PHILADELPHIA 20-21.06.17

20.06.17

We have had 3 and a half days in New York and boy has it been busy .... We stayed in the Hilton Garden Hotel on 33rd East and I have to say it has been a somewhat cozy stay - good job we weren't in the room for very long!

So we are all packed up and ready to move on to our next destination .... Philadelphia

The hotel was only a couple of blocks away from the Pennsylvania Station to get our Amtrak train to Philadelphia - so .... rather than catch a yellow taxi that would of taken an AGE to get through the blocks ...... we walked it!

Pennsylvania Station

All checked in and waiting in the lounge reading for our train

We cheated and asked the Red Caps to help us with out luggage to the train as we were all stressing getting the children down the escalator with the suitcases

Bye bye Manhattan ......

..... Hello Philadelphia

Philadelphia Station

The station is an amazing building

We've arrived in Philadelphia

Another hotel that is so close that it was easier to walk from the station

Our hotel - Best Western, Philadelphia 

Philadelphia Bank

First Stop, Tourist Information Centre .... even Rocky gets a look in!

.... and Benjamin Franklin, of course

Next stop, Liberty Bell

We literally got to the Museum just in time as they were closing in 5 minutes!

The Old City Hall

Stunning architecture and great old buildings ....

Unfortunately I don't know what these buildings are but we found them all really interesting .... it's certainly a city that you could spend time studying the history and will love to come back again 💕

These frames are in place where Benjamin Franklin's house used to stand

The architecture in Philly is really stunning ....

Philadelphia's Library

Historic District

Neil liked this garden as it was 'neat'

Washington Square

The Sycamore Tree

Washington Square

There are lots of monuments

Chinatown

Chinese takeout .... yum

21.06.17

With so much walking the streets of big cities we gave the children the choice of what they wanted to do today and they chose The Zoo 🦁🐯🐘🐼🐻🦏🐒

So the balloon in the sky didn't look that far away and we decided to kill two birds with one stone and we would walk across town to see the sights as well .....

City Hall

One thing I will come back to Philadelphia for is to do the Art tour - amazing art on the side of lots of the buildings.  Also, the nightlife which can only be done with no children in tow!

City Hall

One Liberty Place is the building with the spire - Two Liberty Place is the building on the left

More Art

Benjamin Franklin statue

The start of our walk down towards the Zoo ....

The Free Library

The Museum of Art in the background

Monument for All Wars Memorial to Coloured Soldiers and Sailors

Rodin Museum

The Evolving Parkway

In the background we have the Museum of Art

Museum of Art

This building is famous from the film Rocky where Sylvester Stallone ran up and down the steps

The famous steps - it was too hot to run up them!

Tired of walking the children wanted to hire bikes ....

..... go on Mum .... please!

The Zoo's balloon was a little closer.  All we had to do was find the bridge to cross the river to get to it ....

So off we set along the path to go to the Zoo ....

.... Oh look the balloon's a bit closer 

The back of the Museum of Art

The Fairmount Water Works

Revolutionary War Heroes

So then we came across the Boat Houses .... a whole strip of beautiful houses along the river💖

.... the balloon seems to be closer but I have a feeling we have still a bit of a walk ahead of us?  Let's hope that bridge is the one we can cross ....

Nope it wasn't .... and neither is this one as it's for trains!

This train is Girard Avenue Bridge and we couldn't get over that bridge either :-(

.... and we couldn't get over this one either .....

.... nor this one either .... oh dear we've been walking for ages and the balloon is looking further away from us in the other direction as we passed it on the other side ... eek!

... at least there was some great wall art!

.... this bridge was Connecting Railand Bridge - shame that it has graffiti all over it :-(

... so we still carry on looking for this so called bridge that we can apparently cross ....

.... so the next bridge we came we still couldn't get across and the only way we could see to get up on to it was across a dual carriageway which I wasn't prepared to try and cross ... the children were really fed up at this point as we promised them the Zoo ....

This bridge is Columbia Bridge

At this point we managed to get across to the other side of the road, walk up in another direction and ask a road worker where we could possibly get to the other side of the river. Finally we were on the right road and heading towards the Zoo.  With a little detour and across a very busy road bridge we were now heading in the right direction :-)

Oh look we can see Philadelphia's skyline .....

.... and finally we are at the Zoo

We are all very happy now ....

The balloon that led us to the Zoo ....

Giant Tortoises 🐢

A very hungry Goat 🐐

A Bat 🦇

The Monkey House 🐒

Oh look, two little Monkey's that have just arrived 🐵🐵

This Monkey was celebrating his birthday today 🐒

These funny  looking creatures are Rat Moles 🐀

Elephant Nose Shrew

Reptile House 🐍

A Python

The Tree Boa

Pig Nose Terrapin

Nile Alligator 🐊

Cobra

Lizard

Giant Tortoises

Orangutan 

Gibbons

Silver Back Gorilla 🦍

A Mummy and her baby Gorilla - the baby was only 2 weeks old

Another Mummy Gorilla with her toddler who was 2 months old

Lion 🦁

Jaguar 😺

A bit of Wing Fun

Sea Lion 

Red Panda

Every time we see a Red Panda they are always asleep in a tree and we can barely ever see them.  This was amazing seeing this beautiful animal and actually walking around in full view.  We feel very privileged that we got to see him 💓

Hippopotamus' just wallowing  

The Giraffe House 

Flamingos 

Aardvark - just taking it easy! 

The Meerkat enclosure

Two new Meerkat's that have just arrived

Bald Eagles 🦅🦅

There were no owls at the Zoo but there was a beautiful picture 🦉

It's very rare to find a Polar Bear at a Zoo and I would imagine this is one of the few Zoo's that have one.  I found this very sad looking at a lonely bear in completely the wrong environment and looking very sorry for itself :-( 

Mummy Duck and her babies 🦆

All around the Zoo there were tubes where the animals were released to have a wander around.  They all took turns throughout the day and we were privileged to see a Tiger 🐅

To be up close was amazing ....

The Tiger 🐯

I am one very happy bunny to see a Tiger up this close :-)

The Lioness 🦁

The Jaguar was sleeping

Two Toucans who were very chatty 

The end of the day and a quick rain shower

On our way out the Zoo we were lucky enough to catch the Cheetah's (they weren't out earlier so we were thrilled to catch them on our way out) 

More art on the way home ....

The back end of Philadelphia

Crossing another bridge to get back up to the town .... This is Philadelphia's skyline

Two happy children after a great day out at the Zoo

We walked into a Mall and there was a sand competition

Next stop, we travelled up to the top of Liberty One Building

Liberty Two Building

City Hall

Philadelphia's Skyline

Benjamin Franklin Statue

City Hall

The Masonic Building

Dinner at a Bistro called The Little Lion - Superb food but they'd run out of Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich :-(

Philadelphia's Skyline - At night

So this is the end of our trip in Philadelphia and it has been very short and sweet.  It was a lovely city and I personally loved it and wished we had more time in this great city.  But it has given us a great taster and will definitely visit Philadelphia again - one day.  In summary, I would say this is a very 'quirky' city.

The rest of the family ....

Neil:  "Great for the history, it was quaint and a really good mix of new and old"

Patrick:  "I found the city fun and loved the great selection of animals at the Zoo"

Eleanor:  "I thought the city was beautiful, I liked the Zoo but not the walk there!"

love lots

The Wise Old Owls xxxx