Day 8: Philadelphia Freedom

An early start, the last of the snacks for breakfast at the resort and then off to catch the Magical Express back out to Orlando Airport with our bags checked all the way through from the resort to Philadelphia. Great flight on South West. I was a bit apprehensive with their rather silly seating system that loads people by number order and doesn't allocate seats. Having said that, Chris and I got seats together in the back quarter of the plane and were pleasantly surprised by the friendly service. We trained it in from the airport to "Suburban Station" and found our way to the hotel. Rather neat we could buy an all day tourist ride ticket on the way in from the airport for a mere 4 dollars more. So we found our home for the next two nights, the hotel Sonesta, a newly renovated high rise in the centre of the banking district of Philadelphia. 

It was a short walk to the Subway, (via the local Starbucks but don't tell anyone!) and we could catch it all the way down to Philadelphia's Historic District. We had so much fun. We queued briefly to gain access to the Liberty Bell, remembering how different its housing was almost 30 years ago when we ran in in the snow to take a picture of it. Now it is housed in a large walk through display, charting the history of the crack in the bell, its use in formal situations and how it became a universal symbol of freedom and justice for movements such as Women's suffrage and the time after 9/11. We then saw the bell and could see through, across the road to Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was penned... but more about that later. 

We did not know that you had to have a timed ticket to get into the Independence Hall so had to go back to the visitors centre to get one and as we had some time to spare we went on a walk a little further down Market. There we saw the "cottages" that were bought by George Washington as an investment. We also went back to the Bourge building, next to Independence Park which was newly renovated 30 years ago in a real historical style and houses shops and eateries. In our lightning fast stay at Philly in 1985 we actually had lunch in there and it was a real trip down memory lane.

Then it was time to clear security for our entry to Independence Hall. The grounds behind the building are beautiful. The leaves just starting to turn and the buildings that surround look so old and beautiful, like the Philosophical Society begun by Benjamin Franklin. During the tour we visited two key rooms in the main part of Independence Hall. The first was the State Law Chamber where important verdicts over time had been heard. The second room was the one which hosted the Second Confederate Council which met to discuss issues that the then 13 states had with Britain. There were varying degrees of hostility with Massachusetts being most vocal in demanding independence as they were an occupied colony and had aggravated the British sorely by tipping the tea into Boston Harbour... aka The Boston Tea Party. A list of grievances were drafted in June of 1776 and were reviewed and revised until, on July 4 1776, the Declaration of Independence was finally finished and a day or two later it was read to the gathered assembly in the grounds of Independence Hall. The rest, as they say, is history. 

One final site that was really worth seeing and a very clever recreation, is one that was stumbled upon by archaeologists when they were excavating for the Liberty Bell museum.  It is the foundations of the original President's house, where George Washington moved to from Mount Vernon when he became President. The move was controversial because Virginia was allowed slaves whereas Pennsylvania was not. The irony of the slave issue has been well publicised, in that the father of a free America kept slaves. Slaves could gain their freedom if they lived in Pennsylvania for a period of time, so Washington shipped them back to Mount Vernon before then, and then brought them back. At any rate they have excavated the foundations of the house and have recreated it in open form. It is a fabulous exhibit and it chronicles the known stories of the slaves who worked for Washington. A very well designed display.

We decided to bus it back to our hotel so that we could go past some of the sights and so we did. Arriving back at the hotel we needed to find somewhere to eat and a couple of blocks away found a nice diner called Ruby Tuesday. Even on a Saturday, Ruby was pretty good. So we feasted on yummy dinner and I topped it off with Philly Cheesecake.  Then a walk back to the hotel to walk off the yummies.  Great day... and good to reflect on what freedom means.