Traveling by train
This photo can not capture the sheer size of the 30th Street station. The style is very much in the grand, art deco tradition. It's a four storey building on the outside but the main concourse is one big room. The picture doesn't caputure it very well but they've maintained, and still use, the old mechanical flip board to list arrivals and departures. The sound of it changing is one of the most soothing in the world.
Architecture
I found the architecture in Philadelphia to be an interesting mix of things. This diner, circa the 1950s, is right across the street from this church (below) which is circa the early 1800s.
Flat front houses and cobblestone streets are abounded. Given that both cities were established at about the same time this looks, not surprisingly, a lot like Georgetown in DC.
The Bourse, the red brick building on the left, was, according to the plaque, the site of the first securities exchange in the U.S. It and the building next to it on the right, the gray brick, are of an archtectural style that is more typical to Chicago than the east coast. These buildings are basically right across the street from Independence Hall.
History
You used to be able to just walk across the mall to Independence Hall, stroll around, have a bit of a sit down in the park behind it. Sadly, no more.
It's still a bell. It's still cracked.
Funky Stuff/South Street
Public art is, apparently, a big deal in Philadelphia. We saw sculptures in front of apartment buildings, in parks, and this one on the South Street Pier, which is rather oddly named since it doesn't actually jut out over the river.
Someone in the public works department has a sense of humor; these buttons were embedded in the street in front of nearly every drain.
South Street is billed as the "funky" part of town, Philly's answer to the East Village. This little bit of art adorned the corner of the entrance to an second-hand furniture store.
Ear rings? T-shirts? Not sure what they're selling but the average client looked to be about 15. I liked the building, though.
This is one mosaic from a bunch that were tucked down a side street. The detail below tells the story of the faces portrayed above. Most of the larger pieces appeared to be memorials of some kind.
This is just one of many little scenes that were played out in a very detailed, very large mosaic decorating the parking pad alongside a building on that same side street.
The artist stakes a claim, in tile.
Fetish wear and ants are not two things I'd normally associate with each other but this building definitely catches the eye.
The outside of a bar and 2nd and South streets.
By far, the strangest thing to be seen was this plaque embedded in the sidewalk outside the Curtis Center, the site of much publishing activity and a historic landmark building.