Last week in Philadelphia
Door: Linda Damhuis
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Linda
20 April 2017 | Verenigde Staten, Philadelphia
Friday April 14th 2017
So last Sunday we came back from Washington DC, but you’ve already read all about that trip!
Monday and Tuesday the weather was even very good here in Philadelphia, which made us very happy!
On Monday I didn’t do all that much. I had a lot planned, but I guess I must have had a sunstroke or something, because all I wanted to do in the afternoon was sleep! In the evening we went to do some grocery shopping together, that’s about it.
Tuesday I got an answer from AT&T with some suggestions on how to get the simcard working, but it didn’t, so they’ll look into it again. I have rented a car today, so we can go to Ohio this weekend and I’ll be driving around the following weeks.
I went to the little park on Locust street, sat there for a while and then I sat at Saxbys for 2 hours to work on my story.
Wednesday I went back to the Old City to see some more museums. The weather had changed a bit, once I was outside I couldn’t decide wether or not to bring a jacket. But it looked like it was going to rain and the wind was pretty cold, so I went inside again to get it. Amy was there and I talked to her for a while, about the Airbnb thing and how she wanted to go and travel also. It was kind of funny talking to her about Airbnb, she said she liked it very much, but you had to make sure you kept everything clean….I just couldn’t bring myself to tell her that she didn’t do such a good job keeping the place clean!! Haha
She’s a nice lady, she just has her quirky little things!
So on to the Old City, I stopped by the post office in our area, where I was told they would have stamps for Europe today, but when I got there, they didn’t have them. Not until later that day, but I wasn’t going to be in the area, so I’ll try again some other day.
At Penn Bookstore I got some tokens for the subway and I went to use the restroom. Then I was looking for the Blue Line stop, it took a while but I found it!
It was nice and warm by the way, warmer than I thought it was going to be and here I was dragging my jacket with me again!!
I went to see Carpenter’s Hall, where I first ate my sandwich before I went inside. This is the Hall the Carpenter’s Company, a guild, used for their meetings and it was used for the First Continental Congress in 1774, where they talked about the independence from England. I think it is still used by the Carpenter’s guild, but it is also open to the public.
It was nice to see, even though there was not a lot in there really.
I did talk to someone there who told me more about some signs I saw on the houses in Elfreth’s Alley the other week. There were signs of trees and one where 4 hands were holding eachothers wrists. He told me that those were signs for different insurance companies. If a house was on fire, the fire brigade could see which insurance company the owner had. Pretty good idea!
After this I walked over to the American Philosophical Society, which was founded by Benjamin Franklin, where Philosophers are the same as Scientists today.
I walked into the Library first, but unfortunately the only thing I could see was their exhibit in the lobby, I wasn’t allowed into the library to see the books. Which was too bad, but I did see something interesting though!
Lewis & Clark were 2 men who went out to find a river passage from East to the West for President Thomas Jefferson. There is no passage, but they did collect all sorts of information about the land, plants, animals and Indian tribes along the way.
In this exhibit there was a notebook from Lewis with some Indian language and it’s translation, which I thought was pretty cool!
I had read a book about this (of course! ) and it was nice to see it there!
Then I wanted to see the museum of the APS, I had read online that they had just opened a new exhibit….I just didn’t read the part where the museum would only be open Thursdays to Sundays and it was now Wednesday!!! Shit!! I thought I was being smart by doing everything on one day, since it was all within walking distance and it would save me another trip to the city!!
O well, shit happens! I walked over to the Visitor’s Centre, where they had a very nice collection of books, but I will come back for those as well! (but I will probably just write down titles and authors, they’re too heavy for me to bring them home, I’ll buy them online later!)
It was only 2pm and I had planned to meet up with Caroline in the city around 6pm, to go to a museum. So I had some more hours to kill. I walked around for a while and sat down in a bakery to have something to drink and write some more. Then I walked over to the Reading Terminal Market. Which was a lot quieter than the first time we were there!! But then some of the stalls were closed as well, so that might have something to do with it!
I walked over to 22nd street, sat down for a while near a fountain in front of City Hall. I was too early so I tried to find a place to sit down for a while, I found a Dunkin Donuts where I had some tea.
