Woodlands - Rittenhouse - Penn's Landing - Market - Penn Square - Penn Center

20 Feb 05

• Total distance : 10 miles plus lots of wandering round malls etc.
• Start point : Woodlands Avenue. Later I was told it was a crazy place to park
• Weather : Dry, very cold.
• Temperature at start -3C.
• Muddiness rating (*=dry, *****=awful) *
• People passed : Several thousand.
• Step counter : 22010
• Camera : Olympus C-5060W. Images taken before deletions = 51.

Although travelling to the US doesn't usually cause much difficulty with jet lag, the last time I went there I felt dopey the day after I arrived, so on this occasion I flew out from Heathrow on the Saturday. A nap on the plane did the trick and I woke up on Sunday morning keen for a good look round.

When I go to a new city I feel I have to approach the centre on foot to get to know it properly. Usually this means parking a couple of miles out, and more than once the day has ended with me arguing with a taxi driver who was reluctant to stray into the area where I'd left the car. Well Woodland Avenue sounded very nice to me, and didn't look too bad and - to immediately snuff out any expectation that this'll lead to an account of a Miami-Vice-style shootout and how I owe my life to the sturdy Minolta that took the rounds destined for my heart - the car was just dandy when I returned.

Today an urban sprawl of over 100 sq miles, Philadelphia was planned on a checkerboard pattern by Willam Penn in March 1681 after he received the title to Pennsylvania in a land grant from King Charles II. Since then the city has been the site of a huge number of American "firsts" - the first American flag, the first hospital, the first library, novel, bank, stock exchange and so on. It's where Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, and rather disconcertingly much of the city's history involves whupping the Brits in some form or other.

Over the Schuylkill River, easier to walk across than pronounce, I got into the city proper. Most of the streets southwest of the city centre are narrow, with interesting and attractive terraced houses right up against the sidewalk. It was around 10.30 am, there were few people around - and it was very cold. There's an appealing quality to the light in the eastern US in winter. Maybe it's due to the dry air, which was causing my lips to crack and rendering any attempt to take off my sweater to resemble a man wrestling with a Van Der Graf generator. More likely it's the combination of the cold winters and the surprising latitude - Phildelphia lies south of Madrid. Perhaps this leads to a sun which is generally higher in the sky than us Europeans instinctively expect. Whatever the explanation, I like it.

I walked across the city centre in the direction of Penn's Landing. Cafes and stores were opening, later than usual as it was Sunday. At one point I saw about sixty black men waiting outside a liquor store. The doors opened as I walked past and they piled in. On the other side of the street five middle-aged white women were waiting for a furnishing store to open.

Penn's Landing (where Penn rocked up in October 1682) was cold, almost deserted, and not especially interesting. The earlier sun had by now diffused into a grey sky that threatened snow. The Delaware River too was a similar gun-metal grey to the US Navy warships tied up opposite. After walking the length of a featureless pier flanked by some old warships I turned tail and went in search of some coffee.

Heading back into the city centre things were waking up, and there were many more people around. American city centres (OK, centers if you must) focus more on grand civic buildings, museums, hotels and restaurants, than on shops, at least by European standards. Most shopping is done in colossal malls outside the city centre: Philadelphia has the famous King Of Prussia mall north of the city. It's the third biggest in the world (and as someone who finds B&Q in Taplow simply too overwhelming you can guess what I thought of K-O-bloody-P).

A long queue of folk were braving the gnawing cold, waiting to see The Liberty Bell. I confess to its significance having passed me by at the time, but it's a bell commissioned to mark fifty years after Penn's Charter of Privileges, Pennsylvania's original constitution which spoke of the rights and freedoms valued by people the world over. Particularly forward thinking were Penn's ideas on religious freedom and his liberal stance on Native American rights. The bell itself soon cracked, was recast, unsuccessfully, then replaced by one from London which also didn't work properly, and so on. You'd have thought by now they'd have dumped it and gone digital.

The City Hall museum was hosting a major Dali exhibition (made possible by Advanta). I didn't go in, as by this time the day was nearing its end, but I was impressed by the number of people I was to meet later who'd been to see it.

For some reason Europeans have formed the opinion that the US is short on history and even shorter on culture. That's patently not the case. Some of the most impressive civic buildings I've seen have been in Boston and Philadelphia. Even the 30th Street railroad station - a railway station for heaven's sake - features Karl Bitter's marvellous "Progress of Transportation" bas-relief, colonnaded porticoes, and travertine walls (see image gallery above). From their brochure I see that "The North Waiting Room has been host to many corporate functions, weddings, and charity events, to name a few. Our room holds up to 600 people for a sit down dinner." If that's the railway station I can't imagine what City Hall would have been like.

As I got back to the car snowflakes were swirling around, and the temperature gauge read 22F. I drove back to the hotel, grappled with a steak of gothic proportions, and fell asleep in front of the equally huge TV.

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-- Main RodBird - 05 Mar 2005