No not these past holidays. Throwback to December 2018 when I traveled to Philadelphia with my family to visit some relatives. We got a hotel right in the center of downtown and it made everything so easily accessible. Honestly if it weren't so expensive I'd love to stay at the heart of the city in any city I go to.
Let's begin with the Philadelphia City Hall, which gets very festive during the holidays. The inside has a large Christmas tree and some other Christmas trees around it as well. There is part of the City Hall that has a large plaza at the front which they transform into a Christmas market and skating rink. Stay until the evening when they do a lights show with music at the front of the building!
Hop one over across the street to Love Park, named because it is the location of that Love sign. For the holidays there was also a Christmas market and this really cool light up installation shaped like a present. I would say try to get your picture with the Love sign early in the morning because the line for that can get really long!
Feeling hungry? Head over to Reading Terminal and take your pick. I would try to get there early for the more popular stores because they only have a limited amount of stock and can get sold out early on. They also have stores that sell different things. I know we bought a good amount of things from this store that sold different types of flavored oils. Truffle oil will always be my favorite but it's so expensive!
I was able to have a day to myself to explore what I wanted and I chose to spend it among art. I didn't realize that Philly had so much buildings for art. You can get a combination ticket that includes the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Perelman Building, and the Rodin Museum. Let's begin with the most famous and biggest one, the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Best known for the Rocky steps! It has a decent amount of classical art and some famous ones that I'm surprised aren't at the Smithsonian. There is a section about religious art where even the walls and floors are made to look like you've been transported into the past. At the time I was there, they had a limited time special collection of the fashion by Dior.
Across the street is the Perelman Building which holds different temporary exhibits. They all seem to be modern/contemporary type of art. It's a fairly small building compared to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and only holds a few exhibits. It didn't take me a lot of time to go through everything here but they were definitely interesting.
The Rodin Museum is little bit of ways away from the other two but still walking distance. It focuses more on sculptures. Definitely the most famous work there has to be The Thinker by Rodin.
I still had a bit of time left before I needed to be back so I went to the nearby Barnes Foundation which is just across the street. The building does look very large but a big part of it is just a large lobby. It is a bit expensive. I can't remember exactly how much but it was pricey. However once you go into the exhibit rooms, it is well worth the price. Literally floor to ceiling works of famous names like Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso, Manet, Degas, Van Gogh, and Monet. I mean I was just so impressed about how much art there was in one building. Truly a magnificent collection. They also had a temporary feature collection about Berthe Morisot, one of few female impressionists of her time.
Walking down Benjamin Franklin Parkway, you can hang out for a bit at Logan Square if it happens to be a nice day. It has a really pretty fountain and some monuments like the Shakespeare memorial and the World War I memorial. I did take the time to check out the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul which is right by there. Beautiful cathedral and apparently it has been visited before by Pope Francis!
This next destination is about 45 minutes to an hour away from downtown Philadelphia, depending on traffic. I had never heard of Longwood Gardens but apparently it is a very popular destination. Now I know, why would I go to a garden in the winter? Christmas lights of course! Also, they have a really large greenhouse that it was almost like a maze to walk through.
It was only a short trip so I wasn't able to do much and the point was really to visit some relatives. Still, next time I'd love to visit the Eastern side of Philly where the historic area is. I remember having visited there as a child but I don't remember much so I feel like I need a bit of a refresher. Next time!
