So once we had arrived and checked into our apartment (which was lovely by the way) we headed straight over to John F. Kennedy plaza, or as it's more commonly know, Love Park. For some reason I thought that the statue/sign/art was so much bigger. I seem to have this memory of people climbing in the 'O' of the image for photographs and whatnot. Regardless it's a fun statue, and there are lots of other pieces of art work similar near by. Just across the road is 'Board Game Art Park' where there are over sized monopoly pieces, giant chess pieces, and human sized dominoes. If only you could actually play a game with them, now that would be fun!
We spent a lot of time just wandering around the city and figuring out what to do and where to go. Philadelphia was without a doubt the city that we knew the least about so we had to do our research to make sure we did everything that we should we the short amount of time that we had there. After exhausting ourselves in the heat, we walked right down to the piers and sat and had a few drinks and some dinner which was lovely. The menu was really fun and there were lots of local beers to choose from which Danny enjoyed. And then after a long day of travelling and walking we settled into bed, with the aim to be as productive as possible come the morning.
Day two began with a visit to the Eastern State Penitentiary, which is a now closed prison which is falling to pieces, but back when it began it was pretty revolutionary. We did a little audio tour and learnt so so much in the short space of time we had to look around. The prisoners all lived in solitary confinement and had to be completely silent at all times - a bit different to prisons nowadays thats for sure. We also found out that America has the highest rate on incarceration at 700 in 100,000 people in prison as opposed to in the UK where it is just over 100 per 100,000. Some crazy numbers on that board! Next we went to Independence Hall and to the Liberty Bell. We went in there and took some pictures, and as we left, realised we knew absolutely nothing about the Liberty Bell other than that it is a symbol of American Independence. This trip certainly has been a learning curve.
We then took a walk over to Franklin Square and had some fun playing mini golf. It was a really cool course and we had a lot of laughs competing against each other. In the end it was a draw/Danny took pity on me and gave me extra points, but regardless, it's the taking part not the winning that counts hey! We then went to the US Mint in the hope of seeing some money being made, but unfortunately production had been closed down for the day. We got to see the factory and learn about the design process of each of the coins, which was pretty interesting. I saw a ring that had been made many years ago out of a half dollar coin by using just the man's hands and a spoon. It was awesome! I've asked Danny to give it a go so we shall see what becomes of that request. I haven't got high hopes, it is a rather tall order.
Dinner time was soon approaching so we began to make our way to the complete opposite end of the city to try what is supposedly Philadelphia's best philly cheesesteak. It was ok. I don't really know on a scale of 1 to 10 what makes a good cheesesteak, but to me it was just cheese in a can, squirted on some dry thinly shaved steak in a basic hot dog bun. I don't know, maybe I had hyped it up in my mind to be much better than it ever could be, but in reality it was pretty average. On the way back to the apartment we went past somewhere called the Magic Gardens. It's basically a series of winding mazes created using mirrors and glass and tiles to make a continuous mosaic. It looks incredible, really really captivating; and the idea just kind of continues throughout that area of the city. We also spotted another mural/art piece just around the corner from our apartment that we had to go and investigate. It was basically a crashed aeroplane statue that was a greenhouse. It was super weird and dark so I could not get a picture of the plants inside, but it's certainly an interesting concept. And that was that, Philadelphia was done and we were packing up ready for the last stop on our trip. Washington DC here we come...
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