Blogs from Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, North America - page 2

After breakfast replied to mails and updated travel blog...my routine every morning. It has been raining non stop since Saturday night. Left at 11:30am and drove for more than an hour to Sabrina's Cafe. Lot of people were waiting in that small crowded restaurant and we also had to wait in spite of making reservations. They call out names from the reservation list as soon as there is a table to accomodate us. After brunch drove around downtown. Did a small city tour by car in the rain. Camcost where there was supposed to be a huge screen of 2000sq.ft. showing the history of Philadelphia was closed. Saw City Hall, which is the center of government, Logan's Square with the lovely fountain in the center, the dockyard with many ships..some of them warships. Also saw the ... read more

Right now, I'm sitting on a Peter Pan (Greyhound) bus with 14 other passengers on the way to NYC. The tickets were $5 each for an 'express' route, which didn't mean anything to me when I booked it other than it was shorter. In fact, the previous Greyhound experience was also on an express ticket and I would consider it less than par. This express ticket, however, entitled us to personalized boarding, no waiting line, and an instant upgrade in customer service (even from the same person after she found out we were on the express bus. The bus is nicer than most coach airline sections, and we get wifi and regular 120V outlets. How they make money from 15 passengers when our tickets cost less than half of what the Westin charges for basic internet ... read more

We woke up starving and we carbo loaded. Between the five of us, we ate 2 bowls of oatmeal, 2 waffles, 4 muffins, 3 donuts, 3 bananas, and 2 oranges. Thank you Comfort Inn for the continental breakfast! Good thing because we had more walking to do today. After hiking the 4 flights of stairs to Market Street (the main street through the historic section of Philly) and putting on some sunscreen, we walked towards historic Philadelpia. First, we saw the Liberty Bell which was surprisingly smaller than both of us imagined. The girls seem to just soak up historical facts--Brecklyn in particular will stop to tell us random bits of trivia from the cracks in the bell to how the Wright Brothers flew their plane (from a lecture at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum ... read more

Hello to all of you who have held on despite the technological problems from YahooTravel and our own WiFi problems, Where were we? Oh, I remember, we were in Massachusetts--we are now in Philadelphia. Perhaps I can remember by starting at the beginning. We woke early on Wednesday which was easy because of the violent winds and not getting much sleep because of all the banging of shutters and blinds. We packed up early and left our 'home" on the Cape in search of 1) a car wash 2) a tank of gas 3) a tour of the Edward Gorey House Museum. Unfortunately/Fortunately we got to the Edward Gorey House 30 minutes before opening....so we snooped around. I think this must be a pastime in New England because there are so many fascinaintg and wierdo places ... read more

Day 179 (Thursday 15/10/09, NJJ) Depressed as it was still raining, the weather was dreadful. Drove in to Philadelphia. Passed through some really rough parts of town. Parked up in the historic downtown for an hour to wander. Saw the grave of Benjamin Franklin at Christ Church Burial ground. Went to the visitors centre for Independence National Historical Park and to the Liberty Bell Centre where we saw the bell. Saw Independence Hall from the outside. Had a wander around a mall out of town then on to Allentown for the night. We wasted two hours looking for a motel listed in the roomsaver booklet only to find that there was an error where two of the adverts were mixed and effectively invalidated the information. Finally checked in to a Knights Inn and went to Applebees ... read more