The path to Liberty
The hotel we stayed at in Lancaster was pretty popular with families as “Dutch Wonderland” amusement park is just across the road so we had to collect our breakfast bits and eat in our room as there were no spare tables – didn’t think Lancaster would be such a difficult place to have meals !
After a quick stop at Walmart, we made the relatively short drive to our next stop in Philadelphia. We parked in a parking station as it was too early to check in and headed for the Independence Hall area.
Our first stop nearby was to view the Liberty Bell which was once placed in the steeple of the Pennsylvania State House (now renamed Independence Hall). It was commissioned in 1751 by the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly and was cast with the lettering “Proclaim LIBERTY Throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof”. The bell first cracked when rung after its arrival in Philadelphia.
We walked a bit further down the street to find the grave of Benjamin Franklin – one of the Founding Fathers of the United States – amongst other things of course ! Franklin had arrived in Philadelphia at the age of 17 to start a new life.
We were a bit early for our tour at Independence Hall so we set out to find another iconic artifact of a visit to Philadelphia – a Philly Cheesesteak. We queued with a bus group of German tourists to order our cheesesteaks and were not disappointed !
We then did our tour of Independence Hall. It had been the Pennsylvania State House originally when it was built in 1753 and when Pennsylvania was the original capital of the state. It is famous as the location of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and then the United States Constitution in 1787.
We then went back to the get the car and drive to our hotel further downtown. After dropping our luggage we did a walk around some of the city nearby and visited the famous Reading Terminal Market Hall which was built in 1893 under the elevated train shed. It is full of market stalls and a popular place on Sunday afternoon !
For dinner we were taking no chances and made a booking. We went to the nearby Iron Mill Brewery where we had another nice dinner and watched the finish of one of the Sunday NFL games – the Packers v the Buccaneers.
Now, on to New York