Monday 29th September
Off to a flying start to beat the Monday morning Washington traffic. Travelled up to Philadelphia for a very quick look at this city with a population of 4.5 million. Took a wander down a quaint cobblestoned street – Elfreth’s Alley, which was really the size of a laneway. Lots of cute 2 storey houses with worn stone steps, colourful shutters and basements accessible via wooden doors on the footpath. I also got to have a look the Liberty Bell and the inscription “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All Inhabitants thereof”. Although this is not the first bell (which came from London in 1751 and cracked on it’s first ringing), the second bell (manufactured from the melted down metal of the original) eventually cracked some 90 years later, probably from continuous ringing. It occurred to me when I saw the bell that I have a miniature of the Liberty Bell and have had since I was a little girl. How curious!
The other thing I did in Philly was take myself off to Sonny’s for a famous Philly Steak Sandwich.
Next stop was Newark (pronounced New-ick) airport to deliver fellow travelers to their various flights and then we headed for Midtown New York and our hotel (The Sheraton) on 53rd Street and 7th Avenue. As soon as we were checked in Pat Best and I decided we should go exploring immediately. It was 3pm. What I was worried about was the impending bad weather forecast for the following day. So we walked down to Times Square to find the Empire State Building and took a ride to the top and walked around the Observation Deck. What a view of this huge city – 8.5 million people. We could see so much even though it was a bit hazy in the distance. The building has an incredible story. It is 103 stories, has 360 degree views and was built over a period of 14 months at a rate of 4.5 stories per week. It is an Art Deco wonder.
After the Empire State Building we checked out Macy’s (the store that supposedly invented The Sale), Times Square by night and found Toys R Us and saw the indoor Ferris wheel and more lego than I could ever dream about. I dropped into bed about 7 hours later.
