Philadelphia

Friends, I shall be heartily glad to be rid of this rental car, later in the day. We have been getting lost. Last night on the way to our B&B, today on our tour of Amish country, on our way into Philadelphia (badly! twice!), even on the way from our new B&B in downtown Philadelphia to the parking lot, a single block away. I have been blaming Ellie's navigation skills. She has been blaming my driving. We have both been getting mad. We shall do a lot better once we dump the. Unhappily, we do need it for this one last day... More of that later.

Meantime... we consumed an enormous three-course breakfast served by our hosts, Tom and Sarah: poached pear to start, French toast naked with apple and cinnamon, and a creamy dessert! Staggered back upstairs to finish our packing and set of for downtown Lancaster to visit the Central Market. I forgot--we got lost on the way there, too. Well, not exactly lost: there was some emergency situation that detoured us just before we reached the downtown area, and we found ourselves diverted to a wide swing that took us all around the city--a detour compensated by some very lovely, very green, very lush countryside.

We did find the market, and Ellie got busy with the camera...

It seems to be the time for giant pumpkins, with Halloween approaching. Outside the market, we found plenty of crafts stalls, including one family selling woolen products who had brought along their alpacas...

It was a delightful market, certainly, crowded with local shoppers at the stalls, a number of them operated by Amish families. We had been keen to visit the countryside and see something of the culture so well and respectfully conveyed in one of my favorite films, "Witness," and our innkeeper had given us a sheet of elaborate directions for a motoring tour. It proved to be a very long drive though an unending strip area to get out into the country and, once there, we got lost after the first few turns. But we did find our own way around the byways, and enjoyed the very lovely scenery and the beautifully maintained farms. We took pictures...

It seemed to be washing day--perhaps because of the warm and sunny weather, and Ellie was fascinated by the washing lines...

We stopped for a sandwich at an unexpected Deli, and enjoyed a fine sandwich made for us by a sweet Amish girl who seemed not quite of this world. We did not feel entitled to take pictures...

After lunch, the time had clearly arrived for us to hit the turnpike and head into Philadelphia, where we had planned to meet our friends by mid-afternoon. Some hope. We took a wrong turn on the turnpike as we approached the city, and found ourselves on a miles-long stretch of freeway leading us back out of town, without an exit anywhere in sight. Some twenty miles out, we finally found a place to make a u-turn and headed back. After several phone calls for directions to our friends, we managed to get lost again and ended up at entirely the wrong end of town. A helpful patron at a gas station put us right, and we finally made it to our Philadelphia B&B. With no parking on the street, we were directed to a parking lot around the block and performed our last navigational feat, making the tour of numerous confusing one-way streets before finally reaching our destination.

We were considerably cheered by the sight of our friend Leo (seen here with Ellie on the way to their house)...

... and enjoyed some early evening views of the city, poorly captured here by my cell phone, because we had forgotten to bring the camera with us...

A splendid evening of reunion and catch-up with these wonderful old friends. A good shot of vodka on the rocks allowed me to forget the travails of the road, and Carol had prepared a fine dinner for us. Much talk about old times together, our families and mutual friends and, at the end, a visit to Carol's studio, upstairs. Since it was already getting late, Leo's studio awaits a second visit, but it was certainly a treat to find them both fully engaged in their work and delighted with the prospect of work to come. That's the way with artists...