Oh what a day!

Hello!

Hittite Artifact; Storm God, Teshub

Robert woke up at 5 am, an hour before the alarm was set, and once he was up, I was up … so.  I had repacked last night, so there wasn’t much to do this morning, just shower and down to breakfast. 

Treaty by Sargon II mentioning Midas and Gordion

The hotel was SO crowded over the long weekend, and now it’s almost deserted – feels very odd!  Checked out of the hotel, and were on our way to the DC Circulator Bus to Union Station.  Only had a few minutes to wait, and it’s again a really sunny and warm morning in DC.  We waited on the bus until it traveled from the front of Union Station to the inside bus station part, and got off. 

Grave goods found in Midas' father's grave

Beautiful metal work on grave goods

Pot holding funeral feast and ladle

From there, it wasn’t far to the train tracks, although we had to wait for an hour or so for them to post.  (We know, of course, that one shouldn’t arrive too far in advance to catch a train, but old habits die hard and we just can’t help it!)  Finally got a track, which wasn’t far from where we were sitting, and we were second in line for coach class.  Through the gate easily, and on to the first car after the business class car.  Low and behold, we were in the “quiet car” although we hadn’t necessarily intended to sit there – no cell phone conversations, and no loud talking. Fortunately, the train car itself was very comfortable, with suitcase storage above, and very comfy seats below.  The train left on time, and we had four stops along the way before getting off at 30^th Street Station in Philadelphia.  We’re here!

The last time we were in Philadelphia, we were with Mom and Kitty – and while seniors can travel for FREE on Philadelphia public transit, I had to PAY!  So!  This time, I’m free too!  YEAH!  However, while the first guy told us that we had to show picture ID, the second guy we ran into was very specific about requiring Medicare cards, not picture IDs since they would identify us as out-of-state visitors!  Whatever – we had those too, and I have to say, this free business is pretty nice!

Stunning pottery

Found in a young child's tumulus grave

From the train station, it was just half a block to the Blue Line subway, and once we were there, we just rode to 2^nd Street and Market.  Very convenient hotel, that’s for sure!  We’re staying just a couple of blocks from the Metro (or whatever they call it here …) Walked to the Best Western Independence Park Hotel.  It’s really a lovely place, in a terrific area, but as it was just on noon, our room wasn’t yet ready.  However, they very nicely locked up our luggage and we were then free to retrace our steps on the subway back past the train station to 34^th street and the University of Pennsylvania Museum on the Penn campus. 

Queen Puabi's headdress from Ur

Side view of headdress

Now, the one thing that we both remembered from our last visit to this museum, to see the Mesopotamian Puabi exhibit and the cemetery of Ur, was that there is an old part and a new part of the building … and the old part isn’t air conditioned!  Might not have been much of a problem on a winter’s day, but today it’s over 90 and very, very humid!  UGH!  Got into the air-conditioned part of the museum, and decided to head first to their small café and get something for lunch.  As it turned out, there wasn’t much to speak of, but I ended up with a fairly decent tuna salad sandwich, and R had a mozzarella and tomato wrap, which he said wasn’t bad.  (Although we should have stopped at one of the wonderful-smelling places we passed on our route!!) 

Finished lunch and headed back to the special exhibition on King Midas, (air conditioned!) with many artifacts from Gordion, Turkey (where we’ve been), the Archeological Museum of Istanbul, and the Museum of Ancient Civilizations in Ankara. 

Our lovely room at Independence Park Hotel

We had the place to ourselves for almost 2 hours, which was wonderful.  The University of Pennsylvania has been excavating at Gordion since the 1950’s, and have made great progress, especially over the past few years.  The exhibition was excellent, and it was really fun seeing photographs of places we’ve visited or are planning to return to! 

After the exhibition, we revisited the materials from the cemetery at Ur and Puabi upstairs (air conditioned).  They have set up a restoration exhibit just off the Ur artifacts, and it was really fascinating to see!  There was a woman there working with a mummy and doing repair work on one of the masks.  We didn’t arrive during the “question” time, unfortunately, but it was fun to watch what was going on.  Talk about detail work!  Finally, we took a pass through the un-air conditioned Etruscan wing (Etruscans are on our travel horizon) and then decided that we’d had enough culture for one day!

Caught the 42 bus right outside the museum, and were whisked away down Chestnut street, and to within half a block of our hotel!  We are now cozily residing in room 501, a huge and lovely room on the fifth floor with two double beds.  Heading down shortly to their happy hour, as apparently on Wednesday, they do cheese and wine!  Can’t get much better than that!  Then out for dinner!

More later!

m

xxx

Starter of bread and cheese spread

Manchego and honey in front; goat cheese in back

Iberian ham and bread

Saffron torta with sauce

Well … an interesting evening!  We went down to Happy Hour, and met a lovely couple from Tennessee, and talked like we’d known each other forever.  Were finally persuaded to get out to dinner because Lynn, the gal in charge, was able to get us into Amado’s right down the street – a tapas place, and the very first recommendation we’d gotten from the gal we met at the bar the other night in Washington!  What a small world!  Amado’s was fabulous, but boy, the noise level was incredible!  We couldn’t really talk to each other, even though we were across from each other at a table for two – but that was okay, as Robert let me order dinner.  We were brought a wonderful cheese spread and flat breads to start – wow, just incredible!  We followed that up by a round of cold tapas – Iberian ham, manchego cheese and a goat cheese, the manchego served with a trifled lavender honey – tremendous! 

Patates Bravas (spicy potatoes!)

Shrimp in garlic sauce

Us (taken by folks sitting next to us)

After that, we went for hot tapas – a serving of patates bravos (brave potatoes) rather spicy, with a garlic shrimp followed by a saffron tortilla; excellent!  After that, we literally didn’t have room for any more – even dessert!  So we were out the door with a bill of something like $55!  Wow, that’s the lowest our dinner bill has been in a week!  And the food was fabulous!  Walked the four or five shops back to the hotel, and in for the night a bit before 9.  Early day tomorrow, heading back to Washington DC!

More tomorrow!

m

xxx