Center City to Art Museum

09-08-2018

Leaving St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, we headed north. The Gallery at 10th and Market was bleak, it’s under renovation and has no sign of any occupancy. Pennsylvania Convention Center to its west, however, looks grand. It was the Headhouse to Reading Terminal built in the 1890s, and was converted to Convention Center in the 1990s.

PA Convention Center, Headhouse Entrance, 12th & Market

Reading Terminal Markets

The train shed behind the Headhouse is now the Reading Terminal Markets. At 3:30 in the afternoon, the market was crowded. Several vendor stalls had long lines of customers waiting for bakery, or meat and produce. One spice vendor has a full shelf of different spices, quite impressive.

We decided to come back here for dinner, Philly Cheesesteak to be specific. We then continued to head west. In a couple of blocks, it was the City Hall. On top of the 548-foot building, stood city founder William Penn.

Surrounded by City Hall and other ancient or modern buildings was this beautiful open space. I was shocked to see it’s now a farm house! What an eyesore!

Benjamin Franklin Blvd

It was a pleasant walk along Ben Franklin Parkway, the mile-long scenic boulevard in the center of Philadelphia’s cultural heart. Logan Square is as beautiful as ever. Along the boulevard, there were also many famous sculptures, including the famous LOVE, and Rodin’s Thinker.

There was a long line of people waiting to take pictures under the LOVE, however, AMOR had no wait. So here I was.

Rodin Museum

Rodin Museum is part of the Philadelphia Art Museum. Somehow, we have never visited it. While we stood there admiring the building that houses the Gates of Hell, a nice lady offered us two free tickets to the museum. Inside museum, there are over 100 pieces of Rodin’s sculptures.

Art Museum

As we continued to walk along Ben Franklin Blvd, Art Museum presented itself in front us. Strangely, there was a huge crowd and loud music.

There was so much emotion and excitement in the dancers and audience. It turned out this was the first performance of Le Super Grand Continental, “the world’s most infectious performance event” in Philly in 2018 . Our lucky day to actually experience such event.