Freedom is a Cracked Bell

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I made it an early start again to get some photos of the skyline following the missed opportunity the night before. I found a point over the river near the Art Museum, with a glorious view once the sun came up.

By chance, I looked in the other direction and there was a fantastic view of some boat houses that were all outlined in lights - I'm not sure what the set-up is with those, but they looked stunning against the night sky.

The stunning view was contrasted with the shock of all the homeless people on the streets whist I was walking there and back. Literally every bench had someone sleeping on it.

Philadelphia used to be the capital of the US for about ten years between independence and the move to Washington D.C. It was also where the Declaration of Independence was written and signed, so it is of huge significance. I fact it almost came across as a pilgrimage for Americans. The historic area has been designated as the Independence National Park. We visited the Visitors' Centre, as you would expect, and then we went to see what is definitely the biggest attraction: the Liberty Bell. As a symbol of freedom and the American way it seems that this rivals even the Statue of Liberty in New York. There is a whole museum dedicated to this one item, which effectively houses the queue to have your picture taken with it.

One thing that makes the bell unique is the huge crack. Apparently it cracked the very first time is was rung and a number of attempts to fix it all failed.

Next to the Liberty Bell Centre is the shell of "The Presidents House", which is, urr, where the president lived for a few years before the White House. The house is no longer there and the site houses a series of exhibits concerning slavey, the associated injustices and the battles for its abolition.

There are a number of buildings and monuments related to the early history of America, including the National Constitution Centre (we skipped that as we have seen the actual constitution at the National Archive) and Independence Hall, which is the site of the drafting and signing of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

Next we walked down to the waterfront and the area known as Penn's Landing. Maybe we were in the wrong area, but it was completely underwhelming, out of keeping with the rest of this very pleasant city and just a nondescript, semi-industrialised harbour.

Before calling it a day we all walked back to the Art Museum as we had discovered that this is famous for its steps, for a rather unusual reason. They are the ones that Sylvester Stallone ran up in the first Rocky movie. We first noticed the statue of Rocky at the moment, which had a longer queue than the Liberty Bell for people to have their photograph taken with it. The other thing is the height of the steps. My vague memory of the movie was that these steps were extremely high, but in reality they were surprisingly short. Even I could run up them.

A water seller near by wasn't just selling ice-cold water like all the others we had seen, but he was selling ice-cold water like Rocky used to drink.

The route there is along a straight boulevard, with a road on each side of a long grass 'mall', effectively a much smaller version of the Washington National Mall. I can't help but wonder if it was the trial run for its larger D.C. cousin. Along the full length of what I will call the 'mini-mall' are many of the flags of the world, including the UK flag, but also the Scottish and Welsh flags, but outrageously not the English.

There had been a rule that no building in Philadelphia could be higher than the statue of Penn on top of the City Hall. This lasted for a while, but was broken 1980s when a series of high towers were built. One of them had an observation deck, which we thought about going up to, but decided against it in the end.

According to the news, it is all kicking-off in Boston at the moment, with protests and counter protests clashing over the symbols of the confederacy history. Slavery almost split the country in two all those years ago and it seems that it is all being resurrected again now. It's clearly a time for some strong and inspirational leadership so over to you Donald.

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Photos

Early Morning Philadelphia
View of central Philadelphia at sunrise.

Boat House Row
The boat houses all lit-up.

Liberty Bell
The Liberty Bell, complete with crack.

Rocky Steps
The infamous steps from the first Rocky movie.