#giantfrog

My first visit to Philadelphia

It has been such a long time since I've blogged I feel like I have forgotton how to use Tumblr.

Anyway, I am in Philadelphia for the first time for the Premier League Summer series and I am I have been very touristy so far. I arrived yesterday afternoon and knowing that Fridays after 5pm are "pay what you like" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I decided to use that as a way to try to stay awake as long as possible.

I really wanted to see their collection of armour, I know they have a lot of Milanese stuff which is always beautiful. Unfortunatly the gallery was closed for renovation but I was thankful that a few pieces of armour and some weapons were on display, including a Viking sword from 850!

I mostly looked at their European collection which seemed to have a heavy ecclesiastical focus, lots of stained glass and bits of old buildings that have been lugged across the atlantic. The lady at the front desk reccomended I see Rubens' painting of Prometheus getting his liver eaten by an eagle and, while certainly not a cheery painting, I did like it a lot.

When I left I went out via the Rocky steps and statue. I have never actually seen the movies, but it seemed rude not to and of course some bloke was actually running up the steps as well.

I also explored the immediate area where I am staying - there is a lot of cool street art and murals nearby and the building next door is a trade union headquarters which makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

Today I went to the National Jewish Museum. I walked there via Chinatown (one of the biggest and busiest I have been to in the last few years). The museum is free and focuses specifically on the Jewish American experience and because of that focus I felt that I really learned a lot. I particularly enjoyed the section about Jewish pioneers going out west on their waggons in the 1800s and the section about the civil rights movements of the 20th century.

After a break for some lunch and a bit of planning for the next few days I took a walk up to the City Hall building which is one of the biggest I have ever seen. I really enjoyed it until I walked into the central courtyard which, though lovely, reminded me very strongly of the courtyard of the building I work in at home which slightly dampened my holiday mood. There were also loads of Chelsea fans milling around there ahead of their game against Brighton - all the more reason to move swiftly on. I went to Rittenhouse Square which is a park surrounded by cool old buildings and fancy shops and restaurants. My favourite thing was the frog sculpture, aptly named "Giant Frog".

I got sushi for dinner on the way home and now I am resting my aching feet ready for game day tomorrow. I am very much enjoying Philly so far.

EDIT: It looks like you can no longer caption pictures on Tumblr - I had added what I thought were captions to the image descriptions but you can't see them on the post, so:

Image 1: The trade union building next door to me is named after this guy

Image 3: The building opposite me has an entire mural wall

Image 4: The lifts at PMA were pretty impressive

Image 7: The view from the steps

Image 12: The Jewish Museum's street art contribution

Image 14: City Hall (stock photo) It was too big for me to get a photo without something obstructing the view and / or not getting it all in. Such an impressive building!