Caroline came to this DD around 6:15pm, from where we walked over to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
We figured we would walk straight there and have something to eat there, instead of eat out somewhere and not have enough time at the museum. Wednesday nights are Pay as you wish nights, so you don’t have to pay the regular fee, which is really nice, because I didn’t want to see everything in the museum.
The way to the museum was easy, but getting there wasn’t! We walked along the BF Parkway on the left and tried to get over to the other side, but there was only one crosswalk for us to halfway down the parkway…so we just ran the rest of the way!!
Then in front of the museum there was a stage like thing, like there was going to be a concert, so before we actually got to the museum we asked someone if it was even open. It was, we just had to walk around the stage area, which turned out to be for the NFL draft. When I was here with Marjo a couple of years ago, there was a Rocky Balboa statue at the top of the stairs. Sylvester Stallone used the steps for his training as a boxer. But the museum didn’t think this was art, so it was removed and is now standing at the bottom of the stairs…but fans still know how to find it though!
So we went into the museum, where we had another bag check, but she didn’t even really look into them. We paid our fee and went to the cloakroom where we could leave our bags and coats. Then we walked over to the Museum Café only to find it closed….fortunately we did see another place to have something to eat, but there was not a lot of choice and there were not that many seats either! That was kind of strange, to open a museum in the evening and not provide any food.
O well, we did find a seat and when we were done we walked over to the exhibition I had come for, Watercolors, with paintings done by American artists….
But we couldn’t go in, because we didn’t have a ticket!!! Turned out that you had to buy a separate ticket for this exhibit. The regular entrance fee was $20,- and for an extra $5,- you could see the Watercolors, but we didn’t pay $20,- to begin with, which meant we had to add money to whatever we paid, to make it to $25,- each….so no Watercolors for me!
We got a map of the museum and saw they had a Van Gogh, Monet and some other interesting things, so we started to go and look for these paintings. We’ve found them and a lot more nice things besides!
Around 8pm we went to the museum stores, where I did get to buy some Watercolor postcards! At precisely 8:45pm we went to pick up our coats and bags and left the museum, this was also the time the museum actually closed.
We walked out the back door, so we had to walk around to the front to get back to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. This time we walked along the other side and crossed at 22nd street to get to our trolley stop. This time we didn’t have to wait that long before it came, we were back at the house around 10pm, so that was pretty good!
Thursday Caroline had to go to work earlier because of a meeting she had with her boss back home. It was only half an hour earlier, but when she was gone I went back to bed for a while!! At 8:30am I thought I’d just stay in bed a little longer, but then I heard that nasty cough of the cleaning lady, so I decided to get out and get dressed!
After that I didn’t have a lot to do, I did want to go to the park, the weather looked good again. I walked over to the post office and yes, three times is a charm, they had stamps for me! I sat down on a bench in the park again to write some more. The sun was really nice, but there was a really cold wind.
Around 1pm I went to get some groceries and walked back to the house to have some lunch.
Caroline was home around 6pm, we looked at the road we wanted to take the next day to go to Ohio. Then at 6:30pm she practiced on her viola for about half an hour. I started dinner, made nacho’s this time, very good with mushrooms and tomatoes. Another recipe I got from my friend Paula!!! It was really good, we ate everything!
We found out that our neighbor from the Tsech Republic has also played the violin for about 13 years, which is good to know, because he will know what it means to practice!
After dinner we watched the Passion play that was done in Leeuwarden in the Netherlands. It was very good.
This morning Caroline left around 8am again, we had breakfast together and when she left I got dressed too.
I went down to the basement again to do some laundry, washed all of the sheets and towels again too. This time I did only 2 loads, so I didn’t have to walk up and down so many times!
Meanwhile I tried to get an app on my phone and checked the routes to Ohio on my tablet, we should be able to do it!
Then, while I was sitting here, I hear Amy say O no…and then she was scrubbing the floor…I think Scout had an oopsie!!! Haha
She has given him so many treats that the poor thing has either barfed it all up or shit on the floor somewhere!
I had wanted to go to the basement to get the last of the laundry out of the dryer, but I’ll just wait for her to be done scrubbing!
I had lunch and managed to get the laundry without running into Amy or Scout, so that was good!
I’ll go and pick up the car now!
