Blogs from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, North America

This blog will be super short with no photographs. Our staging information was super-secret…. So if we to tell you about it, we would have to kill ya! Just kidding. The staging consisted of paperwork, motivation and building rapport between volunteers. We did group skits and obtained valuable information about the PC (yes, we are down to initials) and Morocco from very enthusiastic and knowledgeable people. Morocco sounds fantastic, mystical and challenging. (All of which we knew already… but this was reinforced with gusto!) After the initial meet and greet, we broke up into two groups of about 50. So, after an ice-breaker exercise with all 100 volunteers, we got to know about 50 people much better. How? The group shared its anxieties and aspirations and did a lot of laughing. The bottom line of staging ... read more

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Debbie was more mobile today so, after breakfast, she set off to the Visitor Centre and to see Independence Hall, etc. As I had seen these on Monday, I went to the Mütter Museum. This was a medical collection within the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and consisted of lots of skulls, skeletons, bones, pictures and all sorts of things in bottles and jars depicting particular medical conditions and injuries. It was very interesting but not for those with a weak stomach. The museum shop had some very bizarre things to buy indeed. After the museum, I walked down to Reading Market which is a huge undercover market of food stalls where people come to sell their products. The Pennsylvania Amish have several stalls of products and there are jams, honeys, olive oils, meat, seafood, cheeses ... read more

Today was a beautiful warm sunny day in Philadelphia so I took the opportunity to walk around the city whilst Debbie stayed in with her foot iced. I left the hotel and walked down Locust Street to Washington Square and then into Independence Square before going to the Visitor Centre to book some tours. I walked through the Christ Church Burial Ground and saw the graves of Benjamin Franklin and Francis Hopkinson (who signed the Declaration of Independence and designed the US flag). Next, I did a tour of Independence Hall which included the old Supreme Court, Independence Hall (where the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution were signed in the Assembly Room on 2/8/76 and 17/9/87 respectively) and Congress Hall (housing the House of Representatives and the Senate). After this, I walked through the Liberty ... read more

18th Sept ’12 York to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Today it was raining!! We were driving through the Amish farm lands of Pennsylvania and had intended to do Aaron and Jessica’s buggy ride but by the time we reached the farm it was tanking down and a buggy ride didn’t sound as much fun! We did spot a few buggies around and about and lots of Witness style barns but it just wasn’t the same in the rain. So we carried on along a very complex route to get to Philadelphia Airport. At one point it was raining so hard you couldn’t see the road at all which was a bit hairy! However it eased off to a mild torrent and we made it to the motel ok. 19th September ’12 Philadelphia After we checked out of the ... read more