Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: Round The World 2015
To the City of Brotherly Love
I had the best sleep of the trip so far - 8hrs out for the count, followed by 1.5hrs of light dozing - and I really felt the benefit. And what a day to wake up to! Exactly as forecast, Thursday's horrid rain had given way to clear blue skies, bright sunshine and a markedly fresher feel. Due to the slightly awkward location of the hotel, I felt that the effort involved in going anywhere for the remainder of the morning was disproportionate to time available - which is a fancy way of saying that I decided to spend a few more hours being reprehensibly lazy, lying on top of my bed, catching up on my trip notes and somewhat aimlessly surfing the web.
We checked out of Springhill Suites at noon and
Bruce booked an Uber to Reagan National, which seemed by far the
easiest way to get to our rental car pick-up point. As it turned
out, we got the most clueless driver in any of our combined joint
and individual experience, but with help from ourselves he
eventually got us there, as a grand finale dropping us off while facing
the wrong way on a one-way road.
We quickly picked up our own set of wheels, a rather nice Nissan
Altima.
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| ABOVE: Well that's a bit confusing ... and so is that! (to a Scotsman) | |
Our journey took us first across the Potomac River on I-495, passing Andrews Air Force Base and eventually joining Hwy50 heading east. We found a branch of Panera Bread at Bowie, Maryland and took a short break for a soup-and-sandwich lunch. Continuing east on 50/301 we passed close to Annapolis, which I would be visiting the following week, before taking the spectacular Chesapeake Bay Bridge to the so-called Delmarva Peninsula (the name deriving from the three states - Delaware, Maryland and Virginia - having territory there).
Continuing north on Hwy301 took us into Delaware, making this my first visit to the USA's second-smallest state, even if my feet never touched its soil. We eventually joined I-95 at Newark, DE and experienced very busy road conditions past Wilmington and all the way to Philadelphia. On exiting the freeway, we crawled through hopelessly congested city streets until we reached our weekend hotel in darkness.
I had only ever made one visit to Philly, the largest city in Pennsylvania but not its capital. Standing at the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, the city played a pivotal role in the founding of the USA, being the place where both the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution were signed. The city's name derives from the Greek for 'brotherly love'.
Various issues became apparent as we settled into the DoubleTree Center City on S Broad St (a.k.a. Avenue of the Arts) - see 'Hotels' section on the black menu bar above. Our almost compulsory visit to the Executive Lounge turned out to be a huge mistake on this occasion, due to the facility's complete lack of any concept of ambience. We each had a bizarrely small glass of wine (poured by the attendant) and decided to relocate to the main hotel bar and restaurant. Bruce had a Hendrick's gin and some soup, while I had a Manhattan and some turkey chilli, which made an interesting change from the usual beef. The venue was very busy and really noisy, as Sunday was the day of the Philadelphia Marathon, plus various associated events.