As the Phillies won the 2008 World Series, the baseball tour this year was to Philadelphia. It was a great tour. Four of us travelled out from Heathrow and met up with two more of the guys who'd spent the previous few days watching baseball in New York and travelled down and meet us. The ballpark was great and we saw the last four Phillies games of the season. Unfortunately, the Phillies had won the pennant the night before, so we missed those celebrations, but we were there for the last game of the season - which the Phillies won - complete with fireworks and plenty of give-aways. Philadelphia is a great city. Older than you'd expect for the US, and we stayed in one of the oldest buildings in town - the Alexander Inn - pretty central in downtown. The hotel was very comfortable, good sized rooms, a great price and with a very friendly staff. Should I ever return to Philadelphia it's where I'd stay.
As is tradition, I took an open-top bus tour of the city, and also did a fair amount of walking - not something you can do in many US cities. Naturally, I ran up the 'Rocky' steps in front of the Museum of Art, although it is a little disappointing that the 'Rocky' statue has been relegated to a spot at the bottom of the steps under some trees. The statue was donated to the city after the filming had ended and it took pride of place in front of the Museum for a few years until the city luminaries decided it wasn't really art and needed to be moved. So it was moved to elsewhere in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, there followed a big decline in visitors to the Museum and so eventually the City came to its senses and the statue was moved back.
Of course, we had Philly Cheesesteak - at Jim's Steaks on South Street, which is probably the most famous 'restaurant' in Philadelphia. Huge queues, moving slowly through the restaurant, just like at a London Pie and Mash. In fact, it was just like a Pie and Mash shop. Only instead of "pie, mash and liquor please" it was "Wizz, With, please".
The main evening hang out was Dirty Frank's Bar just round the corner from the hotel. An old Prohibition era dive bar, which had no name outside it, was filthy dirty and is only called 'Frank's' because of the murals painted on the outside walls - all of which as famous Frank's (Sinatra, Frankenstein and so on). However, it was a bar full of character, full of characters.
So, with the New York Yankees winning the 2009 World Series, we need to decide where we go on tour. It won't be NY as we've already been there. But we will need to see the Yankees. That's a tour rule.
