First things first: food, of course. An authentic Philly cheesesteak sandwich, in Philly. See photo below. For some reason I had expected these cheesesteaks to be huge and elaborate concoctions, dripping with dressings and stuffed to the brim with mixed vegetables. In fact, meat and cheese and bread is all you get, with optional onions. And they're not really all that big. But hot diggity damn, they're good.
Of course, there's more to Philadelphia than just those grease-laden slabs of artery-clogging lard, splendid as they are. Philly is also an important part of my ongoing musical odyssey through the USA. Places like Memphis, Nashville, Detroit, New Orleans, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle need no introduction: Philly is more like St Louis or Muscle Shoals, in that you have to be a bit of a music geek (like me) to understand its musical legacy. There isn't any one artist or studio that really stands out, like Elvis in Memphis or Motown in Detroit. It's probably easiest just to quote the song titles: 'Could It Be I'm Falling In Love', 'Love Train', 'If You Don't Know Me By Now', 'Don't Leave Me This Way', 'La La Means I Love You', 'You Make Me Feel Brand New', 'Now That We've Found Love What Are We Gonna Do With It'. All that kind of thing. That's Philly soul.
There's also a long tradition of movies being filmed here, like 'Trading Places' and 'The Sixth Sense', and most notably 'Rocky'. There's a Rocky statue near the bottom of those famous steps, and of course at the top of the steps there are always tourists photographing each other jumping up in the air. I saw one guy make his wife stand at the bottom filming while he ran up the whole 72 steps, shadow-boxing all the way. Idiot.
On the whole, Philadelphia is a strong contender for a place in my top five American cities. It's big & thriving, but not too crowded, and it has plenty of interesting shabby-genteel neighbourhoods perched just on the right side of that precarious divide between bohemianism and pretentiousness. Only 90 minutes by train from New York, too. Y'all should give it a try, next time you're passing.
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| George Washington in the foreground, 'Rocky steps' in the background |
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| The view from the top of the steps |
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| Further back from the top of the steps, nearer the museum entrance |
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| Downtown Philly seen from the east, halfway across the Benjamin Franklin bridge |
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| Neoclassical / Art Deco splendour at 30th Street Station (completed 1933) |
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| Edd vs Food #40 A Philly cheesesteak (obvs) from Pat's King Of Steaks, 1237 East Passyunk Avenue, South Philadelphia. See above. |
