TRIP REPORT: Polishing Silver - Into Philadelphia and Climbing Rocky's Steps

Into Philadelipa and Climbing Rocky’s Steps
Polishing Silver

We all know the music. We all know the film. But let’s go beyond Rocky and walk through the Streets of Philadelphia, as I make the most of an eight-hour layover.

Because, being stuck in an airport lounge for eight hours and beyond is no one’s idea of fun (unless it’s a really exceptional lounge and you can’t get out of the airport).

In this Tier Point-laden adventure

Climbing Rocky’s Steps and the Streets of Philadelphia.

Exiting the 787, I began to remember why I avoided Philly normally as an ingress into the USA- as it’s a long walk to anywhere, as I made my way from A West to … somewhere.

Where, I wasn’t sure.

… I’ll wait for the end of time…

With a 7-hour plus layover, I toyed with the idea of listing for another flight – but then realised that the flight I was on was the flight to San Francisco was the next flight.

With that realisation in place, I knew where I wanted to be – and it wasn’t going to be sat in an airport lounge for hours on end. On arrival, things looked nice, bright and dry.

Hmm. This guy on the right. He seems local.

I exited the secure area and found my way to the trains from the airport to the city centre.

Past the point of no return…

SEPTA has three different price levels – $6.50 with SEPTA Key (their regional travel card), Quick trip via a vending machine for $6.75 or an $8 Cash fare.

It pays to pay beforehand. Whilst I could enjoy another eWallet card that I won’t use in a long time, honestly, for a 50-cent/$1 total saving, I just dealt with QuickTrips. These are issued on magnetic fare cards.

The one thing for travellers that might be annoying – is the timing of the trains. Thankfully, they’re on a clock-face timetable. On the downside, they’re timed for every 30 minutes. That does make things like taxis and rideshares a lot more than viable if you’re time-constrained. I had time to play with it, so I was “fine”.

Its times like this I wish agencies tried a quarter-hourly service to airports – it would drive the use of the line upward with people being able to trust a regular option.

As we know in aviation, routes are wonderful. Frequency is better. More frequency allows for flexibility for passengers, as well as increased operations – with SETPA having an S-Bahn-style city tunnel.

Eventually, a train came to head up to Terminal F, before shuttling down the line to pick me up.

The trains are in the clear-coated steel colour, which has a habit of dating a train… quickly, no matter how modern they are, be it a Silverliner IV or V.

Thanks for the ride over the pond.

Time is an illusion

Shhh.

Nonetheless, the train made good progress out of Philadelphia Airport, with ticket checks along the way to ensure people were paying – either by pre-paid ticket or their Key cards. Notably, I didn’t see anyone reach for cash.

Approaching 30th Street station

I decided that to get where I wanted to go, I would take the train to Suburban Station, then a bus up to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Because I wanted to challenge myself.

There’s a post I put out which explains more coming up as part of this trip report, but I have been slowly recovering myself. Whilst 72 steps isn’t a lot… It can be symbolic climbing those steps.

The train loaded up a little whilst I continued my travel to Surban station, with regular manual announcements.

Eventually, the train arrived at the station I wanted, so I hopped off and headed upstairs.

Whilst I could have followed the map here, where’s the fun in that?

Exiting the station, one can either tap a contactless card (the SEPTA key) or swipe a Quicktrip to exit.

I guess the fascination with magnetic fare media in the USA is still a thing (or they could partner with a company that allows contactless payments to go through the entire system… nahhhhhhhhhh).

I wander along a little aimlessness – well, following some signs badly. Eventually, I popped out into a food court and eventually into the open air, about a block from where I needed to be next.

With Google Maps telling me a bus was nearby that would take me to the Art museum, I followed the map.

Although this bus stop sign was reasonably well-hidden

Thankfully, whilst the regional rail requires payment by Key or QuickTrip, the bus network can use contactless payments. Here’s the point where I give up. Make a decision, please…

From here, there was… another priority whilst I was on the bus.

Regular readers will know I play a little Augmented Reality game called “Pokemon Go”. It’s one of the few things that have kept me sane over the past few years. Philladelipa and the region around it have something unique to it – a regional Pokemon- Bouffalant.

It’s catchable in New York and the surrounding regions – with Philladelipa being in line. And the glyphs for it were popping up left right and centre. All I had to do was catch one. Or a lot of them (they become good trading material).

Thankfully, one block into the bus ride, one was in my possession.

