BERMUDA AND NEW ENGLAND IN SPRING - PHILLY

Saturday 13 May 1995 At 40,000 feet – South of Denver

As soon as I stopped writing last night, we dropped about 6,000 feet out of the tailwinds which were giving us a boost – and some bumps.. the speed dropped by about 150 kph and the turbulence stopped completely. I watched Stargate to the end – what a crock. Sorry I wasted my eyes. Preposterous is the word I used to Rab. No plot, no logic, no sense.

Anyway I didn’t have a problem going to sleep afterwards. Slept about five and a half hours and only woke when Rolf the steward insisted on offering an orange juice and a hot towel. Rab also slept well. I reckon the combined effect of the red wine and the very comfortable Qantas seats were what did it. We often recall the discomfort of the trips in Economy on Air Zimbabwe Boeing 707 aircraft and revel in the luxury of what we have now.

Breakfast was excellent, as was dinner last night. We have tried to pace ourselves but it is very tempting when so much good tucker is spread before you. Last night we each had caviar starters then Rab had the roast beef while I had what was termed Sand Lobster, which tasted rather like a Balmain bug to me. Both courses were delicious. A bit of excellent cheese followed a slice of ice cream which we shared. This morning it was berries followed by a mandarin pancake with a bit of bacon. All enjoyable and fairly restrained, although we did overdo it a bit for lunch and hour or so ago.

We are flying USAir and although people like Ken MacDonald knock the airline with his constant references to ScareAir, it has proved so far to be vastly superior to United. Apart from the check in chick, who was as sour as a pickled gherkin, everyone has been very pleasant – and the food was good and well served. Smoked salmon starter: very good salad: then pepper steak for me and honey chicken for Rab. I tried the Californian Merlot which was good as was the Cab Sav last night. Maybe the loss of weight combined with the removal of stress has dealt with the problems I have had with wine over the past few years. That would be great, although it is a bit early to tell. (The problems with wine I refer to was an ongoing issue which saw me develop very bad gastro-oesophageal reflux after drinking some wines. White wines and, in particular French wines  were the worst as were some of the acid Australian whites like Chardonnay. I eventually discovered that it was the French yeasts that were causing the problem – so I drank South African, German and Italian whites with impunity.)

Our arrival and departure into Los Angeles was uneventful. It was a lovely day – fairly cool and not humid. The first bit of land we saw was Catalina Island and then we had a good view of the city with a low approach from the South. Customs and Immigration were cleared quickly although the luggage seemed to take forever which made us wonder if the term “Priority Baggage” had no meaning in the US. After putting our suitcases onto the interline transfer we strolled down to the USAir terminal, glad to stretch our legs after the long flight which took, as stated 12 hours and 25 minutes, about an hour and a half less than the reverse journey, thanks to the winds. It was a little before we took off in Sydney, having gone back a day on the way.

We had about three hours between flights and after wandering around the two or three shops in the terminal we took it easy in the Club Lounge. I felt a bit woozy but not too bad at all bearing in mind that it was about 24 hours after leaving home that we boarded this flight. In fact, as we were sitting in the lounge, Rab remarked that Matt would just be getting home. 

Sunday 14 May 1995  Mothers’ Day in Philadelphia

We had a pretty good trip with USAir – 100% better than United, no doubt about that: smiling faces and a bit of chit chat. Philadelphia looked good coming in and it was a balmy evening. The cab driver was surly but little Antonio at the hotel made up for that. A delightful little bloke from Buenos Aires – full of information and tips. By the time we got to the hotel it was about 22.00 so we decided to go for a stroll before turning in.

Bearing in mind Antonio’s warnings not to stray from Second Street, we wandered along until we got to Walnut and then headed along there. The district where the hotel is (Penn View Inn) is close to the historical part of town but not quite in it. So a good deal of the area is run down and/or in the process of being renovated. What was interesting was the appalling state of the sidewalks. Cracks, bumps and holes abound. You would think that with the amount of litigation there is in this country they would use more care to prevent accidents.

There were few people around, all in shirt sleeves, so they obviously thought it was warm. We finally landed up at a theatre where ‘Lust’ was running. We saw the show in London last year and wanted to get a tape of the music – which had  not been available in London. So we popped in to see if they had one, but no  dice. Anyway, we had a cappuccino in a paper cup. At US$3.00/AU$4.00 it was not cheap. And not a patch on a Melbourne cup.

