We got "free" breakfast in our hotel. This is the view from the breakfast room. City Hall. See the horse & guy in the bottom right corner? We'll see them again, on another day, from up close and personal.
My better half had no bridge plan. We decided to go east and look at some of the historical stuff. The closest building is Congress Hall, where the US Congress met while Washington, DC, was being built. To its left is Independence Hall.
It turned out that you have to have tickets to get into Independence Hall. Which you have to get in the visitors' center. And you have to go through airport-style security to get in to the area around Independence Hall, which we went through before we discovered we had to have tickets. So we had to go back out, get tickets, and then come back through security. Sheesh. At least there were not big lines.
We decided to see what we could see without tickets before we went out of the secured area. This is another look at Congress Hall. We went in there to hear a ranger talk.
Every single ranger talk I've ever listened to, anywhere, has been an enhancement to my experience. Good on ya, rangers!
This is where the house of representatives met. (All the furniture is repro, aside from the speaker's chair, so we were allowed to sit while we listened.)
The next image is looking a bit to the right of the prev. Speaker's chair up behind the white fence.
And again, a bit more to the right.
The seats we sat in were in the front row, on the aisle. At some point, one of the representatives was bored, so he made a seating chart. According to his chart, we sat in some of Virginia's seats.
The senate met upstairs. Much more fancier up there. I guess they were thinking about the house of Lords.................. More of this furniture is original, we were told. All of the "good stuff" is farther from the tourists. (And the original of the rug is in the White House now.)
The Liberty Bell is housed directly across the street from Congress Hall and Independence Hall.
"The Liberty Bell is 'a very significant symbol for the entire democratic world.' " -- Nelson Mandela
"Preservation of the Bell, like that of liberty itself, is an ongoing process. And, like liberty, as strong and durable as this Bell appears, it is fragile and easily damaged."
Please, please, please may we rise to the occasion and protect liberty and our democracy!
When we visited Philadelphia when the kid was small, we were allowed to touch the Bell. (I was surprised, back then, but I took advantage of that permission and touched it.)
No one is allowed to touch it now.
So they have this life-size replica of the words, which we were allowed to touch.
Love how we can see Independence Hall right behind the Bell.
Closer look at the words. That is one big crack...........
After looking at the Liberty Bell, we went on across the street to the visitors' center. In the course of building new things (the Liberty Bell is now housed differently than when we were allowed to touch it), excavation occurs.
There are a few displays of things that were unearthed. Toothbrushes.
To be succinct -- eeuwh.
Hmm. "Appropriate" toys for "appropriate" roles?????????????? Betting I am totally not down with this whole concept..............................
We ate lunch in the visitors' center, and I bought and wrote postcards, so I could mail them from Ben Franklin's post office, so they could get the special Ben-Franklin-signature cancellation.
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2 comments:
What a great way to spend a day in Philadelphia. I do remember seeing the Liberty bell but I really love that photo with Constitution Hall in the background. Nice juxtaposition. When I was there I didn't hear a ranger speak -- I would have liked that. Looks like you made a great trip out of it!
Someone was really thinking, putting the Bell in front of that view of Independence Hall. :-)
We heard two rangers, one in Congress Hall, and one in Independence hall. On other trips, I've heard rangers at the WWII memorial in Washington, and we heard two different rangers in Bryce.
All of them have been enthusiastic, and informative, and have provided facts and or points of view that were different than I'd known (or thought about) previously.
The last time we were in Philadelphia, it was summer, and they had people in various historical places who were ready to tell stories. One of them in the Ben Franklin area talked about Ben and electricity....... Apparently the whole electricity thing was a cross between a scientific study and parlor tricks........
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