The IVs might be awful, but a catch is a catch.

Now to catch a lot more of them.

Whilst the bus was travelling, I kept an eye out on the world, but something was nagging in my brain. I’d deal with that later.

With the Art Museum coming into view, I hopped off the bus and walked towards the traffic that the museum sits on.

And there’s a statue of a certain fictional character The Musem Steps have another name – The Rocky Steps. Next to it, is a statue of a certain Rocky Balboa from around Rocky III. The one with “The Eye of the Survivor”.

There’s a rule that a photo must be captured here. And here it is.

Let’s move on. 72 steps between me and… something. A mental breakthrough, or just another step forward.

I’m not sure.

But I headed for the centre line of the steps, with no support and climbed the steps.

And I made it. I might have not run up the steps like Rocky did in the film, but I conquered one of my own battles, which my leg has given me over the past few years.

Each small will, I will take.

It’s also a great position to get some views of downtown Philly. Which is nice.

After making it to the top museum steps, I stood, texted some views out, then started heading down

After all, what goes up, must come down. Although I’ve found going up things is a lot easier than going down, so a bit of care has to be taken.

With me down on the floor level, I decided to follow my nose back to the downtown core and walk it.

Might as well keep the legs active and moaning.

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot…

Walking down Benjamin Franklin Parkway, there are a few sights on the way – as well as the flags, there’s also a museum dedicated to Rodin.

The Thinker – Rodin

I’ve always liked his works, so it’s good to see some of the exhibits outside where you can view them.

Especially when you can visit the Gates of Hell.

The Gates of Hell – Rodin

After humming “Fly me to the Moon” more than a couple of times (I blame Bayonetta), I continued my walking experience of Philadelphia, as I headed towards Logan Square and to Love Park.

Now the thing that was bugging me in my mind was simple. Had I brought a US Power Adaptor with me?

I did a quick dive through the bags and found nothing.

Is this what they mean by giving someone a pegging?

That was annoying. By this time, I had reached the shopping district of Central Philadelphia, so it was time to see what I could find. FiveBelow had nothing (and nothing fivebelow really). The next stop was Walgreens – which can normally be found to have some travellers-related crap – no dice there. Although I ended up walking out with a Hello Kitty Squishmallow.

Don’t underestimate anyone’s love of Squishmallows.

So we have that.

I grumbled and gave in, and plotted a course to an Apple store – thankfully now in walking distance.

I had a poke around, as I needed the bit on the end of the adaptor that converted the US Plug to power. Originally, I was pointed at a 35-watt device, but another member of staff pointed out that a $17 adaptor would do the trick – sure it outputs 12 watts, but I could put that plug on my to convert it from British to USA pins.

That was done, dusted and charged.

Sometimes, a bit of logic and help works in those Apple stores.

I was in a celebration mood as that cloud had been lifted from my mind. That ended when I stopped to park in a Starbucks for 30 minutes. I went through my bags again and into the memory card bag.

What is in my memory card bag? You’ve guessed it – a multi-plug adaptor.

I wasn’t in the mood to return the item I bought – I go to the US enough to keep this as part of my usual tech setup, so as much as I liked to moan about spending $17 for nothing… it is going to be used. I can live with it.

Checking the clock, however, time was starting to tick on.

I gathered my stuff together – ensuring one bag had all the electronics in, whilst the other was empty of water bottles. With that, I made my way back to Suburban Station.

Another $6.75 later, I had a ticket back to the airport.

Give me steam…

It was time to say goodbye to the streets of Philadelphia and go back to dreams of the land of the Golden Gate Bridge.

On the plus side, this train looked a little newer, with the seat covers not as mangled as before.

And I was glad for the rest at this point – walking around the streets of Philadelphia was good to explore… but my calf muscles disagreed that I made them work.

If only they knew what was in for them over the next few days…

Philadelphia Airport and the American Airlines Admirals Club Lounge, Terminal B/C.

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TRIP REPORT: Polishing Silver – Into Philadelphia and Climbing Rocky’s Steps

Into Philadelipa and Climbing Rocky’s Steps
Polishing Silver

Climbing Rocky’s Steps and the Streets of Philadelphia.

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Into Philadelipa and Climbing Rocky’s Steps Polishing Silver

Climbing Rocky’s Steps and the Streets of Philadelphia.

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Into Philadelipa and Climbing Rocky’s Steps
Polishing Silver