traffic and a couple of accidents along the way.
I met Cindy at a coffee shop near her home and then followed her in the car to her house on the hill. She had prepared dinner and invited a neighbour, Mark, around. We sat chatting and eating but eventually I had to say goodnight after such a long day travelling - knackered! I say chatting, but it was mainly Cindy talking AT us about climate change and how we are all doomed. She is certainly the 'hippy environmentalist artist' that I found her to be on her couchsurfing profile.
Oh well, enough craziness...sleep time.
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