11/06/2013

Short stop in Philadelphia

From NYC we headed south. We left Staten Island via another awfully expensive bridge and we drove on "95" towards Pennsylvania. We were on our way to Delaware, but we wanted to stop for a short while in the cradle of the American nation - Philadelphia.

Streets of Philadelphia
On the way we entered "garden state" again - New Jersey. It's supposed to be a very beautiful state but not many people really know that. Everyone passes through on "95" that runs along western border and nobody takes off towards Atlantic ocean. They say it's really  nice there. But our memories, as those of millions other passers-by, from New Jersey will be limited to the highway - with its closed lanes due to some road works, going through industrial or pretty much indistinct counties of NJ.

We reached Philadelphia pretty quickly even though we left "95" for a while to get some gas (New Jersey compared to surrounding states has very good gas prices and we almost didn't get lost looking for a gas station). According to google it was 1.5 hours , it took us a bit over two. We left the car few blocks from historic center as we didn't want to risk parking on the streets (we found large, cheap parking thanks to one of apps on our phone) so we ended up seeing more than we wanted to.


The touristy part is elegant and pretty, but our way there was a proof that Philadelphia is not at its best. On one of the main streets instead of expensive boutiques we've seen mostly second-hand shops and K-mart store. But that was no surprise, considering that looking for a cheap parking we found ourselves in a cheap district. And it's still a big American city, not quite following Detroit yet, so at least those cheap shops were on ground floor of beautiful houses and well maintained skyscrapers.

After all we reached our destination. Visitors center in National Independence Park was as usually great, ranger gave us all the information we needed, but, as our time was very limited, we decided to keep our sightseeing to a minimum. As usuall, maybe if we had left New York City earlier we would have had more time for Philadelphia.

We reached National Independence Park going through Town Hall. Built in the beginning of the last century 167-meter-tall building was at some point the tallest in the world. And for over 80 years it was the tallest building in Philadelphia. And today is still the world's tallest inhabited masonry building.

Ratusz
It was city's creator, William Penn, who decided where Town Hall would be built. It was designed in the Second Empire style, which, as we know now, after visiting Philadelphia, we're not very keen of. Building has jus to many details, unproportionally tall tower with Penn's statue on top. What's more in its gates and on its courtyard you can feel and see that maybe Philadelphia is after its worst (in 80s it felt to the bottom) but still it didn't go back to its best.

In National Independence Park we spent an hour or so. City was getting ready for Independence Day celebration. Some buildings were fenced with barriers, there was lots of police on the streets.

Independence Hall
Independence Hall, where Declaration of Independence was signed, was closed to visitors. We could walk around it but we didn't have enough time. But we have to admit that you can feel the history in the air. For example in San Antonio we tried to feel the historic atmosphere but we couldn't because of ugly skyscrapers around us. On the other hand here, in Independence Park we could easily transfer ourselves into 18th century. Probably if we could see original interiors of historic bulidings it ould be even easier. But still, crowds, police, fences couldn't spoil the experience
Due to lack of time we skipped Liberty Bell too. It is the bell that announced a public reading of Declaration on July 8. Now it's standing in it's very own pavilion, but there was a long line of people there. We decided there is no way we can wait there with kids and we just peeked through the window. 

There's a bell inside
We wrote in an our article on Mt. Rushmore that looking at July 4th and celebrations first in Mt. Rushmore and now in Philadelphia, we're more and more surprised we do not celebrate May 3rd in Poland. Despite the fact that our constitution was never actually in force, it was a big deal and streets of Warsaw were filled with joy. It was announced a national holiday only two days later. Meanwhile on the Declaration of Independence there was only one signature on July 4th, it was first read in public on July 8th and most of delegates didn't sign it until beginning of August.

Well, Declaration of Independence led to foundation of the most powerful country in the world. On the other hand in Poland only one year after our constitution people of Warsaw didn't have time to celebrate the anniversary as they had to defense their city from Russian siege. Two years later Poland disappeared from the map of Europe. However it was a revolutionary act, state-building and well-worth celebrating...

Facepalm
Back to Philadelphia... We quickly passed by Liberty Bell and before going back to the car we decided to breath in a bit of old town atmosphere, seeing some Polish accents on the way too. We passed by Polish-American Cultural Center and we got to the house Tadeusz Kosciuszko used to live in.

Little Poland in Philadelphia
In this house "Polish hero of American revolution" lived since 1796 after exile from Poland. It was found for him by his secretary Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. Kosciuszko healed his wounds there and received visitors. Until 1970s building was not in a good shape but later it became a national monument and it was beautifully renovated. As we're in States it has to be "the most" at something. So it's the smallest area administered by National Park Service. It's only about 600 square feet! Of course, as usually, we got there too late and we couldn't go inside...
Tadeusz Kosciuszko's house
Old part of Philadelphia is really charming. 18th century architecture (Penn's idea of Philadelphia was it to be quiet, agricultural town but this idea was lost some time ago) old trees, little and well organized car traffic. Unfortunately, the old, unspoiled neighborhood is only few blocks wide. Next a little younger buildings replace the very old ones and soon ugly blocks of flats spoil the view. They look almost as in center of Warsaw.

Almost like in Warsaw
Even they didn't scare us away. After all we lived couple of years in a building exactly like this in Warsaw. What did scare us away though was pouring rain which started suddenly and didn't look like was going to stop any time soon. So we ran back to the car as quickly as we could and we headed south.

Doesn't look like the rain is coming, does it?
We spent in Philadelphia only few hours but it we found it quite interesting. Too bad we didn't get into any of historic buildings. But even just a walk through Independence Park and the old part of time was really worth the time. 

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