Philadelphia


 * Travel Tips for Philadelphia, PA:**
 * Philadelphia Wikitravel Website:** []
 * Philadelphia City Center Wikitravel Website**: [|http://wikitravel.org/en/Philadelphia/Center_City#Districts]
 * Valley Forge National Park Wikitravel Website**: []
 * Baltimore Wikitravel Website**: []
 * Baltimore Inner Harbor Wikitravel Website**: []
 * Atlantic City Wikitravel Website**: []
 * Atlantic City Wikitravel Website**: []


 * Mike Summers - March 2007:**

Philadelphia is full of history. It's the sixth-largest city in the US (Background Website: [] ) and the first US capital city. You can see a lot in a two-day visit with one overnight stay. Here's the official visitor's website: []. Frontier flies into Terminal A - East at the Philadelphia Airport (Website: [] ). For just about every rental car company you go to Zone 2 outside the baggage claim area. From the airport go north on Interstate 95 and take the I-676 exit onto Callowhill Street. Turn left onto 6th Street, which will take you toward Independence Visitors Center. Here's the website: []. Find a parking garage in the area and ditch the car. Most everything is near the Visitors Center at 6th and Market. You can also take the SEPTA regional train service form the airport to the city center. I rented a car, so I don't have first-hand experience, but here's a map: [] and website: [] that would take you from the Airport (Zone 5) to Market East Station (Zone 2). Downtown Philly has a couple of neat sites that you can sort out from visiting the Independence Visitors Center first. From the Visitors Center, we started at the Liberty Bell Center, which is very close to the Visitors Center. It's a very nice building with nice displays and a history of the Liberty Bell (website: [] ). It's very close to Independence Hall which has a nice tour (Website: [] ). You'll also want to visit Ben Franklin's gravesite, which is in Christ Church Cemetary at the corner of 5th and Arch Street. We paid for a tour of the cemetary, which was worth it. You can also simply look at the gravesite through the iron fence and not pay, but the tour was worth it. Here's the website for the cemetary: [] and information on Franklin: []. Nearby is Franklin Court, which contains the Franklin Print Shop, Franklin Museum, and US Postal Service Museum (Website: [] ). It's on Market Street between 3rd and 4th Streets. It's an 'okay' place to visit. Also nearby at 3rd and Arch Street is the Betsy Ross House (Website: [] ). Since you're in the neighborhood, it's worth a visit. We ate lunch at the Independence Brewing Company, which was kid friendly (Website: [] ). It's located in the Pennsylvania Convention Center at 12th and Filbert Streets. Here's a list of other restaurants in the Olde City Section of Philadelphia: []. We also liked the Eulogy Belgian Tavern with its reasonable prices (Website: []). The Good Dog Bar serves very good food. The Truffled Cheese Steak Empanadas are to die for (Website: [] ), and they have an excellent beer selection. Something that you have to visit is the Mutter Museum which is part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia (Websites: [] and [] ). It contains many medical oddities. The $12.00 admission is worth it. Its address is 19 S. 22nd Street, which is a bit of a walk from the other sites. You might want to drive the 3.5 miles from Olde Town to the Museum (Mapquest map: [] ). Other Museums that we did not visit are the Philadelphia Museum of Art (with the steps made famous in the Rocky movie [Websites: [] and [] ]), the Rodin Museum (Website: [] ), and the Fairmount Park Houses (Website: [] ). If you have time and its baseball season, you might want to watch a Phillies baseball game (Website: [] ). I watched a game in old Veteran's Stadium before the team moved to Citizen's Bank Park. They served great pretzels and Philly cheesesteak sandwiches (Website: [] ) at the ballpark. You can also head south from Philly to Baltimore (a little more than 2 hours and 110 miles) and visit the Innner-Harbor and Fort McHenry (Websites: [] and [] and [] ), which we did. Atlantic City is a little over 60 miles and 1 hour from Philadelphia (Website: [] ); we didn't go there. All-in-all, Philadelphia is a nice 'historical' city to visit. Enjoy! Mike Summers


 * Mike Summers - December 2017:**

My wife had a conference. So, I joined her for a Philadelphia trip. The two best places for the iconic Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich (both are open 24/7) are Geno's Steaks (Website: http://www.genosteaks.com/ ) or Pat's King of Steaks, which claims to be the home of the original Cheesesteak and is right around the corner from Geno's (Pat's Website: http://patskingofsteaks.com/ ). If you have time, try them both for lunch on consecutive days and decide which one you like best! If you have time like I did, check out the Reading Terminal Market. The Market is an enclosed [|public market] located at 12th and Arch Streets in Center City [|Philadelphia], Pennsylvania. It opened originally in 1893 under the elevated train shed of the [|Reading Railroad Company] after the city of Philadelphia advocated to move public markets from the streets into indoor facilities for both safety and sanitary reasons. The Reading Railroad Company owned and operated the market space until 1976 when the company liquidated, leaving the market without its parent company and foot traffic from the train. Presently, it still occupies the ground floor and basement levels of the Reading Terminal's former train shed which is now part of the [|Philadelphia Convention Center.] Vendor stalls occupy the ground floor with entrances on Filbert Street to the South, Twelfth Street to the West, and Arch Street to the North. The stalls are arranged in a grid pattern with an open area in the center with tables and seating. Over one hundred merchants offer fresh produce, meats, fish, [|artisan cheese], groceries, ice cream, flowers, grilled cheese, baked goods, crafts, books, clothing, and specialty and ethnic foods. [|[1]] Two of the vendors are descendants of original merchants from the initial opening in the late 1800s. [|[2]] The basement floor of the market holds the state-of-the-art [|refrigerated] storage area for vendor use. Currently, the market is open every day of the week although the [|Pennsylvania Dutch] merchants (a small but significant minority) generally do not operate Sunday through Tuesday. Here's the website for the Market: https://readingterminalmarket.org/. In the Terminal I'd recommend 1) the Miller's Twist Pretzel Shop (website: http://www.millerstwist.com/ ), 2) DiNic's Roast Pork Sandwich Shop (website: http://tommydinics.com/ ), and 3) Termini Brothers Bakery (Website: https://www.termini.com/ ) for coffee and a snack. I returned to the Mutter Museum, which I mentioned above. Great place to visit!

Enjoy Philadelphia! 