little tara

Friday 27th April 2012 – It is rapidly becoming clear to Charlie and me that four nights (even on our limited schedule) is simply not enough time in which to do everything we want to do in Philadelphia. I don’t think we’d really given much thought to Philadelphia; it was on the way from Washington DC to New York, and we knew that we wanted to run the Rocky steps and see a bit of Pennsylvania, but apart from that I think we had a bit of a ‘meh’ attitude. Hmmmm. Note to self: never underestimate this city again. There’s still so much to do! Tomorrow is going to be another busy day….!

Today our day started once again with gourmet breakfast at the guesthouse (more brioche!), and then we made the short walk to the Avis at the Hyatt Regency to collect our hire car. The plan was to spend the day in Lancaster County, west of Philadelphia – also known as ‘Pennsylvania Dutch Country’ due to the concentration of Amish, Mennonites and Brethren (is that the correct term?) living there. The region is known for its slower pace of life (the Amish steer clear of technology and modern trappings, and still travel in horse buggies) and for its delightful food, so we knew it would suit us to a tee. A lovely lady called Miss Cynthia (this according to a young man present, who seemed to know her) sorted out our paperwork, and not long afterwards we were fiddling with the GPS in the car as we cursed its inefficiency on the streets of Philadelphia! In the end we stopped listening to the robotic woman and used a paper map we’d collected from the guesthouse, and once we left the bounds of the map we just followed our noses to Lancaster, the westernmost town on our itinerary for the day. The initial journey took about an hour and a half.

The sky goes on forever out here.
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 2012

If I were to give a summary of the day upfront, I would have to say that the thing that hit me most was the sheer beauty of the area. Less than two hours out of a major metropolis, you find yourself gazing across rolling hills of lush, verdant green, passing grain silos and barns that are straight out of a storybook, all white or red in stark contrast to the bright blue skies and fluffy clouds dotted in the sky. The colours look like your camera screen when it’s set to ‘vivid’, but they are in fact real. Glance across a field, and you see it being tilled by a team of horses or oxen, a man in a large hat riding the old-fashioned rattling metal contraption behind them. A bunch of schoolchildren run out of their one-room school and sweep by, pushing old-fashioned scooters along with one leg, and a small girl in a billowing dark dress and a white cap toddles behind her mother, who is identically dressed. As you near a creek, you spot a deep brown covered bridge, the middle dark and cool and tunnel-like, and you have to proceed slowly because the horse and buggy in front of you is making slow progress. If it weren’t for the 4WD vehicles roaring through it occasionally, one could imagine they were back in the 1800s. In between food stops, we just spent our time in awe of the beauty of it.

A farmer tends his field the traditional way,
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 2012

Anyway, our first destination was Lancaster city. It was actually a fairly big place, bigger than I had expected, filled with large brick buildings and traffic. Our main purpose for visiting was to find the visitor centre to get maps and more information; we knew which townships we wanted to visit but were still unsure of actual destinations. Parking was scarce, so in the end we did a couple of loops in the downtown area and I hopped out of the car outside the visitor’s centre, ran in and grabbed info while Charlie drove around the block. The man inside was really helpful and thrust a stack of maps, information sheets about food and covered bridges, and two packets of salted pretzels into my hands before waving me out the door. Charlie swooped round the corner and I leaped into the car; we then managed to actually find a parking spot in a back street and loosely planned a route based around bakeries and bridges before leaving Lancaster, southbound. On the way out, we passed ‘Champ’s Barber School’, where a bunch of young guys were hanging around outside one-upping each other… or so it seemed!

Taking a side road off Route 222, we found our first covered bridge of the day – Kurtz’s Mill Bridge. It was my first and favourite. It was in a quiet little neck of the woods and there was nary another soul to be seen. It was short, but a beautiful shade of brown with a peaked roof. We parked the car a little bit down the road and wandered back up to the bridge. Everything was so green. I could barely believe my eyes. In this hushed little bit of forest we admired the rushing river underneath, and enjoyed the creak of our feet on the wooden boards, and had to convince ourselves to leave afterwards! I felt like I had walked into a beautiful painting; it took a little while to get rid of the feeling that an ugly vehicle might swoop around the corner at any time. It was like our own little secret; I’m so glad we went.

