My husband, Ben, has been a long time fan of the Philadelphia Eagles. How I moved to Germany and met, of all people, an Eagles fan, I’ll never know. I thank God everyday he’s not a Patriots fan though… 😉
When we decided to do an extended 5 night, 4 day weekend somewhere after our small intimate wedding in North Carolina last October, I suggested Philadelphia. I was hoping the days we had chosen would align with an Eagles game and Ben would get to have this dream of his come true. Unfortunately the weekend we were there, the Eagles happened to be playing in Los Angeles, but that didn’t damper our enthusiasm.
Thursday: Arrival Day + Elfreth’s Alley
Unfortunately we didn’t have early check-in and we had about 3 hours to waste. We stored our bags in a luggage locker and headed out to explore the old city. We stumbled upon Elfreth’s Alley, which is the oldest residential street in the United States! It’s a beautiful colonial street where people still live, but the homes are protected. We made our way to the Independence National Historical Park and found our way into the visitor’s center. Here we learned about fun fall themed events happening during October and other helpful tips for tourists.
After exploring for a while, we checked into our apartment. We booked through Sonder and stayed at their location called The Mint. The whole experience at Sonder felt a little eerie as it was completely contactless, we never saw staff, and we rarely saw other guests. However, everything was clean and any complaints or requests could be made through the app, and like a genie they would be answered.
After some grocery shopping for the week we made our way to dinner at Tomo Sushi & Ramen where we enjoyed a bowl of ramen in a cozy restaurant.
Friday: The U.S. Mint, Philly Food Tour, + Lincoln Financial Field
Friday morning we woke up and walked 2 blocks to do a free tour of the United States Mint. I am a sucker for free educational experiences and loved this self-led tour! Pictures weren’t allowed inside, but we were able to see the entire process for making the coins of the U.S. currency and also learning the history behind it.
For afterwards we had booked a food tour through Get Your Guide. I was wary as a few reviews had said that the food was underwhelming, but I have to be honest and say this was a highlight for us! We ended up trying all the Philly staples: tomato pie, pretzels, Philly cheesesteak, and donuts and a chocolate chip cookie from businesses within Reading Terminal Market. Maybe not the healthiest food tour, but definitely a delicious one.
Despite there not being an Eagles game to attend, Ben still wanted to see the Lincoln Financial Field and visit the NFL Pro Shop at the stadium to pick up some fan gear. We took an uber out there in the evening to take a few photos and get some Eagles gear before heading back to our apartment to get some much needed rest and make dinner.
Saturday: Rocky Steps + Penn’s Landing Courtesy of the Phlash Bus
We had overcast, but warm weather on Saturday and plenty of tourists to share the city with. 🙂 We bought a day pass for the Phlash bus which makes a 19 stop tour of Philadelphia at all the popular tourist spots. It was more affordable than the Hop-On Hop-Off bus option, except it wasn’t inclusive with a tour guide on the bus telling you what you’re looking at. We found this okay, and even had a few bus drivers who genuinely loved Philly and would talk about what we were seeing anyway! We went to the Eastern State Penitentiary, although we didn’t go in as it was a tad pricey. Next time I would definitely be interested in paying the price to enter, but we walked around the outside and found that several community gardens now lie against the outerwalls.
The next stop on the Phlash bus was the Philadelphia Museum of Art. On the backside of the museum are the infamous Rocky steps where we found countless people running up, often while humming the Rocky theme song with their friend or family member at the bottom taking a video. The line to the Rocky statue was quite long, so I just snapped a photo from the side.
When we finished getting our boxing workout in, we walked through downtown Philadelphia where we saw street art and did some shopping at the Colombia store. The warmth quickly vanished and we were met with sudden fall weather, so we did a quick clothing change and made our way to Penn’s Landing. It was closed so there wasn’t much to see other than the Delaware River, but I imagine during summer it’s probably full of summertime activities.
We rounded out the day by picking up a pizza and enjoying the Gilmore Girls-esque fall day.
Sunday: Free walking tour + Independence Hall
We booked a free walking tour through GuruWalk which lasted about 3 hours. I know I said our free walking tour guide in Paris was the best we ever had, but our tour guide Tom in Philly was sincerely the best guide I’ve had. He’s a highschool history teacher in the suburbs and comes into the city on the weekends to do these tours, so he was quite literally the best guide we could have in the United States first capitol. After our amazing tour, we had a timed entry ticket to Independence Hall which was about a 30 minute tour. A little underwhelming, but interesting to see regardless. Sunday we took a much needed chill afternoon by watching the Eagles game on TV and having a nice evening walk through the neighborhood.
Monday: Reading Terminal Market, World’s Largest Pipe Organ, + Spooky Mini Golf
Our last full day in Philadelphia 🙁 We started out by getting breakfast at Down Home Diner in Reading Terminal Market. We may have come back the next morning as well because I love me a diner.
Our plans for the day were to do some last minute shopping and visit the Macy’s across from town hall. Within this Macy’s is the world’s largest fully playable pipe organ and everyday at 12 there is a free concert. I was convinced that there would be a crowd gathered to see this, but I was wrong. It was Ben and I and about 6 others spread out throughout the store to watch the organ player. I thought this was the coolest thing and the “concert” was literally an hour long. How amazing is that?!
We finished our last full day with some spooky mini golf in Franklin Square.
Tuesday: Liberty Bell + Beiler’s Donuts…again. Day of Departure.
Did you really think we’d leave Philadelphia without seeing the Liberty Bell? Our flight was in the evening on Tuesday leaving us with plenty of time to wait in line to see the Liberty Bell. The coolest thing about Philly is that so many of the historical sites are actually considered part of the National Park Service, so a lot of the exhibits are free.
We finished our visit with another walk through Reading Terminal Market to grab the world’s best donut from Beiler’s (I still dream about these) and an iced coffee and then made our way to Love Park. It was a beautiful sunny day as Philadelphia bid us farewell.
This city was really the most lovely and unexpected surprise. Going in I didn’t have high expectations. I had naturally watched a Somebody Feed Phil episode for research and knew all of the other Philly stereotypes from growing up in the U.S. What I didn’t expect was to be so charmed by this city, the people, the passion, and the flavors! The cherry on top is having history all around you. I would highly recommend visiting Philadelphia and I look forward to returning for an Eagles game and a Beiler’s donut. 😋
Kassel Expat 
I felt like I was reading about a city in Europe. American cities never feel like they have quite the same tours and excitement as Europe, but perhaps I just haven’t been to the right cities! Now I want to go to Philly and do all this same stuff.
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