Friday 8. October 2010
After a day of sightseeing in Washington DC, we take the train the next day to Philadelphia with our bikes. From the tracks, we see the backside of the towns we pass with closed-down and smashed factories, mean houses, but also woods and rivers which we cross on fine bridges. The main station in Philadelphia is very imposing, and after crossing a couple of streets and a bridge over the river, we are on a bicycle path along the Schuylkill river which we follow all the way to Valley Forge, where we intend to spend the night. The path follows the river closely which means that we do not pass any hotels on the way, but after a bit of reconnoitering with the help of the iPhone, we find a fine hotel where we spend the night.Saturday 9. October 2010
After a somewhat disturbed night with a noisy party in the next room, we are ready to set out again the next morning at around 9:30 a.m. We start out at the nearby Mall to get a map of the area, but they don´t open up till 10, so we get a map at a gas station. We are heading for a place called Titus Inn, 30 kms away. On the way we pass through Valley Forge, the site of General Washington´s winter quarters during the American Revolutionary War. The area is a national historical park with recreated buildings and structures, memorials and a Visitor Centre. As we pass through on this lovely sunny autumn day, it is difficult to imagine the rigours of the cold and damp winter of 1777/78. The bicycle path through the area winds up and down, making it necessary to push the bikes some of the way. We reach the Titus Inn around 3 p.m., but the place is no longer functioning as an inn, and we have to find other accomodation. This brings us a further 11 kms north to Pottstown, where we find a good hotel.