Here comes a day by day report of our holiday in the beautiful city of Philadelphia:

Monday- The trip up here went very smoothly and the flight was only about an hour and a half long. Upon arriving we caught a cab (unfortunately not a yellow one) to our hotel Comfort Inn Downtown. Maybe not the best view (the highway) but perfectly located close to the major sites. Today we went and saw Independence Hall, The Liberty Bell, the National Constitution Center and other historical buildings in the same area. It was very interesting, however, it did smell of horse manure (horse and buggies…). We had a very nice lunch at some obscure little restaurant on a small side street. It was was fairly hot and we walked everywhere, so when we came back to the hotel we felt very sticky, drained and our feet ached. It was definitely worth it though.

Tuesday-It’s never a Lindo holiday if it doesn’t involve a whole lot of walking. This is how we started out our day. We walked the long way from the hotel to one of the piers where we were to take “The Spirit of Philadelphia”, a long boat ride with lunch on the boat. When we arrived, it turned out to cost nearly $50 per person, so we decided not to do it. Instead, we continued downstream on foot. Our new destination was Gloria Dei, more known as Olde Swede’s Church. And why is that? Well, in case you didn’t know this, both the Swedes and the Dutch had established colonies here quite some time before the British Quakers even arrived. The built three churches and Gloria Dei was one of them it is the oldest still standing brick building in Philly. It was a very pretty building, but not very Swedish, to be completely honest. In the pamphlet it said that they have a bible given to the new settlers by Queen Kristina, but it wasn’t on site, probably archived somewhere. After the church we walked back into town and by that time, my feet were killing me. Since I had expected to spend the day on the boat, I was wearing a pair of very nice flats, which were not the greatest shoes for walking long distances.

We ended up having lunch at Jim’s, which is supposed to be known for its great cheese-steaks. Honestly, in my opinion, it was pretty gross. Hubby wasn’t that thrilled either. When we stepped out of Jim’s, we had an argument. I have great sense of direction, my husband hasn’t. It goes as far as when in the Marine Corps, they refused to let him lead and read the map. Nevertheless, Philly is his city and I have never been here before. So when I claimed that we needed to go to the left instead of to the right like he said, he got a little… upset, and didn’t spare any words telling me so. We argued for a while and finally I gave in. I still knew we were walking further away from our goal, but hey, it was his home city, so I just went along with it, knowing he’s be the one looking like a complete idiot. We made it probably about a block and a half before he stopped, grinned sheepishly, hung his head and we turned back again. We’ve done this plenty of times before, but he NEVER learns. You just don’t question my sense of direction.

Finally on the right track, we caught one of the tourist buses, Phlash, to the Art Museum. You know in the movie Rocky where he runs up all those the steps to that catchy music? That’s the Art Museum. It’s huge and it’s very easy to get lost. It’s gorgeous though, and we saw a lot of interesting paintings. Then we went and saw an IMAX movie. It was nice to just sit down and relax for a while. The movie was 45 minutes long and then we took the Phlash back to Penn’s Landing, which is just by the hotel. By that time I was a wreck. A day under the beating sun with miles and miles of walking with only a quarter of a cheese-steak in me? Not the greatest thing. So we went and got pizza. Well, I had pizza, hubby had a Caesar Salad. Then we went back to the hotel for a nice long shower.

Wednesday-The day started out with waffles, juice and an email of acceptance from University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, so now I am officially a “Tar-Heel”-girl. I’m even going to get a student ID, even if I’m going to only take online classes and will probably never step onto the actual campus. After breakfast we took the train to the Swedish-American museum. I didn’t even know it existed until I saw it in a tourist magazine at the hotel, and we decided to go. It was a beautiful house celebrating the Swedish-American Heritage, located in a park just outside Philly. We bought some Swedish candy (guess who squealedwith happiness…) that we ate on the steps outside the building. The place was surprisingly accurate. I got to speak some Swedish with a small little lady in the gift shop. She reminded me of one of Granny’s church ladies. We took the train back into town and then out to University City. Then we saw the church where hubby used to go as a kid. We had lunch at a small Indian restaurant, it was fine but nothing spectacular. Hubby loved it though. Then we walked (yay…) to the Museum of Anthropology and Archeology. Amazing! I was in heaven. So much to see, I was like a kid in a candy store. We kept it a short day and was back at the hotel by 4. I really like Philadelphia, it’s such a beautiful city with an amazing, rich history.

Thursday- To save money, we decided to have a slow day with, yes, you guessed it, a lot of walking. We decided to walk to Chinatown, where we would have lunch. Along the way we stopped in one of those “super-touristy” stores since hubby had packed down way too few shirts and desperately needed a clean one for tomorrow. Next trip, I’m doing ALL his packing. What he did bring, was his Kung Fu suit, for no apparent reason…. As said, I’m packing next time. We (read: hubby…. I don’t like Chinese food in the first place, so this was totally his idea, I just went along with it since I know how much he loves Asian food) decided to eat at Imperial Inn, a nice looking restaurant with a very eager host. Our waitress however, turned out to be a small woman in her 50’s who was extremely rude. She barely spoke slammed our plates, glared angrily and upon being asked how she was answered “FINE!” and stomped away. All would have been well if the food had been good, which it wasn’t. I got lemon chicken, which turned out to be a rubber-like fried chicken drenched in a bittersweet sauce. I ate rice. Hubby’s food was okay.

After this we walked back to the hotel to relax for an hour before heading down to the movie theatre, We walked about 20 blocks (maybe 6 miles one way) to reach the theatre. We saw “Swing Vote” and was surprisingly engaging and very nicely done. I though it would be a comedy, which it wasn’t. We walked almost all the way back before stopping for food. Both of us were hungry and had headaches due to not eating properly earlier. Then we hurried back to the hotel to catch the season finale of “So You Think You Can Dance”. Joshua won, which was fine. I would have liked to see Katee to win, but Josh was my very second choice. Last night in Philly. It’s been a great holiday.

Friday-Today was the travelling day. We got up early to have breakfast, and then headed back to the room to pack. Around 9 we checked out and caught the free shuttle to the train station where from we headed out to the airport. After a long train ride we checked in at about 11.30. The security check went smoothly, not that many people were there that early, so a short line. We found a Body Shop in our terminal and I stacked up on body butter. The usual one I get is 50 ml and this one was 200 ml for only $20! The girl in the shop told us where to get it closer to home, since I usually have it shipped from Sweden. Hubby had another cheese-steak for lunch, this one MUCH better than the one from Jim’s. I had a chicken burger. We had a long wait at the airport since our plane didn’t leave until 3.45. When we finally arrived back home, they had lost our bag. It later turned out that it had accidentally ended up on an earlier plane, and we retrieved it successfully. We came home around 8 pm, tired but happy.