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Published: June 11th 2009
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The Liberty Bell
The Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, with surprisingly few people around. Wednesday, 10 June (Philadelphia Day 1): Since it had stopped raining during the night and the forecast called for possible light showers in the late afternoon, we decided to spend the day in Philadelphia. After my 6:30am run to the distant Landhome Foods store for coffee, we drove to the nearest train station at Thorndale. It was probably only 10 or 15 miles away, but on narrow, winding roads. We parked our car in the “daily use” lost, paid the four quarters (no bills please!), and hopped aboard the train to Philadelphia’s Market Street Station near the Independence Hall Visitors Center. The round trip cost $12 each, but you can save a couple of dollars if you buy the ticket ahead of time… somewhere. The train took about an hour and a half, since it stopped at 10 or 15 stations and didn’t go that fast in between. Traffic wasn’t that bad in Philadelphia and parking was easy to find (although I didn’t notice the cost), so it might have been better (and cheaper) to drive. Hindsight and all that. Without the car, we didn’t get to Valley Forge or Washington Crossing Parks. We left the station and went to the
Independence Hall (Outside)
Independence Hall in Philadelphia, with the statue out front. Independence Hall Visitors Center where we picked up some good information. They had a neat touch console where you could view all sorts of local info (most with a map) you could look up and even print out… for free! One of the things we knew we wanted to see was the Liberty Bell, so we crossed the street and got in line. The line wasn’t that long and moved pretty quickly, even with the ever-present security check of bags like everywhere else nowadays. We’d seen the Liberty Bell before, but it was still pretty cool. You always imagine it being much larger that it is. Afterwards, we went to the next block to tour Independence Hall, but found out you have to get free tickets at the Visitors Center, so back we went. The next available tour time was 3:45pm, so being around lunch time, we decided to find a good place to get a famous philly cheesesteak and ended up at “By George” in the Reading Terminal Market. We both ordered a cheesesteak with mushrooms, sat at a table just outside and discovered our mistake. We should have ordered just one for the two of us, since we
By Georges
J.C. waiting for our Philly Cheesesteaks at By George's in the Reading Market Terminal. finished one and barely had room for an apple fritter from an Amish bakery in the market. Reading Terminal Market is gigantic, with mostly food places where you can find almost any kind of food imaginable. After lunch, we went to the Betsy Ross House for a tour. The self-guided tour costs only $3 each and wasn’t bad. If you have kids, they have folks in period dress that tell interesting stories. With some time yet before our tour of Independence Hall, we strolled down to Penn Landing and back. Quite a few years ago, we’d taken the Independence Hall tour with two of our girls, but since it was free (and a vague memory at my advanced age of 57), we figured we’d do it again. The tour was quite informative and took about 30 minutes or so. Leaving Independence Hall, we sort of needed coffee, so after asking a guard where to go, we got our coffees and sat at an outdoor table to consider our options. It was already past 4:30pm and probably all of the other places we’d like to visit were either closed or closing, combined with discovering an express train to Thorndale left at
Philly Cheesesteak
The Philly Cheesestead, with mushrooms, we got at By George's in the Reading Terminal Market. 5:03pm, we opted to return to our car in Thorndale. The express train took only an hour instead of an hour and a half, so we returned to our car soon after six. We’d considered checking out the King of Prussia Mall (the largest in the United States), but figured it wasn’t worth the trip or time, so back to the KOA. For dinner, we finished the other cheesesteak.
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