Philadelphia

Petra knows that I love history, one of the reasons I love going to the Netherlands so much. While we are still a young country I none the less enjoy sharing our history as well so please forgive me if I always throw in a little bit here and there. LOL

I will be picking Petra and her son up at the Philadelphia International airport. Philly, as we call it, is the 6 th largest city in the US and played a very important role in the founding of this nation. The city proper has 1 1/2 million inhabitants and counting the surrounding suburbs the population swells to nearly 6 million. One of the first sights that we will see after leaving the airport is the Philly skyline on our 2 hour ride back to home.

Philadelphia was origionally settled by the Swedes and the Dutch and was the first Capital of the US after the Declaration of Independence was written here at Independence Hall marking the breakaway from Great Britain.

I'm not sure if there will be interest in visiting a large US city during our holiday but one spot that is always interesting to see is the group of museums located in an attractive part of the city.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is one of the best in the US and has extensive collections including paintings and ceramics from the Netherlands. Some of the artists are well known to everyone.

One thing that Petra will notice on our trip home though is that shortly after you leave the city surroundings the landscape opens up to farms and forest covered hills for the rest of the journey. It is quite a contrast to the skyscrapers and busy streets.