elis' travel journal: ~ P h i l a d e l p h i a ~

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

~ P h i l a d e l p h i a ~

Sunday, August 27

Yesterday, on our day off, Michaela and I spent time in the largest city of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia, "the city of brotherly love"...

Although the weather wasn't that nice anymore yesterday- it was raining in the morning and the sky showed us its greyest grey ever- the day turned out to be okay (at least not too hot) for a city trip in the end and we enjoyed our time there a lot by making a little sight seeing tour by bus and strolling through some parts of the city.
As we didn't really know a lot about "Philly" before we got there, we didn't have any special plans about what to do or where to go, and just went by a tourist info folder we got. So we got to see the, said to be quite famous, Liberty Bell, the Love Park, the City Hall, walked in Walnut and Chestnut Street (shops, cafes, arts, etc.) and went shopping again... Well, I have to admit the shopping and eating part were not Philadelphia-like in particular (H&M, Mc Donald's...lol) but still very nice!

All in all, I have to say that the city is really likeable, the size is okay, and we noticed that there is a lot of "green" and that it is a quite tourist friendly place - providing lots of public maps and guides and a very cheap tour bus (4 $ for the whole day, to hop on/off at 20 different stops). What's more, I got the feeling that the Philly people are indeed friendly and helpful above average....Okay, only about 10 people took part in my critical survey, but I really felt they mean it. E.g. a very polite policeman concerned about us finding the right way back to our car, some hyper friendly and jolly bus drivers (not grumpy as usual), talkative photographers, random persons trying to help us find our way around etc. Maybe they are just seriously trying to live up to their motto about brotherly love??? Although I am wondering how they can stick to that... but hey, we're in the land of opportunity! (hmm, more appropriate in german in fact... > Land der unbegrenzten moeglichkeiten)

However, I don't really feel like I have to go back to that place too soon, not that I will miss anything! :-) But it was great to see it once... will have to watch the movie "Philadelphia" again now...

P.S.: no catastrophes this time - no breakdowns, no getting lost, etc...(except for the tour bus breakdown, lol) but we found the way and everything went smoothly ;-)

. . .and here are the pics: