Amish Country and Philadelphia

Mini break three was to Pennsylvania where we checked out the Amish and the lovely city of Philadelphia.

Driving through the Amish countryside

Sharing the road with a horse and buggy.

Marc and I headed out towards Lancaster, Pennsylvania to our first stop - the Amish Village!  Here we were given a tour around an authentic Amish house, shown their dress and told a little about their ways.  There were also some delightfully cute animals there which we were able to pet (trip highlight!).

An Amish kitchen

Amish fashion makes choosing what to wear in the morning a very simple process.

Lunch was an Amish farm feast which also happened to be a Man vs Food location.  Here you sit at a table of 10 and share large amounts of food.  Unfortunately (or fortunately perhaps) Marc and I were not joined by other diners so we ate our feast alone.  The serving size was thankfully pared down to feed a table of 6 so there wasn't too much wastage.  They also had a lovely goat who liked being fed and pet.

Some cool Amish facts to eat your lunch off.

Family style

All fresh off the farm next door and supposedly meant to feed 2 people.

The only way to each ice cream

Look at that smiling face!!!!

Next on the agenda was a tour of covered bridges around the area.  They were pretty much as exciting as they sound.  But is was nice to see them and feel like you were risking your life each time you went over one.

We then went and checked in to our farm stay bed and breakfast.  We were staying at Stone Haus Farm Bed and Breakfast which is a working celery and corn farm.  The place was very charming and was made even more so by the copious number of lightning bugs that were on their lawn.

Those little yellow dots in the bottom right hand side of the photo are fire flies!

The back yard of the farm B&B

After checking in we headed out for a quick dinner before the nights entertainment.  Not far from where we were staying was the town of Hershey.  The man who started Hershey chocolate bars built the town for all the workers at his factory.  It is a cute town and very well organised but we were not there for their town planning.  We were there to explore Hershey World!  The place is really just one big candy store but what we didn't realise is that there is a massive Hershey theme park next door.  We have vowed to return to the town of Hershey just to visit the theme park.

The next day we headed to Philadelphia where we had another action packed day planned.  First on the list was a tour of the Masonic Temple.  It is one of the top 10 things to do when in Philly.  Also Marc’s father is a Freemason (and two of his brothers) so we thought we should check it out for Michael.  The building was beautiful if not a little over the top.  Mainly it was just great to be able to ask the tour guide about all manner of ridiculous Freemason conspiracy theories.

The Turkish Room

The Egyptian room 

We then stopped off for a quick bite to eat at Reading Terminal Market.  The market is full of hundreds of food and produce stalls and is a fatties fantasy playground with pulled pork sandwiches, fried chicken and endless sweet treats.

We then moved on to see the Liberty Bell, which is just a really big bell with a crack in it.  The Americans seemed to be really excited by it as there were hoards of them lining up to see it.

Our next stop was the Mütter Museum which is a medical museum containing a collection of medical oddities and specimens.  It was a bit of a creepy place with lots of body parts drowning in formaldehyde.  Luckily for anyone reading this, we were not allowed to take photos inside.

Philly is a beautiful city with stunning architecture and art lined streets.  We only with we were able to spend more time there.

They like murals in Philly

And random art.

The buildings are beautiful - this is their Town Hall

The Masonic Temple