Day 20

Ye Olde Historic Philadelphia

Although the view of the Ben Franklin bridge was amazing last night, the sound of the traffic was not.

We both woke up a bit wrecked today but after some breakie and blick coffee I was ready to take on the day and get stuck into some sightseeing. Since we were staying in a great spot, just a few blocks from 2nd Street, we started at Elfreths Avenue, which is the oldest street in the country to have continuous residents. Most of the houses standing date from between 1726 - 1836 but the street has been occupied since 1713.

Many Irish people lived here as well at the beginning of the 20th century. Paulo checks a list of residents to see if there is a mention of any Mullens.

We walked down 2nd Street and turned on to Arch Street to go to the Betsy Ross House.

There were lots of kids there and several renactments taking place. But we didn't really hang about long enough to know what they were about. We decided to make an exiteth on ye olde stage left.

This guy actually had ye olde bottle of beer in his little satchel that we spotted him taking a little nip from now and again. I suppose whatever helpeth you get through the day.

From ye olde gaff of Betsy Ross, we continued down Arch Street to the US Mint.

Across the street is the National Constitution Center.

During the stroll, Paulo took a slight offence to ye olde advertising and he leteth his feelings be known.

We continued walking down Arch Street to 5th, when Paulo decided it was time to stop for a dog.

After fueling up, we walked past the Independence Visitor Center, had a look at the Liberty Bell and went past the Independence National Historic Park.

The park contains buildings and sites where the fledging American Colonies grew into the United States. Independence Hall is where the Declaration of Independence was adopted in 1776 and the Constitution was drafted in 1787. The bell in the tower, which is now known as Liberty Bell, was rung on many important occasions like on July 8, 1776 when the Declaration was read in public for the first time.

Despite the heat we decided to walk down Market Street to have a look around. We past some funky shops and went all the way down to Penn Square and JFK Plaza. By now, we were both Hank so we ducked into the nearest place we could find - Quiznos Subs for a bite and a bit of respite from the heat.

We legged it back to the hotel and left Philadelphia around 3:00, going back exactly the same way we came - the PA turnpike past Lancaster. It may have been a longer way to our destination, Frederick MD but it was the only way to avoid the bitter traffic around Baltimore. We got off the turnpike in Gettysburg and headed south on 15 to Frederick to see my old college mate Brian and his family. When we arrived we sat down to a great meal prepared by Michele and then chatted over some glasses of Amish Milk Stoudt. We continued chatting for several hours and relaxed watching the film Easy Money - one of Bri's all time favourite films and a Rodney Dangerfield classic.