Day 127 Philadelphia Pennsylvania
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
134
205
Trip End
Nov 22, 2008
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania,
United States
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Another day another State, we managed an early breakfast to enable us to be on the door step early at the service centre to have our Castle Serviced. We arrived at around 8:10 at the service centre and waited until someone opened the shop around 8:20am.
We found out the service was only going to take around half an hour so figured we would wait, it gave us a few more options out the other end of the day. (The service centre closed at 5pm, this would mean being back in time to pick The Castle)
This done we set our good friend Mandy to direct us to the Rail station, recommended by the receptionist at the RV park.
We were directed to take a freeway, but our view of the overhead freeway and the apparent parking lot, we re-directed our good friend to choose an alternate route. This done, took us through suburbia at a slower pace but we found the rail station.
Plenty of parking even for a vehicle the size of The Castle, BUT, it was behind a barrier and we required a ticket to lift the barrier, only $1 for the parking but no good unless you have the magick ticket! Karon asked a woman about the ticket (she was carrying one in her hand) and was directed into the rail ticket machine. She was fortunate enough to be told if you wait until 10am they lift the barriers OR go to the far end and it is free parking.
We drove around to the "far End" and found the parking and managed to "fit between four lines (a sign indicated that they book people for "not staying between the lines")
Head into buy our tickets and Earnie checked with the police about "staying between the lines" and we were given the nod it was ok for RV's
The train was not long in coming and the trip in was only about 20mins and we had crossed the Delaware River from New Jersey into Pennsylvania.
We hop off and head to the visitors centre to obtain a map, and get some idea about the best way to visit this city.
Again the "big Bus" won the order of the day, after a coffee in the visitors centre we headed around the corner to grab the bus.
The trip around is approximately 2 hours with 20 stops, our first guide (Christina) was very informative and described the history, sites and buildings extremely well, (it makes a big difference on this type of tour, later in the day we caught the bus again with a different guide and travelled the same route for around 5 or so stops to obtain not as much information and a different perspective of the buildings.) Makes life interesting and highlights the point, that everyone sees things slightly different.
We stopped off at a food court type area, it once was a rail station and has been converted to various lunch food sections and fresh food, including fish, fresh vegetables, bakery, ice cream as well as an Amish farm produce outlet.
Rick had to try a Philly Steak, (fresh thin slices of steak cooked on a barby, with onion & cheese) the other two travellers found a fresh self serve area where you paid by the weight of food in your container.
Lunch done and head to catch the Big Bus again, this time we headed to the Old Pennsylvania Penitentiary.
The Original Joan of Arc Sculpture
This was the first of a new system built back in the 1800's and was a completely new system of housing inmates. The system was designed as a solitary confinement system with every prisoner having their own cell and being locked up for 23 hours per day. It was a system and design that was copied and adopted by many states and countries.We had arrived in time to listen to the "escapes from the Penitentiary" tour, a guide explained about the early escapes and the various attempts to escape, including one done by a tunnel under the corner and to the outside. Of the 100 escapee's only one was never recaptured and returned, the storey goes (fact or fiction we will never know) he was most likely killed by the other 4 fellow escapee's he escaped with at the time. None of them admitted to killing him, but it appears it might be convenient for the authorities to keep the storey alive.
We took our time to view this historic site and with the audio self guided tour, we enjoyed viewing and learning the history of this place to do, "penance" hence the name "penitentiary"
We came out of there doubly convinced we are better off not having a real life experience of this type of journey.
We caught the bus back to town after a wait of about 15-20mins hopefully in time to visit the actual Liberty Bell, held in a National park area but free to view.
We arrived back at 5:05pm and this city shuts down at 5pm, oh dear! But there is a window viewing area we could view the Bell through and figured that would be fine.
The Rocky Steps
Let us head to the shopping mall over the road for a coffee before we head back to the train! We mentioned just a few lines ago, this place shuts at 5pm, we walked into the small mall to find most shops shut and a couple of souvenir shops open, but grab this! The only coffee outlet in the centre was an Island server that was already closed!Ok we get the message, time to vacate the city, we head back to the train and no big deal, hop on a train within five minutes, The Castle was still ok and where we left it, so we piled on board and headed back to the RV park.
We found this city to be the most pleasant of the big cities we have visited so far.
We had a visit from our newly made friends (Owen & Bev) tonight they have caught up with us in the same park, it is great to meet wonderful people along the way and we have a lot in common.
Owen has sent a photo of our night out on the 6th at Bubba Gump's in Times Square, Owen also handed over a note from the girls from the restaurant for Rick, Owen & Bev returned the following evening to Bubbas and the girls recalled our visit. All a lot of fun. We will try to post the photo of this night out in New York later.
