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Day Six
Board the Acela Express to Philadelphia: 1hour 30minutes later we arrive. We were "entertained" the whole way by the typical loud mouth American. There wasn't anything this guy didn't know about.
Short taxi trip to the Hotel Monaco located in the Historic area of the city just across the street from the Liberty Bell. Got a free upgrade to our room which was nice; too bad the same can be said for the decor. Terrible wallpaper and carpeting that doesn't match. Just as well we won't be spending much time in there.
Dump the bags off and head out for a squiz of what's around. Philadelphia was once the capital of the US, and the Declaration of Independence was composed and signed here. So there are a lot of statues and memorials nearby.
Beer o'çlock beckoned so we had a couple of drinks while deciding where to eat for dinner. A local suggested the City Tavern Restaurant which had been frequented by the Ben Franklin and others while they were writing the Declaration of Independence. The place is in the style of those days including the staff wearing period dress. The food was terrific (we had braised rabbit, and slow cooked duck) washed down by a punch (aptly named:bloody strong).
Day Seven
Booked a tour on an amphibious duck that visited all of the city landmarks. Highlight was the duck launching into the Delaware River a short cruise. We also saw the Rocky steps. It was all a bit of fun with lots of duck jokes by the tour guide.
Finished the tour and lined up to see the Liberty Bell. The bell is smaller than what we thought it would be, but it's very impressive. It's one of the most visited historic landmarks in the US.
I think the guy from the train has a brother because the person standing in front of us knew everything about the history of Philadelphia (he could also speak French fluently), and was boring the ears off the people he was with.
A short walk to the US Mint where thousands of coins are made daily. You can watch the process from above. They were making a commemorative gold coin which was about the size of the bottom of a mug and valued at $2500. There would've been 12-15000 of them waiting to be polished and boxed. No samples!
Head off to New Yark City tomorrow by train.
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