After a swift exit from Philadelphia’s 34th Street railway station, we headed towards our first port of call, The Eastern State Penitentiary making a slight diversion to visit the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and the famous ‘Rocky Steps’…
The use of Google Maps always comes in handy whilst travelling, non-more so to get us to the Eastern State Penitentiary, it also gave us an insight into the Philadelphia way of life as one rolled through housing estates…
It’s hard not to miss the high walls of the Penitentiary as you get closer to the entrance. Usually, visitors have to enter through a side entrance, however, as it contains a flight of steps, one was fortunate enough to enter the Penitentiary through the iron gates getting a view of what the first thing that a prisoner would have seen…
The Penitentiary itself has been left as it was when the last prisoner left complete with paint falling off the walls and bits of rubble falling from the ceiling (of course, these areas are blocked off from the public!), bar some ramps to make most of the attraction wheelchair accessible and ADA compliant. One may ask why they haven’t tidied it up, the answer to that lies on a display board which explains that they wish to keep it as it is for an authentic feel…
Even though one spent around 2 hours rolling around the Eastern State Penitentiary, you could easily spend a whole day just walking around each corridor.
One of the other reasons why I wanted to visit Philadelphia was to experience a genuine ‘Philly Cheesesteak’. Now, when one found a traditional restaurant in the vicinity of the Penitentiary, it appeared to be a proper sit down takeaway. However, it turned to be more like a takeaway with an outdoor seating area but it did not detract from the overall food experience.
The plan was to catch the subway back into the centre, however, as we were running out of time, we thought it would be easier just to walk to the Downtown area and visit the observation deck at One Liberty Place or see Philly From The Top as it’s sometimes referred to. As with many towers, it offered spectacular views across Philadelphia and the Comcast tower which is the tallest in the city!
No trip to America would be complete for me without visiting a Cheesecake Factory so this is exactly what we did before catching the train back in addition to purchasing some Philadelphia Eagles merchandise.
Tomorrow, we stay in New York City and the plan is to catch the subway from Penn Station down to the tallest building in the western hemisphere, the World Trade Center or The Freedom Tower as it’s commonly referred to before heading to Ellen’s Stardust diner because, let’s face it, no trip to New York will be complete without a visit!