Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Philadelphia

  • Philadelphia – Liberty Bell

    Liberty Bell is one of the best known symbols of freedom in the country, although it hasn’t been the most successful bell ever made. Back in 1751 the Province of Pennsylvania decided that they’d quite like a bell for their new bell tower they were having added to their state house.

    The city thought it’d like quite a nice bell, one which made a decent noise, so they spent £150 ordering one from Lester and Pack of London. The city’s new bell arrived in 1752 and although the bell tower wasn’t finished, they thought they’d put the bell on a platform to try it out. To cut a long story short, they broke it. Lester and Pack said there was a crack in it because it wasn’t rung correctly, whereas the city really just wanted their money back so they had a decent bell and not a rickety one.

    However, being pragmatic, and primarily since the ship owner wouldn’t traipse this bell back again to London, the city found two local handymen to recast the bell. This was another bloody disaster, the first attempt of fixing the new bell sounded ridiculous when they rang it and then they botched the second repair. The city just gave up and bought a new bell and used that as the bell tower clock. That new bell incidentally was later caught up in a church fire, well riot, and had to be recast.

    But the original bell was shoved into the Assembly House and sort of used occasionally. Rumour has it that it sounded during the Declaration of Independence, although this is just a guess. Then the bell split during the early nineteenth century, although it’s not entirely clear when it split, so that was covered up well. Incidentally, the two local handymen also put cheap pewter into the bell when they recast it, which didn’t help its strength.

    So, moving to the late nineteenth century, by which time the bell had become synonymous with liberty and freedom. So much so that the bell went on tour across the United States, to allow as many people as possible to see it. Much of this was in keeping with the values of liberty and freedom, as it was hoped that the bell could help unify the country after the bitter American Civil War.

    The moving about of the bell across the country was very popular. The city liked how popular their bell was, but they were less pleased to discover that people keep chipping bits off of it. The bell lost 1% of its weight, and it was so easy to chip as the two local handymen had sneaked in cheap materials.

    The damage to the bell meant that the city authorities didn’t want it transported about any more, so it returned home to Philadelphia permanently. In 1948, the bell was moved to Independence Hall and it has since been moved to a new dedicated centre over the road. And here it remains on display.

    Two decorative items from the late nineteenth century, made from bits of the bell that some hooligan had chipped off.

    And here’s the bell in all its beauty. It wasn’t too long a queue to see the bell, the main delay is the security process that visitors have to go through. It was certainly nice to see the bell up close and the museum told the story of the bell and its meaning in an interesting manner.

  • Philadelphia – One Liberty Observation Deck

    Included in the Philadelphia Pass is an observation deck at One Liberty Place. The observation deck, located on the 57th floor at 883 feet high, opened in 2016 after renovations were made to the space. The deck is entirely enclosed and was much quieter than I had anticipated, given how busy other tourist sites were in the city.

    Some feet at the base of the tower.

    The feet make more sense after getting to the top, it’s Benjamin Franklin. He apparently has size 96 feet….. My pass allowed me to go up to the top of the tower twice over two days, but I only went up once, although if I didn’t need to get a bus back I’d have liked to have gone up in the evening as well to get a different perspective of the city.

    And some views from the top…..

  • Philadelphia – PATCO (Follow Me)

    PATCO Speedline is the rail line which connects Philadelphia with New Jersey, more of which I’ll get round to writing about at some random point in the future. I’ve had problems with uploading photos due to sluggish wi-fi, so I’m already getting hopelessly behind writing about what I wanted to.

    Anyway, today I used the Speedline (what a wonderful name for a rail service) for the final time on this trip to get back into the centre of Philadelphia, as I’d been staying in New Jersey for reasons of accommodation affordability. I used my paper ticket to get through the barriers, as with other trips, and the bloody thing didn’t work. My faffing about and trying it in different machines meant that time had passed and every other passenger had gone through and I was stuck the wrong side of the barrier with no staff members visible.

    Just as I thought I might have to live at the station for ever (OK, so an exaggeration, but until the next train at least) a man came slowly up the stairs. He saw me looking irritated at the machine and he called over “you’re not from Philadelphia are you?”. He explained that he had seen me not follow another passenger through when they went through the barriers.

    He said:

    “There’s a saying here, you follow me, I follow you.”

    I assumed that he meant he’d follow me if he ever got trapped in the same way, rather than he was threatening to follow me once he’d got me out. So we both went through on his ticket and he welcomed me to Philadelphia (a lot of people have done that). And he didn’t follow me. Marvellous.

  • Philadelphia – Independence Hall (the Queue)

    A visit to Independence Hall is free of charge, but to get in it’s necessary to book a ticket on-line (with limited times available if booking close to the day) and pay a small booking fee or just turn up at the visitor centre at 08.30. I had arrived into Philadelphia early, so thought I’d go along at 08.10 to just wait in the queue. I was surprised it was this long at that stage, but by the time it was 08.30 there must have been 150 people in the queue. I liked that one of the rangers came down the queue offering maps and asking if we had any questions.

    Apparently tickets for the day are sometimes gone by 10 in the morning, although it’s usually sold out by around 11, and even then the tickets would only be available for the later tours. I just missed out on the 09.00 tour, but got a ticket for the 09.20 tour.

    The moral of the story really is to either get up really early or be organised and book on-line and pay the $1 free. For anyone who does want to wait in the queue, there is free wi-fi available which helped pass the time nicely.

  • Philadelphia – Independence Hall (Irrelevant Story)

    My posting the photo from Independence Hall made me remember another little incident from my visit (which I will get round to writing up properly). At the end of the second tour a rather loud Spaniard applauded the tour guide with a huge degree of enthusiasm. It didn’t feel like an applause moment, especially since the tour guide before hadn’t received one.

