Jane went out to get some breakfast while I was getting up. It was really hot already, 23 degrees by 8 o'clock this morning. By this afternoon it was going to be 10 degrees warmer with a real feel of 35 at 80% humidity, but that will drop later, so I think this is going to be a day strolling along the Delaware River they have some entertainment and bars down there this afternoon.
I love my Dunkies so that's where the day started with a double sausage & egg bagel, then caught the number 48 bus for the 15 minutes ride to the east side of Center City. I had found this shop by pure chance on Google Maps called Souvenir that sells more unique items to the visiting tourists. Unfortunately, it didn't open until midday so we had a wander around, this area has mostly independent traders with a wide variety of shops and sits just on the edge of Independence Park, here we found a wonderful little park with a fountain before heading to Betsy Ross House then back to Souvenir.
Next on our list was Elfreth's Alley, which has some of the oldest architecture in the city in the way of houses, this is the sort of place you see on jigsaws. Just round the corner from here is the Fireman's Hall Museum that charts the history of the fire service in the city, there is also a good display of 9-11 from the fire service point of view, some of the photos I had never seen before.
A 10 minute walk from here is Race Street Pier, which has been turned into a park that pokes out into the Delaware River & a great place to chill out, next to this is Cherry Street Pier, which only opened earlier this year & is more of an semi indoor food and craft market, although it's given a lot of hype, neither of us was that impressed with it, considering it has been sitting empty for years & had so much money spent on it to get it to reopen it has basic access, even the floor isn't level in most parts and they had cables running across the floor at one point! We didn't stay there for long & continued along the river to Penn's Landing, passing through part of here you have to go through a bag search as they seem to have a lot of entertainment on today, but most people are not going in and just using the waterfront trail which makes most of it is a pointless exercise, it would be better if you put up a fence to control access to the top field where it is all happening and not piss off lots of people and waste everyone's time.
Just along from here is Spruce Street Harbor, which is more pop-up bars and food stalls, that's sold from converted shipping containers, but we didn't bother having anything as it seems like a license to print money on the most part.
After winding our way through people, climbing a flight of steps to cross the freeway we came to the South Street Diner & after climbing some more steps to get in we had a late lunch. The food here was really nice and at a reasonable price, almost next door is Paddy Whacks Irish Bar so dropped in there for a couple of beers. It was a relief to get out of the heat for a while and at $6 a pint that's 7% you can't complain. I think we spent about 90 minutes in there before taking a short walk to the bus stop and a 10-minute ride to the Town Market Store to stock up on beer then round to Big Gay Ice cream parlour who sell some fantastic ice creams.
And that is pretty much it for the day, with just a short walk back to the hotel for about 6:30.
