21 June – Philadelphia, PA
Never thought of Philadelphia as a port before, but the Delaware River extends between New Jersey and Delaware right up to the City of Brotherly Love.
We were allowed to disembark the ship without escort and looked for a place where we could call a cab. The food truck guy on the wharf offered to drive us to town – we were really stoked to think we would be able to ride into town on a “roach coach”!
However, we were chagrined to find that he was only offering to take us in his private vehicle, a ride we nonetheless accepted to get to the high-rise apartment in downtown Philly which would be home base for our stay.
The next day, we rented a couple of bicycles so we could venture into the countryside surrounding the big city. We headed along the Schuylkill (pronounced skool-kill) River Trail northwest, through Valley Forge and on to Phoenixville, about 30 miles from where we started.
We spent the night in Phoenixville, an old mill and industrial town that has gentrified and is now a hub for financial and tech industries. It was a pretty ride, mostly along the river and through some pleasant woods, although rather too warm.
Returned to the city a bit weary and drained from the outing. We will be gathering a few more items for the onward journey. The plan is to board the ship on the 22nd (tomorrow) to depart from North America on our way to Europe. We will be on the North Atlantic for 8 days or so…. the schedule has us making a brief overnight stop in the Netherlands before going on to Antwerp.
Hope all is well with everybody at home – it will likely be 10 or more days before we will have the band-width to do another post……
Emerald Isle to the Norse Lands 
Wow, what an adventure and I didn’t know Henry had become a cyclist.
LikeLike