    I was standing next to this enthusiastic man and he prodded me. Being British, this greatly offended me so I stared at him, which again is my British way of showing my intense anger at him. Not that he got that hint, he said “come on, applaud”. Now, not only I was not applauding, nor was anyone else, so I wasn’t being out of place here. Applause moments should naturally be apparent in life.

    Verging on being livid at this uncouth behaviour in the home of American democracy I ignored him. This strategy failed so he asked me “why aren’t you applauding?”. I replied, quite grumpily, “I’m British, we don’t like creating a drama”. Now, saying this in Independence House was a bit ridiculous, as the British have created dramas all around the world for centuries and no more so than when the country ran the colonies.

    Anyway, my response got a round of applause from three people nearby, although I wasn’t trying to be humorous, I was trying to articulate my nation’s values. The Spanish man walked off and complained at some confused group of Americans that they should have applauded. I was then slightly irritated that I had a round of applause, as that was the outcome that I had been trying to avoid at the beginning. Oh, when I said confused group of Americans, I mean they were confused by him, they seemed perfectly sensible and clever people otherwise.

    I don’t know why I started on this story, I think it’s because I’m still irritated at being told to applaud.

  • Philadelphia – Independence Hall

    I didn’t really want this photo taken as I was quite happy with just taking pictures of Independence Hall (more on which in another post since it’s one of the most important historic locations in the United States and also a UNESCO World Heritage Site). Anyway, a lady said I’d like a reminder of my visit, which wasn’t particularly true as I don’t need to be in the photo to remember it.

    However, she was quite forthright, so I let her have my camera. Since there were three police officers standing near to her, I guessed that she wouldn’t steal it. She also didn’t look very agile, so it would have been a clumsy street robbery if I’m being honest. Not really wanting to be in the photo I walked as far away as possible, which seemed to slightly frustrate her and she said “you’re hardly in it”. That was obviously my plan, but I replied “oh dear” to make her feel better and I shuffled three inches forwards.

    So, here’s a photo of me. And Independence Hall.

  • Megabus (Boston to Philadelphia)

    That $1 advertised offer written all this bus, that’s what I paid, a bargain. Irritatingly, in the UK Megabus aren’t allowed to advertise their £1 fare because the advertising authority said it was misleading, even though they offer £1 fares. Madness. Anyway, that’s a different matter and I’m pleased I didn’t mention Brexit given that I’m writing about things written on buses.

    I decided to go from Boston to Philadelphia by Megabus not just because of that price, although that was a helpful factor. I like Megabus, they’re efficient and everything makes sense to me.

    Flixbus would have been shocked and appalled at the service offered by Megabus, as the bus was advertised as going from gate 25 in the bus station, it was signed as going from gate 25 in the bus station, there was a staff member reassuring people they were in the right place and the bus left from gate 25 in the bus station. Flixbus would have proudly left from some random stop perhaps vaguely in the same approximate area as where they said they would. Anyway, enough of my dislike of Flixbus.

    I said that I paid $1, but this is actually a lie, I accidentally booked seat 8 which cost me an extra $1. The reason for this is that the web-site was struggling when I booked it (mainly because they release all the $1 fares at the same time) and I remember just trying to get the ticket booked. This meant that I was near to the front of the bus though, which was about 80% occupied.

    There are two sets of steps, I was seated by the front set. The journey was uneventful, other than when the driver got lost for 45 minutes. She admitted she was lost and got a Megabus supervisor to get her back on track, but she otherwise did a great job and got us to Philadelphia just a little earlier than advertised.

    A lady near to me had booked three seats, but her son wanted to sit at the front. I liked this, as he was meant to be in seat seven next to me, and I thought that was a marvellous idea to send him somewhere else. So that was a win-win, although the guy who had paid to sit at the front seemed less pleased that he had a new seat companion. The seat next to me stayed free all the journey, so I was very pleased with the lady’s actions.

    And, one more story. When I was already boarded an initially pleasant woman wanted to pay cash to get the bus. However, Megabus don’t work like that, so the driver told her to book on-line. With two minutes until the bus left, this added some extra excitement into the arrangements, so half of the bus was really getting into this drama. I think I speak for the bus that we were disappointed when she got off and didn’t try and book as she said her phone didn’t work.

    We weren’t disappointed with how this drama progressed though, as she found someone with a phone in the terminal who would book her ticket using his card and she would pay him cash. The excitement was mounting now, the driver helpfully telling them that she would give this one go as she wanted to leave. The man agrees to give it one chance and tries to book the ticket. Anyway, he couldn’t as the bus had technically already left so the Megabus website wouldn’t let him book it.

    The woman made a final plea to give the driver cash as she needed to get the bus desperately. Not so desperately she didn’t book it before like everyone else, but I don’t judge. Well, I do, as did the woman opposite who was very excited by this late night turn of events. The outcome of this story is that the driver told the customer (not really a customer I suppose though) to get off the bus, so the customer swore and got off.

    And with that, the night bus was ready to go, about a 7 hour journey. I did get sleep, although there was a mid-way stop at a 24-hour McDonald’s. I didn’t get off, but I rather regretted that, as the woman with two kids bought half the restaurant and then promptly made me hungry with her bags of food. So, I went back to sleep in a mood.

    Also, I woke up to see the New York skyline, which I hadn’t expected as I didn’t think the bus would go that way, as it only had one stop at Syracuse before Philadelphia. It was beautiful to see the Freedom Tower at night, quite inspirational.

    As for whether I’d book Megabus in the US again, absolutely I would.