Philadelphia and Washington DC: September 14 - 17th, 2016

The journey out of New York City gave us our first experience of the trip with something we were a little dubious about, the Greyhound Bus network. After much pre-trip deliberation (Holly had previously sworn to never ride a Greyhound again) we had elected to use the bus for some of our shorter city to city trips. The price savings over flying were huge in some instances and with a trip as long as ours every dollar mattered!

We had a nice two hour trip between NYC and Philadelphia to ease ourselves in and to be honest, we were pleasantly surprised by our first experience. The bus dropped us in downtown Philadelphia between Chinatown and Market Street where we sat in Starbucks for a while and planned out the details of our stay. We only had two nights and one full day in the city and made a whirlwind stop on our way down the East Coast. Neither of us had much prior knowledge of the city, aside from it being the home of the Liberty Bell, the setting for Rocky and also the TV show ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’. So we decided the best way to maximise our time was to utilise the Big Bus hop on/hop off for the day.

We then caught a taxi to our AirBNB accommodation in the northern suburbs of the city, where our taxi driver told us it was the perfect place to get the 'real' Philly experience (whatever that means!) During the taxi ride we saw plenty that got us excited for our day of exploring. We found a small local bar for dinner and sampled some local craft ale while watching a baseball game on the TV with some very passionate locals.

The next morning we woke early to catch the first bus of the day and headed to downtown. First stop was the amazing and huge Philadelphia City Hall. For fourteen years from 1894, this building held the record as the tallest in the world and proudly at its peak, stood an 11m statue of William Penn the original city founder.

This statue was the subject of a popular myth amongst the city. There had been a gentleman’s agreement in place that no building in the city should be raised higher than Penn, an agreement that was broken in 1987. This brought about a 20 year drought for all of the cities sporting teams, only broken when a tiny statue of Penn was affixed to the top of the offending building. The Philadelphia Phillies promptly went on to win the World Series the next year! Philadelphia as a city was founded in 1682 and Penn had put some solid thought and organisation in to his designs for the city. The majority of which are still being followed to this day!

The city hall is located in what was originally the very centre of the city, with the surrounding streets all set at right angles, creating perfectly symmetrical blocks. This meant the city hall could be seen from miles away along the two central main streets that intersected perfectly right in the middle courtyard of the hall. Around the city hall were many other historical buildings but more interesting to us, were some of the new additions. There was a giant chessboard set up across one street, with oversized pieces from many famous board games (monopoly, chess, checkers) strewn across. Another sculpture of note was what appeared to be a giant clothes peg. On closer examination this was a sculpture by artist Claes Oldenburg entitled the 'clothespin' which in silhouette actually resembled two lovers embracing.

We left city hall and headed along Market Street to the city's most famous attraction, the Liberty Bell. The bell was housed in the remains of George Washington's Philadelphia residence, where he presided over the United States as Washington DC was being constructed. The bell has become an icon for many causes and protests over the years but it is best known for being rung in 1776 to commemorate the signing and reading of the Declaration of Independence. The liberty bell can no longer be rung – it famously cracked in 1752 on a ‘test ring’, was subsequently repaired and cracked once more in 1835 and was retired as an active bell. Security today is quite strong around the liberty bell because, as we learned, some years earlier a tourist had struck the bell with a hammer as he wanted to hear what it sounded like!

We left the centre area of town and moved on down the iconic Broad Street. Many important buildings lined the sides of the street including the Academy of Music, the University of the Arts and the Wilma Theatre. Also along each side of the pavement were plaques dedicated to famous Philadelphian musicians, incorporating such famous names as Hall and Oates, The Roots, Boyz II Men and of course, Will Smith.
Along the way we took a small detour to have a couple of local brews at an interesting little corner bar called Dirty Franks. As decor on the exterior walls of the buildings, there were portraits of many famous ‘Franks’ including: Benjamin Franklin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Frank Sinatra, Frank Oz, Pope Francis and with a little more liberty Frankenstein’s monster and a frankfurter! The day of course would also not have been complete without sampling a local delicacy, the Philly Cheesesteak! Delicious!

We hopped back on to the bus for some more sights around town and got off at one of the locations we had most been looking forward to, the Rocky Steps. These steps are the entry point to the Philadelphia Art Museum and were made famous in the original Rocky movie where Sylvester Stallone completes his montage across the city by standing triumphantly at the top of the flight. We were not the only people there to attempt to re-enact this moment as we found the steps filled with people performing a whole range of variations of Rocky poses, as well as the locals who were following in Rocky’s footsteps by jogging up and down the 72 stairs.

In close vicinity was  also a life sized statue of Rocky with arms raised overhead which was commissioned and dedicated to the city by Sly Stallone himself. We learned that this statue had originally sat at the top of the stairs until the Art Museum decided to have it removed and placed several kilometres away uptown. To their dismay however, they quickly found out that many people were only coming to the area to specifically see this very statue! Conveniently the statue was quickly moved to a new location right next to the steps where it still stands today.

The light was beginning to fade but we still had time for one last stop, the infamous East State Penitentiary. Unfortunately we were too late to be able to do a tour of the building but the exterior was very impressive in itself, particularly the two giant stone gargoyles looming over the main entrance. These gargoyles were more recent additions, added as the facility made the transition from working prison to tourist hotspot, and had the bonus effect of blowing steam from their mouths and noses every few minutes. The penitentiary itself had closed as a working prison in 1971, but is a popular ghost hunters spot due to the many stories and myths about torture and prisoner mistreatment during its active years.