Kurtz’s Mill Bridge – such a beautiful place,
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 2012

From there we drove down Eshelman Mill Road, admiring the scenery, until we hit the more populated Route 741, where we turned eastwards. We passed the Australian Outback Inn Bed and Breakfast (what on earth was it doing out there?), and then drove through the town of Lampeter. Lampeter!!! Anyone who knows me will know that I spent three years of my life (while at University) living in a hicksville town in Wales called Lampeter, and even now I have mixed feelings about the whole experience! Driving through the ‘new world’ Lampeter was actually quite a pleasant thing to do, and not dissimilar to the original Lampeter, although the houses weren’t as grand in Wales! After passing Lampeter we turned right onto Bridge Road and visited the Neff’s Mill Covered Bridge, which spanned Pequea Creek – it was just a drive-past as we had nowhere to pull over, and this time the bridge was surrounded by farm buildings. It is apparently the narrowest in the county, at only 11 feet wide.

Strasburg Country Store and Creamery, filled with all manner of edible delights,
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 2012

Leaving the bridge, we headed directly east to Strasburg. The road into town was filled with mind-boggling houses; everything from grand old dames to tiddly little weatherboard shacks, all with rocking chairs on their porches and American flags flapping in the breeze. So damn picturesque! Once in Strasburg, we parked the car and went straight for our destination – the Strasburg Country Store and Creamery, famous for its kickass ice cream! After the lovely woman behind the counter had explained their sundae menu, Charlie ordered a ‘Piggyback Sundae’: a milkshake topped with an ice-cream sundae…! Diabetes, anyone?!? I had a Belgian waffle with two scoops: Chocolate Oreo, and black raspberry, smothered in home-made butterscotch sauce. Holy moley. I asked for it without cream, but when she brought it out she put her ear to it as if it were saying something. “What’s that? Aw, your poor little sundae looks so sad without any whipped cream!” I acquiesced and she squirted a goodly-sized amount of cream on it, and she was very happy that my sundae was happy! What a nice lady.

After gorging once more, we made our way to the back of the store where they were pouring fresh fudge from a giant boiler onto a spreading tray… we tried a sample of the chocolate fudge and it was just delicious. The rest of the store was filled with various types of candy, pretzels (the dark chocolate ones were salty and divine!), spreads and jams. I tried some of their butterscotch peanut butter, which was much better than it sounds!

Herr’s Mill Bridge,
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 2012

Heading east out of Strasburg, we passed their train yard, full of antique train carriages and massive engines. A tourist train leaves here and does a loop of about 9 miles, but we decided to continue on our merry way. We turned left up Paradise Lane, heading down the backroads yet again for another covered bridge – Herr’s Mill Bridge, which is no longer in use; it has been replaced by a more modern, concrete bridge to its left. This bridge was a long one (“double length”), and right next door to it was a stone house with a waterwheel dipping in and out of the meandering little river. Wowee. They sure do know how to make the heart ache here with their architecture. The bridge was blocked off halfway along, but a jolly little sign read: ‘The Kissing Bridge – PLEASE – Walking or Horse-Drawn Lovers Only.’ Sigh. 🙂 Here we met a young man called Ariel, an 18-year-old Alaskan who has made it his mission to visit all of the United States in 52 weeks; he was on Day 61 and Pennsylvania was his 11th state. He was thoroughly enthusiastic about his couch-surfing experiences and wanted to visit all the state Capitol buildings; his aim is to get into politics and be able to know what he’s talking about when he talks about the different states. One can’t help but admire his enthusiasm; I hope he gets through all the States! If you want to see what he’s up to, have a look at http://www.arielacrossamerica.com/ I took a couple of pictures for him on the bridge, and then he was on his way again. Good luck Ariel!

Our next destination was the Bird-In-Hand Bake Shop, situated just north of the town of Bird-In-Hand. What a great name for a town! This largeish store was filled with all kinds of produce but we made a beeline for the freshly baked goods, and after much deliberation we decided on a sampler pack of all their most famous traditional items. For later consumption (the ice cream in Strasburg had just about beaten us), we bought a Red Velvet Whoopie Pie (mini cakes in the shape of cookies, sandwiched around sweet cream – usually made with leftover cake batter but now famous in their own right), Shoofly Pie (tarts filled with sugar and molasses, so named because the flies all wanted a bit before refrigerators came along), Chocolate Shoofly Pie, Apple Streusel and a Sticky Bun (covered with thick burnt caramel and pecans). We wrapped them up and kept them in the car for a late-night snack. Wheeeeee!

