We managed to pack quite a lot in during our fleeting visit to Philadelhpia 
on Thursday.
The main reason for going to Philadelphia was because of the part it played in the history of America’s creation and it’s independence and most of these historic sites and modern day museums are located very closely together in “Independance Park” .
The first thing we noticed when we got there though, was that the National Constitution Centre was closed that day (the only day of the year) because they were holding a ceremony to give out ‘Liberty Medals’ . Luckily, everything else was open.
The highlights of Independence Park included standing in the room in which the Declaration of Independence , the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights were signed. We also got to visit the original “Upper” and “Lower” floors of the original congress building where the very first senate and congress sat (which apparently is why they are still called the upper and lower house to this day) and we got to see the Liberty Bell , which hung above Independence Hall and was rung during the original reading of the Declaration of Independence (and was ironically cast by a London firm!).
So, all historied out and with a few more hours to spare before we had to head to New York we decided to take a duck tour. For anyone who hasn’t seen one of these, it’s basically a bus which can float on water, so it can give you a city tour vie the streets and rivers. It’s also incredibly tacky and usually involves a ‘crazy’ tour guide who tells bad jokes and makes everyone make quacking noises using their “quackers” as they go round. It was quite fun though and luckily they didn’t give out the quackers until the end. The tour covered a fair amount of Philadelphia, including Benjamin Franklin’s last resting place and the US Mint and Federal Reserve.Oh, and we also got to see the original building used as the tower block in Ghostbusters 🙂
We’re now in New York, our last city! We’re one day in already so I’ll update you tomorrow.