   


Fully satisfied with the sights seen we headed back to our accommodation and got ourselves rested up for another Greyhound trip the next morning. On this day our destination was Washington DC, which came after another smallish trip of about 4 hours. We arrived in to the transport hub at about 5pm and walked the 3km north to our AirBNB. It was certainly a nice surprise to have home baked cookies waiting for us when we got there!

Again our time in the city was limited so we had a busy schedule ahead of us. After enjoying our Big Bus tour and guides full of knowledge and character in Philadelphia, we decided to take the same approach in DC. Having minimal time meant that we had to make the hard choice of not seeing any museums – we had heard the quality was high, but we also felt that we would double up on what we had seen on some of our previous stops. (One museum that did look very interesting was the new African-American History Museum that was due to officially be opened by President Obama in a couple of weeks time. It was preview only on this particular day and the queues were right out the door!)

Our tour started at Union Station and we moved past such famous sights as the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument. We would have loved to have seen the view from the top but the ancient lift inside had broken down and the repairs were not scheduled to be completed for another 8 months! There was also a number of protests taking place in the lawns surrounding the monument – according to our guide this is an organised process with permits pre- approved. It also seemed to be quite a commonplace thing, with the locals walking past even the most gruesome and loudest of protesters without even sparing a glance.

We continued around the Southern side of the central reflecting pool and saw several monuments honouring famous historical Americans and past war victims. A couple of monuments that really stood out to me were the Vietnam War Memorial, which consisted of soldiers marching across a green space in a V formation and the hugely impressive, Martin Luther King Jnr Monument filled with powerful quotes from the man himself.

We jumped off the bus at the far end of the pool to see some of these monuments close up and ended up at the Lincoln Memorial which directly faces the Washington Monument from across the Reflecting Pool. It was quite surreal to be standing there on the steps in a place that is featured in so many memorable movies and TV shows, as well as being the location of some huge moments in history.

Like the Rocky Steps in Philly, the stairs were teeming with people - fellow tourists, school groups and even a protest choir who I assume had also booked their permit in advance. Even so, the statue of Lincoln was very impressive, especially with the words of the most famous portion of his Gettysburg Address carved up on the wall alongside of him. You know the one ‘four score and seven years ago....’ The view back over the Reflecting Pool to the Washington Monument and Capitol Building beyond, was also quite spectacular. DC was certainly another city built with an organised plan in mind, each of these central monuments lined up perfectly with one another creating a great sense of symmetry.
   
              

Next stop was the White House. It was under heavy security and because we hadn’t booked a tour 6 months in advance, we could only stand beyond the locked black gates and watch from a distance. Even so, the building was very impressive with sadly, no sign of the first family!

We hopped back on the bus for a trip across the Potomac River (and state border) in to Arlington, Virginia for some more iconic sights. First up was the Pentagon, the famous 5-sided building that serves as the United States head of the military. Unfortunately from ground level it was impossible to get a feel for the uniquely shaped building and to be honest it simply looked like an everyday run of the mill large scale office. Of more interest was the memorial dedicated to the 125 people who lost their lives in the events that occurred here on September 11.

The next site visited was the Arlington National Cemetery. A military cemetery established during the American Civil War. We had been hearing from our guide about the number of headstones and buried bodies, but nothing prepared us for the sight of literally thousands of identical white grave stoned rolling up and down the hills and far off in to the distance. This was only a tiny section of the cemetery too, in all it is the resting place of over 400,000 people.

Our last stop was a loop around the famous Marine Corps War Memorial. This huge statue was a replica of a photo taken during World War II at the battle of Iwo-Jima, where 6 men are in the process of raising an American flag atop Mount Suribachi. This photo became iconic and remembered as one of the most significant American images of the war.

An added bonus of utilising the Big Bus for our visit was that we received some complimentary tickets to the local branch of Madame Tussauds waxwork museum. This branch had a unique hall of presidents with every one of the 44 US presidents immortalised in wax. Other celebrity figures included George Clooney, Justin Bieber, Stephen Colbert and Rihanna. All in all it was a fun way to spend half an hour or so at the end of our day.

As the daylight was beginning to fade it was time to head back to our accommodation and get ourselves set for the next day. As we were catching a long distance overnight Greyhound we had chosen to book one that left DC at around 9pm in the evening. Luckily for us our excellent AirBNB host was happy to let us store our bags for the day while we continued to explore the city.

First up we chose to watch a couple of live Premier League games over breakfast, in a local sports bar. It was another cool place. It also had a large soccer supporters presence, however, it really started to fill up with local NFL fans as we were preparing to leave, due to the local team the Washington Redskins preparing to play.

Our final destination was a place we had seen from the bus the day before that had really peaked our interest – the International Spy Museum. This museum went through the history of the art of spying and the many techniques and methods that have been used throughout. There were several interactive exhibits and a fun challenge where each visitor was issued a cover identity complete with name, nationality, age, occupation etc., and were tested at the end to see how well we would fare in the spy industry.

The final exhibit was dedicated to the most famous spy in history, James Bond 007. There were many props and costumes from the entire history of the franchise, right from Sean Connery’s 1960 movie Dr No to the most recent Daniel Craig outings. All in all quite a fun place!

We finished up at the museum, picked up our bags and made the walk downtown back to the Greyhound station. There were many hours on the road ahead of us as we made our way to our next destination. We had really enjoyed our time on the East Coast, but it was time for a new challenge. The American Deep South!

Adrian.