Our next stop, as if we hadn’t already had enough food, was the famous Bird-In-Hand Farmer’s Market. A bright indoor market filled with hustle, bustle and delicious smells, it contained all kinds of fresh produce, meats, cheeses, breads and other local goodies, some of which were sold by Mennonite farmers (at least, I think they were Mennonite; they had the long beards but were using cash registers and so on… hmmm. I’ll have to do some research into that). I sampled some meatloaf, caramel and cheese popcorn, raspberry key lime jam, home-made black bean salsa and a bunch of other stuff that escapes me now, but all of which was delicious. Sadly, I didn’t buy anything as I don’t have a kitchen at present, and won’t have one for at least another two or three months, so all the condiments had to be put aside!

I’ll never be too old for naughty toilet humour! Intercourse, tee hee hee!
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 2012

We then continued our eastward trajectory to the unusually-named town of Intercourse….! Oh, the tasteless jokes we made. “I’m right in the middle of Intercourse!” “I had a long day in Intercourse and now I’m spent!” “Intercourse, where you can get soft and hard… pretzels!” My favourite was the tourist-office-issued pamphlet entitled “Guide to Intercourse: Slow Down the Hurry”. Surely they must know how that sounds?!? Or am I the only one with a dirty mind?!? Geez. Anyway, our store of choice was the Intercourse Pretzel Factory (snicker, snicker, snicker), where we tried a couple of the local delicacies – traditional soft pretzels. One was a ‘brown butter’ variety (sprinkled with rock salt) and the other was a ‘Sugar & Spice’ number – dipped in butter, cinnamon and raw sugar. We only managed a couple of bites of each, but they were really good. Charlie’s hands were positively covered in sugar by the end of it!

Unbelieveably, at this point we decided it was time for dinner. We hadn’t really had anything substantial to eat since breakfast, except for ice cream, and I think our bodies were actually crying out for a bit of nutrition! We decided to backtrack to a place we’d seen earlier called ‘Plain and Fancy‘, about halfway between Bird-In-Hand and Intercourse. It turned out to be a large complex filled with opportunities for buggy rides and a replica Amish homestead; we went inside and both ordered salads… green food! I had a side order of sweetcorn fritters that came with maple syrup as a dip – it was surprisingly good. My Southwest Salad came with grilled marinated beef, greens, corn, salsa, black beans, grated cheese and a dollop of sour cream in a red tortilla bowl; Charlie had the same but with chicken. I could almost hear my body thanking me for the vitamins!

A horse-drawn buggy about to cross a covered bridge – about as scenic as it gets!
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 2012

We skipped dessert, hopped in the car, and started the drive home. However, it was still light and after consulting our maps, we couldn’t resist the draw of one last bridge… dorks! We found our way onto Belmont Road and made for Eshleman’s Mill Covered Bridge, also known as Leaman’s Place Covered Bridge and Paradise Bridge. The view behind this bridge led up a hill and over green farmland, and the bridge itself was russett-brown/red. In and of itself it wasn’t spectacular, but we happened to be following an Amish horse and buggy as we crossed it, and got a little thrill as we saw this episode of life carry on much as it already has for hundreds of years.

Beware! Buggy Crossing!
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 2012

Finally, we got onto the road home. We mostly stuck to Route 30 instead of the I-76, which we had used to get into Lancaster; this route, instead of being a freeway, was a smaller road and led us through other towns and suburbs, and back through the northern edges of the Brandywine Valley onto the I-76 again. We passed what may have been the last cherry tree in America with its blossoms still intact (whoopee!) before hitting traffic just outside Philadelphia; not unexpected, but yuck. We re-entered the city and went in search of petrol (passing a pet store called ‘Doggie Style’ on the way… blimey) before dropping the car back at the rental place at the Hyatt. Sigh. The end of another brilliant day.

It was getting dark by this time, so we stopped by the waterfront at Penn’s Landing, admiring the Schuylkill River (loosely pronounced ‘school-kill’, apparently), a nearby battleship (!) and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, all lit up, before walking home. Bypassing the complimentary 8pm cookies, we grabbed a hot chocolate and went up to our room to devour all the baked goods we bought in Bird-In-Hand. The verdict? Well, I took a bite of each, and I think that the apple streusel was probably my favourite – not a predictable result at all! After a quick Skype with some precious people in Brisbane, it was time to catch up with my writing, and now here I am ready for bed. Tomorrow: more adventures in Philadelphia!

Thanks for stopping by,

Tara.

Tags: amish, food, pennsylvania dutch, travel