More on our Easter weekend in another story!
Love
Linda and Caroline
So last Sunday we came back from Washington DC, but you’ve already read all about that trip!
Monday and Tuesday the weather was even very good here in Philadelphia, which made us very happy!
On Monday I didn’t do all that much. I had a lot planned, but I guess I must have had a sunstroke or something, because all I wanted to do in the afternoon was sleep! In the evening we went to do some grocery shopping together, that’s about it.
Tuesday I got an answer from AT&T with some suggestions on how to get the simcard working, but it didn’t, so they’ll look into it again. I have rented a car today, so we can go to Ohio this weekend and I’ll be driving around the following weeks.
I went to the little park on Locust street, sat there for a while and then I sat at Saxbys for 2 hours to work on my story.
Wednesday I went back to the Old City to see some more museums. The weather had changed a bit, once I was outside I couldn’t decide wether or not to bring a jacket. But it looked like it was going to rain and the wind was pretty cold, so I went inside again to get it. Amy was there and I talked to her for a while, about the Airbnb thing and how she wanted to go and travel also. It was kind of funny talking to her about Airbnb, she said she liked it very much, but you had to make sure you kept everything clean….I just couldn’t bring myself to tell her that she didn’t do such a good job keeping the place clean!! Haha
She’s a nice lady, she just has her quirky little things!
So on to the Old City, I stopped by the post office in our area, where I was told they would have stamps for Europe today, but when I got there, they didn’t have them. Not until later that day, but I wasn’t going to be in the area, so I’ll try again some other day.
At Penn Bookstore I got some tokens for the subway and I went to use the restroom. Then I was looking for the Blue Line stop, it took a while but I found it!
It was nice and warm by the way, warmer than I thought it was going to be and here I was dragging my jacket with me again!!
I went to see Carpenter’s Hall, where I first ate my sandwich before I went inside. This is the Hall the Carpenter’s Company, a guild, used for their meetings and it was used for the First Continental Congress in 1774, where they talked about the independence from England. I think it is still used by the Carpenter’s guild, but it is also open to the public.
It was nice to see, even though there was not a lot in there really.
I did talk to someone there who told me more about some signs I saw on the houses in Elfreth’s Alley the other week. There were signs of trees and one where 4 hands were holding eachothers wrists. He told me that those were signs for different insurance companies. If a house was on fire, the fire brigade could see which insurance company the owner had. Pretty good idea!
After this I walked over to the American Philosophical Society, which was founded by Benjamin Franklin, where Philosophers are the same as Scientists today.
I walked into the Library first, but unfortunately the only thing I could see was their exhibit in the lobby, I wasn’t allowed into the library to see the books. Which was too bad, but I did see something interesting though!
Lewis & Clark were 2 men who went out to find a river passage from East to the West for President Thomas Jefferson. There is no passage, but they did collect all sorts of information about the land, plants, animals and Indian tribes along the way.
In this exhibit there was a notebook from Lewis with some Indian language and it’s translation, which I thought was pretty cool!
I had read a book about this (of course! ) and it was nice to see it there!
Then I wanted to see the museum of the APS, I had read online that they had just opened a new exhibit….I just didn’t read the part where the museum would only be open Thursdays to Sundays and it was now Wednesday!!! Shit!! I thought I was being smart by doing everything on one day, since it was all within walking distance and it would save me another trip to the city!!
O well, shit happens! I walked over to the Visitor’s Centre, where they had a very nice collection of books, but I will come back for those as well! (but I will probably just write down titles and authors, they’re too heavy for me to bring them home, I’ll buy them online later!)
It was only 2pm and I had planned to meet up with Caroline in the city around 6pm, to go to a museum. So I had some more hours to kill. I walked around for a while and sat down in a bakery to have something to drink and write some more. Then I walked over to the Reading Terminal Market. Which was a lot quieter than the first time we were there!! But then some of the stalls were closed as well, so that might have something to do with it!
I walked over to 22nd street, sat down for a while near a fountain in front of City Hall. I was too early so I tried to find a place to sit down for a while, I found a Dunkin Donuts where I had some tea.