The stroll back was uneventful and we finally got to bed just after midnight, after Rab had insisted on washing the ‘smalls’. I felt pooped and dropped off to sleep very quickly but slept fitfully, waking every half hour or so until about 02.30. then I did have a good couple of hours but we were both wide awake at 04.30. we finally got up at about five-ish and had a cup of coffee, thanks to our travelling kettle. Cannot think why American hotels do not provide coffee making facilities, especially as there is no room service to speak of. We had a pleasant breakfast – just fruit and cereal – and a stroll around the block. We decided to take Antonio’s advice and do the trolley tour which was due to start in about ten minutes.

It turned out to be a good day, despite the deterioration in the weather conditions. It is true that showers were predicted, but the temperature did not rise as they said it would. The guide on the tour was a very chirpy woman from Savannah – she was a little too chirpy for me, but as I seemed to be in the minority I said nothing.

The route wound back and forth through the old part of town. Daylight certainly didn’t improve some of the places we had seen the night before which are in a very poor condition. Apparently the plan is to spend a good deal on the renovations and they have a long way to go. There are some beautiful houses in the gentrified bit past Society Hill which shows what can be done.

 

The city looked attractive to us as we drove through it and there are many remarkable sculptures everywhere. There was a lot of activity on the river – the Schuylkill – and the park, which is huge. A marathon was being run at the same time as the annual regatta, as they term the rowing competition so there were cars and people everywhere. It was still a pleasant trip though and well worthwhile.

We hopped off the trolley at the shelter that houses the Liberty Bell. I guess finally seeing it was a bit of a let down because there was so much hype before we got there. The guides were really quite emotional about it but the bloke doing the final presentation was as boring as bat shit. So we moved on …… to do a bit of shopping. Surprise! Surprise!

Mind you, there were a couple of things we had to get, including a new pair of walking shoes for me. Nothing opened until 12.00 and there were surprisingly few people about. I don’t know whether this was because it was Mothers’’ Day or  because the city is so much smaller than Melbourne with a population of just over one million. We had a bite to eat – me Cajun chicken with red beans and rice; Rab had a chilli dog – before starting to break in my new shoes with a long tramp down to South Street. (Rab had not brought anything warm to wear – trusting the forecast, so she was feeling pretty chilly. She suggested going back to the hotel but I said I was sure we could find something cheap and cheerful to buy in one of the many bargain marts. She picked out a brightly coloured padded jacket which she christened her ‘Turkish Delight’ which she thought she’d abandon as soon as it had done its service. That turned out to be about ten or fifteen years and she took it everywhere. Useful as a jacket, as a pillow, as padding for a hard seat.) This had been touted as ‘a real cute area’ littered with fascinating shops and people. Well, it was and it wasn’t. plenty of advertisements for tattoos and body piercing and more psychic fortune tellers. These people have premises all over town , which seems a little odd given the nature of the Quaker history of the city. As we got to the outdoor market, it came on to rain quite heavily and although we popped into a café for a cappuccino (in a cardboard cup again!), it was still raining heavily so we grabbed a cab and headed back to the hotel. 

Rab had a bit of a snooze while I tried to work out how to tune her new all wave radio. (We had bought this so she could keep in touch with her beloved news programs, having learned on previous  visits to the US that there was very little news of the outside world. I never could get it to work well enough to listen to.) The rain had cleared up by about sixish so we decided to go out again for a meal rather than eat down in the hotel dining room, especially as they were going to close the kitchen at 20.00! Something we had noticed at a few restaurants as we were walking around was how early meals were served – one offered dinner being served between 15.00 and 20.00.

We found a nice little Italian restaurant where the food was reasonable – about $10 a head  - but where the wine was very expensive. Nothing under $20 a bottle and most of it closer to $30. that’s about A$45 including tax and a tip (suggested at between 15% and 18%). (Tipping was always awkward for Australians because at that time very few tips were given. That gave rise to a joke about the difference between an Australian and a canoe – the canoe will tip sometimes.). So we gave the vino a miss and had a couple of good Italian beers. (Again, previous experience had showed us that it was not easy to get a good beer in the US. As one Aussie pal of ours put it, most US beer is like fornicating on a river bank – ****ing close to water.) The pasta was excellent and the serving was so generous that I have serious concerns about my weight. I really must avoid putting on what has taken quite an effort to get rid of.

It was quite cool walking back to the hotel and there were more people about – mind you it was earlier than last night so perhaps the God-fearing people of Philadelphia still believe Ben Franklin’s saw about ‘early to be early to rise”. We were paused (as opposed to stopped) by a fairly well dressed and well spoken white beggar but declined to support him. We did give a donation to another bloke a bit further on -  tall, skinny black fellow who was playing Misty with great effect in a doorway just down the block from the liquor store. It is surprising how many black people there are here. At the mall where we did our shopping only one in ten of the passersby  was white – I took a census there while waiting for Rab.

So it is a funny mixture of a place is Philly.