Sunday, August 12, 2012

July 20 -- homeward bound

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We had breakfast in the diner in Reading Terminal Market.  This '50s-look counter was in very good shape.  It can't have been original.



Looking into the kitchen.



After breakfast, we bought some cheese as a present for our foodie.

There are a lot of artisinal cheese makers in the Philadelphia area.  This kind of selection reminds me of France, and makes me want to taste each one........






Tearing ourselves away from the cheeses, we return to our hotel room to make sure everything is packed and ready for departure.



 One last look at the Pennsylvania Department of Records.



We haven't looked toward the east very often.  It's not the greatest view, but you can see pretty far from the 16th floor.....



I was just talking about how much I see in my pics, that I did not see when looking with my naked eyes.

This is barely visible, more or less in the middle of the above..........



Packed up, checked out, let's go.



You can hop on the light rail, adjacent to the convention center, and ride two stops west to the Amtrak station.  Without ever going outside.  This is excellent, when rain threatens.

I don't remember the train stations I frequented in France being so fancy.  I wonder who decided these grand and heavily embellished spaces were a good use of funds?




We waited a while for our train to arrive.  When it did, it was very crowded.  One of the conductors told me that "they" had decided to remove a car.  The train was booked for seven cars, but only had six..............

We weren't able to sit together, and I didn't get a window seat.  Humph.  This lessens my enjoyment of rail travel.........

We got to BWI without incident, and took the shuttle to the airport.  The one thing I'd thought to take a pic of, but didn't, was a long line of rocking chairs in one section of the terminal at BWI.  They were all full.  Everyone loves rocking chairs.....  Thank you, Southwest, for putting rocking chairs in BWI for us!

Speaking of Southwest, you gotta love them.  Their people always seem so relaxed and happy.  I prefer to reserve my seat in advance, but if that's what I need to give up to check one bag for free, and, more important, to have people helping me who seem to be comfortable and happy with their work, it's easily worth it.

Good on ya, Southwest.



You know I love to fly.

I look at clouds all the time.  It's excellent to be able to see them from above!






Look at that one skinny gray horizontal one, above all the white puffy mountains.....




This is what I imagine it looks like when you fly over the poles.....



That one very skinny cloud, upper right.....  So different from the ripples and mountains.



I saw a bunch of biggish islands in Lake Erie.  I don't remember seeing them before.  Thanks to Google maps, I was easily able to identify this as Kelley Island.  We are looking almost straight south.

(Ignore the patterns, upper left -- that's my shirt, reflected.  If I had my wits about me, I'd wear a plain dark shirt when traveling, to minimize unwanted reflections.....)



Almost home.  Westbound over Lake Erie, or, "Diagonal Lines."

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4 comments:

penni said...

Thank you for the travel tour. If I never make it to Philadelphia, at least I've had a Vicki-tour. I agree about Southwest Airline. I go out of my way to book Southwest when I travel.

I need orange said...

You are welcome! Thanks for going along! :-) Philadelphia is definitely worth a visit.

All of the historical stuff.... I feel that it was a miracle that our country has been as coherent and successful as it has been. It seems to me that if all of those exact people had not come together at that particular time, it would never have happened.

To be right on the spot where so much of that work occurred.... Where the Constitution was written...... Pretty cool.

And that Penn Museum!!!!!!! Wow, wow, wow. I seriously wish I lived close enough to spend a lot more time there!

Southwest is clearly doing things in a very right way. When the demeanor of Southwest staff is compared to other airport personnel ... night and day.

I am all in favor of workers being treated well, and I have to conclude that is the case at Southwest.

Michael said...

I'm a Philly native who just came across your blog. I love your photos and commentary. You're making me look at my fair city with a new perspective. You mention the funds for the ornate train station. That's from when the railroads were privately owned and railroad travel was something special. A bit different than riding Amtrak these days.

I need orange said...

Michael, I'm glad you happened by! Thank you for the kind words and the kind thoughts behind them. We enjoyed our visit to Philly. There is so much to see and learn and enjoy. You live in a wonderful city!

I wonder about the difference in fanciness between train stations in the US and train stations in Europe, and wonder about the different choices made in different places, and I wonder about different funding sources....

Of course -- and I'm only just now remembering this -- so much of Europe was bombed to rubble less than 100 years ago. I wonder how many train stations as old as ours still exist. Especially in big cities..... I can imagine that train stations and rail lines were pretty common targets!

I'm so used to thinking of so many buildings in Europe being much older anything we have in the US....... I am now revising that thought and am imagining that it's possible that the average age of train stations in Europe may be newer than our grand old stations, so a comparison would be apples/oranges.

One final train-y thought -- if I get to pick, I am fine with a well-designed, clean, and utilitarian station, with no glitz and glam. I would trade fanciness for enough cars to be comfortably seated with my traveling companion any day of the week. :-)