There was no time for rest after our hectic and action packed day in Washington DC. We were due in New York City (well Jersey City but close enough) for the night and we had a lot of sites to see and miles to cover. It was a 250 mile trip direct. Our route ended up being close to double that.
Our first stop really only took us as far as DC again. We had stopped at a number of interesting cemeteries during our trip and the Arlington National Cemetery was too significant to pass up. Arlington is a military cemetery just across the river from DC. Its earlier graves date back to the civil war and there are over 400,000 graves in total.
Arlington is absolutely massive. There is a memorial to president John F. Kennedy, his wife Jackie, and their two children lit by an eternal flame. The memorial is rather low key compared to some of the other graves of significant people.
The Kennedy's Memorial
Overlooking much of the cemetery is the home of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, Arlington House. Unfortunately for Lee the house's proximity to DC meant that he was forced to abandon it as soon as he decided to join the Confederacy. The house was occupied by the Union for the remainder of the war. The cemetery was actually created on the grounds of the house during the war in order to prevent Lee from being able to return when the war ended. The house is now a National Memorial in Robert E. Lee's honour and is managed by the National Park Service. The building was undergoing restoration when we visited but we were still able to going inside.
Arlington House (showing the part that wasn't covered by scaffolding)
The high ground at Arlington gave great views over Washington DC. Originally the area was a part of the District of Columbia which had been ceded by the state of Virginia. However during the lead up to the Civil War it was returned to the state after residents feared that the Federal Government was planning to abolish slavery, something that was important the area's economy. Today the entirety of the District of Columbia is within the area originally ceded from the state of Maryland.
View towards Washington DC
The Pentagon in the distance
The other famous memorial at Arlington is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (actually called the Tomb of the Unknowns). The tomb is highly symbolic and while there are actual bodies buried there (one for WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam), it remembers all those who were killed or lost and whose bodies could not be found or identified. The monument is guarded at all hours of the day, every day of the year, by soldiers of the US Army. These guards walk backward and forward endlessly. We saw the changing of the guard ceremony which was very interesting. Being a guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns is one the highest honours a solider can receive so they take their job very seriously.
Tomb of the Unknowns
The guards walk on a rubber mat to prevent wear on the stone floor
After Arlington we headed Northwest towards the town of Gettysburg, famous for the Civil War battle of the same name. Seen by many to be the turning point in the Civil War, the battle was the bloodiest in the entire war. Although the war lasted another two years, the Confederacy was never again able to mount a significant offensive against the North.
Gettysburg is famous both as a battlefield, but also as the location of President Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address. In his speech, made a few months after the battle, Lincoln defined the war as a struggle for equality that extended to all races. Interestingly both the battle and the speech were not seen as particularly significant at the time but have since become two of the most famous and recognisable events of the Civil War.
We hadn't really thought about what we would do once we got to Gettysburg and the scale of the site was much greater than anticipated. The battle took place over a line several miles long, something that made it difficult to take in in a short time. We decided to go to the Visitor Centre first where we were disappointed to find not much other than a very expensive video that could be watched. Had we had more time it would have been nice to do a tour I think but instead we drove to a lookout tower which gave good views over much of the battlefield. Unfortunately I'd left my camera in the car and the viewing tower was so high up that I couldn't be bother going back for it.
I'd read a good book that Dad had given me about the battle and it was interesting to compare the mental image I had created of the landscape to what was really there. So much importance was place on occupying the high ground which led me to imagine some steep terrain. In reality this high ground in most cases was nothing more than a gently sloping hill. I'd love to come back one day and explore the area properly. It was probably a bit naive to think that the whole site could be seen in an hour or two.
Next we headed towards the city of Philadelphia where we planned to have dinner. On the way we passed through Amish country and some of the funniest place names out. Within the space of half an hour we were treated to gems like Intercourse, Bird In Hand. We also saw plenty of Amish people, dressed in their old timey outfits and driving their buggies (which had indicators and brake lights). It was driving the back roads here that we finally figured out that driving with overdrive off would prevent the car's gear change issue (thanks Todd!).
Hmm
It was around 150 miles from Gettysburg to Philadelphia and we encountered a few traffic jams on the way. When we finally arrived we found a city with tight streets and very few car parks. In the end we parked in a supermarket and hoped that we wouldn't be towed (we weren't). The main reason we had come to Philadelphia was to try the famous Philly Cheese Steak sandwich and we were arriving just in time for dinner.
We went to place that claims to have invented the sandwich, Pat's King of Steaks. I hadn't really paid much attention to what a cheese steak was but assumed that it would be good. It turns out that the traditional way to have it is covered with "Cheez Whiz" which to be honest sounded completely disgusting. Instead I chose to have provelone cheese, which I have since realised doesn't actually taste of anything. The cheese steak was pretty lacklustre for me, especially at $10 a pop, although the others who had got theirs with fake cheese seemed to have a better time so I might have made a mistake by not going with that.
After our greasy dinner we had two sites to see in Philly before leaving; the Love sign, and the Rocky Stairs. The Love sign is not something that I'd heard of but I instantly recognised in when I saw it. It was alright...
The Love sign. That's all there is to it really
The Rocky Stairs were pretty cool. There were plenty of people running up and now with their shirts off (Todd).
We had finally done all of the things that we had planned to do for the day and now just needed to get out of Philly. This turned out to be harder than it sounded. It's not unusual for American roads to be a bit confusing, especially in cities. Philadelphia was something else. The roads were incredibly dark, terrible sign posted, and almost all of the lane markings had worn away. To make things worse many of the freeway entrances were closed for roadworks. And to make things even more worse the GPS navigation was caught between two sets of directions and was literally spitting out a non stop stream of contradiction. After going around in circles, accidentally running a red light, taking the wrong freeway, and being passed by speeding motorbikes doing wheelies, we were finally out. And I vow to never drive in the city of Philadelphia again in my life.
The remainder of the journey was fairly uneventful. It was very late and we finally made it in to Jersey City at around 1.30am. The New York City skyline beckoned but it would have to wait until the morning.
Arriving in the middle of the night