We arrived in Philadelphia Thursday 17th March in the afternoon about 3.30pm after a painless megabus journey, and attempted to find a bus to take us closer to our hotel. Unfortunately we couldn't find any helpful information and no-one wanted to help us either so we gave in and jumped in a taxi. We arrived at the swanky Radisson Warwick Plaza hotel and after a small heart attack of the receptionist not being able to find out reservation, we got it all sorted out and we made our way up to the 12th floor to our 'business class' King size deluxe room…it was AMAZING!! As it was St Patrick's Day we thought we had better find an Irish bar to have at least one drink (!). So after we got settled in our GIANT room, we went for a work out at the gym and got ready. We found out that as part of being 'business class' we got to use the 'business class lounge' where from 5-7 we could get free drinks and light snacks…score! So we had a few nibbles and a couple of glasses of wine and then went to find a fun Irish bar to celebrate St Paddys properly. The first bar we came across wanted to charge us $10 cover charge, but as we also hadn't eaten we thought we'd go somewhere else and get some food and maybe try find a cheaper bar. We found an 'Applebees' for dinner and had a couple of green margaritas with our meal, then we somehow fell upon this rather busy looking place full of young looking people wearing green and seemingly having a good time and the cover charge was only $5 - so we shimmied our way in. It turned out to be some sort of student bar, rammed full of merry people, so we got on board with the $4 absolut vodkas and attempted to catch up with the levels of intoxication surrounding us - it was good fun!

Friday morning I awoke feeling a little fuzzy headed, Ben was feeling pretty awful. So we went down to breakfast (in our business class lounge again!), had some cereal and caffeine but decided it would be best to get back into our awesomely huge bed until we felt a little better! We knew that there wasn't a hell of a lot to do in Philly so it seemed silly to force ourselves to go out when we were feeling rubbish. Anyway Ben had a nap and I bummed about for a bit watching a marathon of 'House' until midday then we got out lazy bums out of bed and got out and about. As our hotel was right by Walnut Street - where all the shops are we strolled past and in and out of a couple of shops then headed for some lunch. We ended up eating at another Irish bar and had a very cheap lunch - soup and a sandwich for $4!! It was a really warm sunny day (warmest since October) so we sat by the big open French doors in the sun. I spent the day in a VEST TOP which I wasn't expecting to happen again on the trip! After lunch we walked down to Logan Square, had a look at some of the statues and the fountain (which obviously wasn't working). We then popped into St Peter&St Paul's Cathedral which was spectacular inside full of intricate gold decorations and shrines everywhere. Next we strolled down Benjamin Franklin Parkway adorned with all the flags of the world flying high. It led us to the Art Institute of Philadelphia which Rocky immortalised by running up the stairs. So we saw the Rocky statue then ran up the stairs (ok we might have just pretended as we weren't really dressed for a run!). There were a lot of people actually running up and down which was amusing to watch. There was an awesome view of the city from the stairs too. As we were at the Art Museum we thought we may as well pop in and look around for a couple of hours. At 5pm it was closing time and we were arted out and tired anyway so we strolled all the way back to our hotel. I hit the gym again and went all out. So after a hot shower and having got into my dressing gown (first time I've worn one of them for 6 months!) I didn't really fancy heading out again. So we ordered room service with a glass of wine and stayed in our huge bed watching TV for the evening.

Saturday morning Ben got up very early to go and queue outside the Apple Store for an Ipad 2 for his brother - unfortunately he queued for 2 hours and had no luck! So I got a bit of a lie in and when he got back we went for breakfast. We hadn't realised that our 'business class breakfast' was only on week days so we had to go eat 'brunch' in the restaurant - had a rather nice eggs benedict. We then got ready and headed out to the old part of the city. We was the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington Square, we queued up and got to see the Liberty Bell, we then looked at the old constitution documents then for a tour of the original congress hall (before it moved to DC). Next we went inside the 2nd Bank of America which now holds a collection of portraits of historic American people. We went to the Independence visitor centre next but couldn't get tickets for a tour of the Independence Hall. We walked past Benjamin Franklin's burial site to Penn's Landing, though there wasn't much to see there. Next we found a delightful little pub called 'Rotten Rogers' which was appropriate as we wanted to try a dirty Philly Cheesesteak which was pretty gross! We then walked to Elfreth's Alley which is one of the oldest streets in the USA. Then we meandered to Franklin Square which is a cute little park which looks like it would be really fun in the summer but everything was shut. So after a full day of sightseeing we were pretty knackered and walked back to our hotel via China Town. Ben went to the gym that evening while I watched Charlie's Angels! We went for a light salad for dinner as we still felt pretty gross after the cheesesteak. It was quite a cool restaurant that the receptionist recommended and we had a couple of glasses of wine as they were on offer. After dinner we thought we'd go check out our hotel bar as there was apparently a karaoke night on which we thought might be a laugh to watch. It was a funky/classy bar, though we were clearly the youngest clientele there! The karaoke was off in a bit of a side room so it wasn't too awful and loud. We splashed out and had a couple of really nice cocktails, though unfortunately the moody barman ruined the atmosphere a little but we still enjoyed.

Sunday morning I got up and hit the gym, then Ben got up and went while I skyped the family. So by the time we had actually got ready it was about 12.30pm which meant there was only one thing to do - proper brunch. I found this really cool little place called Devil's Alley and we had an amazing trio of eggs benedict and (as instructed by my Mother) a mimosa to complete our 'proper brunch'! We picked up a Starbucks after as we had a rather long walk up to the Eastern State Penitentiary. We got the audio tour and began a bit of an epic tour of the place. It was really interesting, looked like a castle from the outside and inside it was in a state of 'semi-ruin' as it had been left to nature for quite a few years. The tour was kind of intense and we ended up staying for a rather long time. We walked back through the city afterwards via the 'LOVE' sign and City Hall which was very impressive. We got back to the hotel in perfect time for Happy hour drinks and light snacks again, so we relaxed in the lounge for a bit and had a few nibbles and some wine. I had been going on all day about wanting a Roast Dinner after speaking to my family about it, and as I was reading this magazine I found an 'English Pub' which has great reviews and was just around the corner from our hotel. So when we were ready we went to 'The Peacock'. It was kind of concealed - from the outside you would easily walk past without knowing what was inside - which was quite a treat. It was pretty impressive with different 'English themed rooms', we were in the 'dog room' full of pictures and figurines of doggies, there was a gentlemen's lounge, an English tea room, a wooden bar with two open real fireplaces, it was all quite dimly lit and had a great ambiance to it. We couldn't afford the real roast dinner but we did have an absolutely amazing pork belly dish with a decent amount of CRACKLING and a nice glass of wine - delicious!

Monday morning it was time to leave Philly and head to our LAST STOP of the trip!! We didn't have to check out until 12pm so I hit the gym again, we had our last breakfast, and then we spent the morning packing and relaxing and making the most of our amazing room! We bid farewell to the lovely Radisson then got the bus to the station to then get our last megabus to NEW YORK!! I did enjoy Philly - a lot more than I thought I was going to as I'd got scared into thinking it was a bit of a dangerous place, but as we were staying in such a nice area we didn't experience any danger at all. It also seems like Philly has invested a lot of money into tourism and it feels like it is definitely an up and coming place to go to - especially if you are interested in American History. So Cheerio Philly, it was short and sweet, now onto the final chapter….