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Published: March 1st 2024
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Rocky rules Philadelphia!
The fictional boxer Rocky Balboa has come to be a bit of a symbol of Philadelphia Rocky Balboa rules Philadelphia! Does Art Garfunkel rule New York?
This blog entry covers the time we spent in Philadelphia and the days we spent in New York City. We start with Philadelphia.
Rocky Steps One of the most popular tourist destinations in Philadelphia is the stairs up to the main entrance of the
Philadelphia Museum of Art. These stairs are also known as the
Rocky Steps since they have been featured in the
Rocky movies.
To the side of the stairs there is a statue of Rocky. This statue was cast to be used in the movie Rocky III. In the movie it was placed at the top of the stairs. After the shooting of the movie was finished it was relocated to its current position.
In the movie the protagonist, the boxer
Rocky Balboa, during a training session runs up the steps and then finishes with a victory pose. That scene became so iconic that a constant stream of people visit the place and recreate the scene themselves. Of course we ran up the Rocky Steps. You kind of have to do that. It doesn't matter if you like the
Rocky pose
Ake doing the Rocky pose at the top of the Rocky Steps movies or not. It doesn't matter if you are a runner or not. You still kind of have to run up the Rocky Steps and do a victory pose at the top. Here is a video of Ake doing just that.
The scene when Rocky is running is so well known that they have named a Philadelphia footrace
Rocky Run. Their slogan is "Run Like Rocky".
Independence Hall The
Independence Hall is where the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Therefore it is an important building in the US history and also very important to most Americans.
Liberty Bell In a museum near the Independence Hall the
Liberty Bell is on display. The bell was originally placed in a steeple of the Independence Hall and according to Wikipedia it was "used to summon lawmakers to legislative sessions and to alert citizens about public meetings and proclamations." Today we know that the bell was poorly made because it has a large crack in it.
Elfreth's Alley Elfreth's Alley is a short street in Philadelphia that supposedly is the oldest continuously inhabited street in the
Rocky Steps
The stairs up to the main entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. These stairs are also known as the Rocky Steps since they have been featured in the Rocky movies. United States. People have lived there since 1703.
Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site In Philadelphia there is a house in which the author
Edgar Allen Poe once lived. Of all the houses Edgar Allen Poe ever lived in, it is believed that this is the only one that still exists today.
Hershey's first store When we walking down the streets of Philadelphia we stumbled upon a building in which Hershey Creamery Company apparently in 1876 opened its first store. We think it is a bit fun to find places like that.
Walnut Street Theatre The Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia was founded in 1809 and is the oldest operating theatre in the United States. On a sign outside the theatre they claim that it is "the oldest playhouse in continuous use in the English-speaking world". Well, Americans are not known to be humble so when we read that we had some doubts. We Googled it and we can safely say that there are other theatres that deserve that title at least just as much.
Philadelphia Chinese Lantern Festival Franklin Square is a park in Philadelphia. When we walked
Rocky statue
To the side of the Rocky Steps there is a statue of Rocky. past that park we noticed that it was extensively decorated. After looking around for a while we learnt that the decorations were there because they held the Philadelphia Chinese Lantern Festival in the park. Are the decorations interesting or just plastic rubbish? Well, you can look at the pictures and decide for yourself.
The Mütter Museum In Philadelphia we also visited the
Mütter Museum, a medical and anatomy museum. Many of the items on display in the museum can be quite disturbing and stomach churning. Items on display specifically worth mentioning are pieces of Albert Einstein's brain and conjoined internal organs taken from Chang and Eng Bunker.
The city centre The city centre in Philadelphia is well worth walking around in for a while. Notable buildings and other structures that we saw there include
=>
The city hall - a very impressive building
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Parkway Central Library - another impressive building
=> The Love Sculpture and the Amor Sculpture - silly sculptures put there only for people to take photos of them.
=>
The Thinker - The Thinker is a famous sculpture by Auguste Rodin. A copy of this sculpture can be seen outside
Plaque on the Rocky statue
"It's not how hard you hit, it's how hard you can 'get' hit and keep moving forward - That's how winning is done..." the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia
There you had the most essential things we saw in Philadelphia. We also spent a few days in New York City. We did very little traditional sightseeing then. But we managed to squeeze in some in between browsing our favourite book stores, revisiting some favourite neighbourhoods and just enjoying being in one of our favourite cities in the world.
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Little Island at Pier 55: A park built on an artificial island in the Hudson River.
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The Stonewall Inn: A gay bar in Greenwich Village. The Stonewall riots in 1969 marked the beginning of the gay liberation movement and paved way for modern gay rights.
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Apollo theatre: Legendary theatre in Harlem.
=>
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: When we walked by we had to take a photo of the building. See the picture and you will understand why.
=> 90 Bedford Street, Greenwich Village: In the TV series
Friends the main characters live in this building
=> 152-156 East 81st Street: Just for the fun of it we checked out where
Madonna lives. We think we caught a glimpse of Madonna while we were there. We saw a woman entering the house and
Rocky Run
The scene when Rocky is running is so well known that they have named a Philadelphia footrace Rocky Run. Their slogan is "Run Like Rocky". a guy who arrived there with her remained standing on the sidewalk. While standing there he was constantly scanning the street. We did not ask him if it was Madonna who went into the house or not. He did not look like he would appreciate that question.
=> 9 East 79th Street: Looking for Madonna's home was fun. To locate where
Art Garfunkel lives was better. We think Art Garfunkel is much cooler than Madonna.
As we said, we didn't do much sightseeing in New York. If you want to read about sightseeing in the Big Apple we instead refer to blogs we wrote after our visits there in
2008,
2010,
2011,
2014 and
one more from 2014. By the way, the second blog from 2014 actually has a Rocky reference in it.
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Rainyb
Lorraine Brecht
Thanks for sharing!