Caroline came to this DD around 6:15pm, from where we walked over to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
We figured we would walk straight there and have something to eat there, instead of eat out somewhere and not have enough time at the museum. Wednesday nights are Pay as you wish nights, so you don’t have to pay the regular fee, which is really nice, because I didn’t want to see everything in the museum.
The way to the museum was easy, but getting there wasn’t! We walked along the BF Parkway on the left and tried to get over to the other side, but there was only one crosswalk for us to halfway down the parkway…so we just ran the rest of the way!!
Then in front of the museum there was a stage like thing, like there was going to be a concert, so before we actually got to the museum we asked someone if it was even open. It was, we just had to walk around the stage area, which turned out to be for the NFL draft. When I was here with Marjo a couple of years ago, there was a Rocky Balboa statue at the top of the stairs. Sylvester Stallone used the steps for his training as a boxer. But the museum didn’t think this was art, so it was removed and is now standing at the bottom of the stairs…but fans still know how to find it though!
So we went into the museum, where we had another bag check, but she didn’t even really look into them. We paid our fee and went to the cloakroom where we could leave our bags and coats. Then we walked over to the Museum Café only to find it closed….fortunately we did see another place to have something to eat, but there was not a lot of choice and there were not that many seats either! That was kind of strange, to open a museum in the evening and not provide any food.
O well, we did find a seat and when we were done we walked over to the exhibition I had come for, Watercolors, with paintings done by American artists….
But we couldn’t go in, because we didn’t have a ticket!!! Turned out that you had to buy a separate ticket for this exhibit. The regular entrance fee was $20,- and for an extra $5,- you could see the Watercolors, but we didn’t pay $20,- to begin with, which meant we had to add money to whatever we paid, to make it to $25,- each….so no Watercolors for me!
We got a map of the museum and saw they had a Van Gogh, Monet and some other interesting things, so we started to go and look for these paintings. We’ve found them and a lot more nice things besides!
Around 8pm we went to the museum stores, where I did get to buy some Watercolor postcards! At precisely 8:45pm we went to pick up our coats and bags and left the museum, this was also the time the museum actually closed.
We walked out the back door, so we had to walk around to the front to get back to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. This time we walked along the other side and crossed at 22nd street to get to our trolley stop. This time we didn’t have to wait that long before it came, we were back at the house around 10pm, so that was pretty good!
Thursday Caroline had to go to work earlier because of a meeting she had with her boss back home. It was only half an hour earlier, but when she was gone I went back to bed for a while!! At 8:30am I thought I’d just stay in bed a little longer, but then I heard that nasty cough of the cleaning lady, so I decided to get out and get dressed!
After that I didn’t have a lot to do, I did want to go to the park, the weather looked good again. I walked over to the post office and yes, three times is a charm, they had stamps for me! I sat down on a bench in the park again to write some more. The sun was really nice, but there was a really cold wind.
Around 1pm I went to get some groceries and walked back to the house to have some lunch.
Caroline was home around 6pm, we looked at the road we wanted to take the next day to go to Ohio. Then at 6:30pm she practiced on her viola for about half an hour. I started dinner, made nacho’s this time, very good with mushrooms and tomatoes. Another recipe I got from my friend Paula!!! It was really good, we ate everything!
We found out that our neighbor from the Tsech Republic has also played the violin for about 13 years, which is good to know, because he will know what it means to practice!
After dinner we watched the Passion play that was done in Leeuwarden in the Netherlands. It was very good.
This morning Caroline left around 8am again, we had breakfast together and when she left I got dressed too.
I went down to the basement again to do some laundry, washed all of the sheets and towels again too. This time I did only 2 loads, so I didn’t have to walk up and down so many times!
Meanwhile I tried to get an app on my phone and checked the routes to Ohio on my tablet, we should be able to do it!
Then, while I was sitting here, I hear Amy say O no…and then she was scrubbing the floor…I think Scout had an oopsie!!! Haha
She has given him so many treats that the poor thing has either barfed it all up or shit on the floor somewhere!
I had wanted to go to the basement to get the last of the laundry out of the dryer, but I’ll just wait for her to be done scrubbing!
I had lunch and managed to get the laundry without running into Amy or Scout, so that was good!
I’ll go and pick up the car now!
More on our Easter weekend in another story!
Love
Linda and Caroline
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