After our overnight stop in Fairfield, Connecticut we had breakfast at the Circle Diner next to our hotel. It was the first place on our trip that had a real “American diner” feel. I could imagine a TV show being set here.

We got onto the i95 and hit a lot of traffic, so it took us over 4 hours to do the drive to Philadelphia.

We had a quick rest stop in Pluckemin, New Jersey and also took a detour through a town named ‘Bear Tavern’ which is one of the more interesting names we saw on the drive. It would have been nice to stop by New York as we were so close but we had already visited on a previous trip so we didn’t think it was worth a detour just for a lunch break.

We arrived at the Alexander Inn which is really lovely boutique hotel on 12th Street. It looked like the decor had not been updated since the 1970s but that added to the charm of the place.

We went walking in search of a late lunch and got a slice of pizza at the Reading Terminal Markets which were super busy!

We then went to the Magic Gardens, which are smaller than I had imagined but there was something to look at around every corner.

After the Magic Gardens we walked through the streets of Philadelphia, admiring the old style of buildings and cobble stone streets.

Then we went to Spruce Street Harbour Park where there was a pop up bar.

On the way back from the Harbour Park we walked past a film set, where I think we accidentally walked on camera. They asked us to walk around the long way and then re-started the scene from the beginning.

For dinner we lined up in 30 minutes in the rain for the famous Jim’s Steaks Philly Cheesesteak. This place is so well known it has it’s own Wikipedia page! It did not disappoint and we ended up going back again the next day.

The weather was a lot muggier than we were used to back home (94% humidity in the afternoon) with rain on and off, but we still had a great time. We were looking forward to exploring the city more on our second day.