The Home Exchanger: Philadelphia

The Home Exchanger is very happy to share with you part four of the story of Michael and his family's home exchange in the US!

After getting home and having a quick dip in the pool, we headed for the King of Prussia Mall. Supposed to be one of the biggest in the US, however, we don't recall that Prussia ever had a king - they had an emperor! We only saw about one tenth of the Mall, but that was great and it was a pity we didn't have more time. Joey, Mark and Hannah (the American family that Alexander stayed with in 2002) took us to wonderful restaurant The Cheescake Factory - they certainly have a lot more than cheesecakes. Thanks for a great dinner, Joey and Mark.

The next day (August 3rd) was certainly a football day! Joey took us up to the Eagles training camp at Lehigh University some 75 minutes north of Philly. There was a huge crowd there, maybe because it was the first day of open training, but even so Alexander did get some good shots of his heroes there! And a great picture of what I regard as the Dream Team (see photo at left). Why bother about football when they have cheerleaders?!

We rushed back from the training camp to be able to catch the 12 o'clock tour at the Lincoln Financial Field back in Phily. And we made it just in time to get a great free tour behind the lines where we saw press rooms, presidential suites and of course the field to get a close look! See our photo album for more photos of the Eagles training camp...

The Home Exchanger is very happy to share with you part three of the story of Michael and his family's home exchange in the US!

Our chronology is going to jump a bit while we tell you about our trip to Philadelphia in the last two days.

But first here's why we went to Philly at all...back in 2002 when Alexander was 11 years old, he joined a summer camp with 44 other eleven year old kids from 11 other countries through the organization CISV. The camp was at Westtown School outside of Philadelphia. During the camp, he stayed with an American family for a weekend and it was this family we went to meet. At the same time, it would give Alexander a good chance to get close to the Philadelphia Eagles (football) as he has become a great fan of the sport and this team in particular since he came back from that trip in 2002.

We met up with the American family Alexander stayed with in Gladwyne, and they took us into Philly town to see some of the highlights. And it was very surprising to us that you actually have cities with old buildings in the US! Of course, Philly has a skyline, and a great one indeed, but there are so many old buildings, not very unlike many European big cities! We went and saw the Liberty Bell and the room where your constitution was signed some 230 years ago. Quite exciting! And South Street reminded us of Austin, which we visited some 5 years ago...