the last stop on the dutch tour of america was philadelphia.
home of the declaration of
independence and the constitution. this was also the site of one of my travel planning glitches... i thought i had reserved tickets to see independence hall... but, when we got to the ticket counter, no record of reservations, and i couldnt find the confirmation email... so, no tour of independence hall, right? well, close, after 5pm, they allow people without tickets to do a quick tour of the building... about 30 minutes in line for a 10 minute look... so, that beats however long the early morning lines are to go in... the best bet is still booking them online ahead of time. didn't go into see the liberty bell either... its a bell. and the line is long. i
nstead, i walked by at like 8pm, and it was empty, and light up and you could see it from outside... so, that was cool.
some of the other things we saw were the city hall building, with a giant statue of william penn perched above it... funny thing is, this william penn was a quaker... but his father was a famous british admiral who had fought the dutch. in front of the city hall, or behind, depending on which way you're facing, you can see a few equestr
ian statues of several civil war yankee generals
...
we went to reading terminal market... it was interesting, very crowded... mostly with tourists... there were a few amish people working the stands...
we also saw some of the local art... the love statue, with lots of high school/college aged girls posing in front of it... and then t
he rocky statue with lots of everyb
ody posing around it...
philadelphia is an interesting city... quite the contrast to dc. i like philly, it has some grandiose bits, some good food, and its kind of gritty.
home of the declaration of 
independence and the constitution. this was also the site of one of my travel planning glitches... i thought i had reserved tickets to see independence hall... but, when we got to the ticket counter, no record of reservations, and i couldnt find the confirmation email... so, no tour of independence hall, right? well, close, after 5pm, they allow people without tickets to do a quick tour of the building... about 30 minutes in line for a 10 minute look... so, that beats however long the early morning lines are to go in... the best bet is still booking them online ahead of time. didn't go into see the liberty bell either... its a bell. and the line is long. i
nstead, i walked by at like 8pm, and it was empty, and light up and you could see it from outside... so, that was cool.
some of the other things we saw were the city hall building, with a giant statue of william penn perched above it... funny thing is, this william penn was a quaker... but his father was a famous british admiral who had fought the dutch. in front of the city hall, or behind, depending on which way you're facing, you can see a few equestr
ian statues of several civil war yankee generals
...
we went to reading terminal market... it was interesting, very crowded... mostly with tourists... there were a few amish people working the stands...
we also saw some of the local art... the love statue, with lots of high school/college aged girls posing in front of it... and then t
he rocky statue with lots of everyb
ody posing around it...
philadelphia is an interesting city... quite the contrast to dc. i like philly, it has some grandiose bits, some good food, and its kind of gritty.
