Vicky BakerGreta Rybus 

Twitter road trips USA: Baltimore to Bar Harbor, day three – live

Day three of our reader-led road trip sees Vicky Baker waking up in Philadelphia, birthplace of America, before heading off up the coast towards Boston, cradle of liberty
  
  

A scene from the movie Rocky on the steps of the Public Art Gallery in Philadelphia.
Yo Philly! The day starts in the city that gave us cultural heavyweights Rocky, hoagies and cheesesteak. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/United Artists Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/United Artists

Till tomorrow, Beantown!

Boston, we're signing off as we head off into the night. It won't be a late one, as we need to see the city tomorrow, but we need to check out that brew pub before bed, and maybe get some ice cream on the way (those non-tapas dishes really were small).

Please keep those tips coming for Boston-by-day. Then we hope to be in Portland, Maine tomorrow evening. Good night! 

Boston 102

As taught by its native writer David Lehane – best known for his novels-turned-movies Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone and Shutter Island. Here he is in the Times, during one of Boston's darkest moments: 

"I do love this city. I love its atrocious accent, its inferiority complex in terms of New York, its nut-job drivers, the insane logic of its street system. I get a perverse pleasure every time I take the T in the winter and the air-conditioning is on in the subway car, or when I take it in the summer and the heat is blasting. Bostonians don’t love easy things, they love hard things — blizzards, the bleachers in Fenway Park, a good brawl over a contested parking space."

Filmic Boston

Vicky, Greta and Kylie are on their way to Cambridge Brewing Co – and may yet run into the same sort of masters students that Damon and Affleck roundly told off in Good Will Hunting. Those two aren't the only two filmmakers who've fallen in love with Boston, though – Wahlberg and DiCaprio have taken a knack to it too, among others.

In recent years, David O Russell's The Fighter (Lowell, technically) and Martin Scorcese's The Departed have been the Boston films to beat. Often literally. Does Beantown have minimum violence and profanity levels to its movies? Does it require one of these actors to be in any movie associated with it? Is there a secret Boston-Hollywood club?

We don't have answers. Instead, we have YouTube. (Warning: these clips don't contain violence but do feature profanity and/or Mark Walhberg.)

Definitely an interesting dinner, but I think tomorrow, for lunch, we need something that's really Boston. Seafood? Or Italian food in the North End? Also we're planning a cannoli hunt – where can we find the best of the best? 

"Watch what you say, they might spit in our food," says Greta. It's true; live-blogging restaurant reviews is a hazardous pursuit. We like the food though, really we do. Portions are small, but we were warned about that. 

Not a burger in sight.

It's a bit of a strange one. On one hand, it's a classy cocktail bar with a note in the menu kindly asking you not to refer to their food as tapas (that's just Spain and this is international, darling). Yet there's also a birthday every five minutes, when the staff – dressed, it seems, as flamenco dancers and saloon girls – erupt into song, with tambourines. 

The decor is … ecclectic. That's not to say I don't like it. It works well, it just takes a moment to get your head round it. There are some stunning stained glass windows by the bar, plenty of boudoir-style lampshades, and a mannequin of a glamourous Miss Haversham-character raised high on the wall. 

Cuchi Cuchi

A giant mermaid sculpture and fairy lights mark the entrance to Cuchi Cuchi. It's packed inside, and quite a contrast from some of the sterile-looking buildings in the vicinity for pharmacutical companies and the like.

Movie MIT

The people of MIT – whether they be students, faculty or fictional janitors – are famously entrepreneurial, and stories about these vaunted figures have duly been told in print and film. But while the alumni Bens Bernanke and Netanyahu dominate headlines, others make it to the silver screen.

First up, the true story of a group of MIT colleagues who hit Vegas and counted cards all the way to hundreds of thousands of dollars and gambling infamy. The movie made about their exploits, 21, inspired whole documentaries about the art of odds and cards.

The other MIT movie won Oscars, is fictitious, and became an instant classic – if only for Matt Damon's bottomless well of quotable lines and Ben Affleck's brutally exaggerated accent.

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Mixology

Some pre-beer science. Just popped into MIT on way to dinner (as recommended by quite a few readers, including Alwick and former MIT-er aeausa). This is a small flowering plant on a molecular scale, apparently. 

"We've been to Yale and MIT, our parents will be so proud," says Greta. 

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Boston 101

As taught by the Dropkick Murphys.

Rough plan is emerging: Cuchi Cuchi and then Cambridge Brew Co, or the other way around. We're pretty tired after a day on the road, so maybe no random goth parties tonight. Although, you never know. 

Cambridge!

Phew. We're at the hotel. We need a beer after this journey. We're keen to try out this tip, which was the very first one we received when we first put out the shout last week: the Cambridge Brewing Company at Kendall Square. (First drink's for you, dr8765.) 

We've just checked in the hotel, just around the corner. It's as if we planned the trip around a need for a good beer.

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Reader's guide to a night in Cambridge

Though Vicky's still taking suggestions for where to grab dinner in drinks in Cambridge tonight (and you can tweet her @vickybaker or vote below the line to sway her choice), we've received a bunch of good tips about her options in Boston.

ebby33 recommends Cuchi Cuchi in Cambridge, "where they also serve really nice international "small plates" until 10.30pm … they're pricey, but worth it", to which the ubiquitous aeausa follows up with dessert: Toscanini's Ice Cream, apparently rated the best in Boston for years, according to their site's billing.

We've also received tips for the burgers and craft beers at RF O'Sullivans, the southern food at M3, and the Portuguese at Atasca Hampshire. Burgers, at least, are out of the evening equation, for sure …

And finally, there's @mrdavidwhitley:

What's the verdict? Any Quebecois restaurants in the area? Any secret Cambridge bars that don't mind live blog publicity? Or Portuguese food and the very apt Wheel of Indecision

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At last! We see the skyscrapers of Boston. We've passed some boat houses alongside the Charles river. Someone just suggested another burger for dinner. The team is definitely all burger-ed out. 

Lesson learnt: getting a last-minute, affordable hotel in Boston is no easy task. After a lot of calling around, we've booked into the Kendall Hotel in Cambridge. 

As for refueling … where can we get fed and watered nearby? 

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Tuneage II

From the passenger's seat along Rt 84, it's the second edition of Zach's New England playlist.

Speaking of UMass Amherst, western Massachusetts is a worthy destination for a much quieter, relaxed road trip than Vicky's schedule will allow for. All valleys, forested hills and minor mountains, the Pioneer Valley is considered prime "fall foliage" country, and is full of trails and B&Bs. The biggest city in the area, Springfield, was founded in the earliest days of English colonization, and was the first place somebody in the New World thought to call somebody else a witch – a long British tradition.

And it's got culture, too! Emily Dickinson wrote her poems in a strange little house here, Chinua AchebeJoseph Brodsky and Robert Frost taught nearby, and the college town of Amherst boasts not just the Pixies but alums such as David Foster Wallace and David O Russell, who, coincidentally, recently won plaudits for his movie set in Philadelphia.

Wallace, of course, immortalized Boston and its environs – or at least an alternate version of Boston – in his novel Infinite Jest, and you can take tours of all his real and imagined locations. Fans have even plotted them out on maps, made Flickr photo tours, and created internet monuments to the monumental novel.

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We're listening to the Pixies now to get us in the mood. It's educational, as Frank Black might shout. He and guitarist Joey Santiago met at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. 

Autumn glory

Route 84 is tree-lined and some of the leaves are just, just beginning to turn. Little patches of burnt yellow and burgundy. We have been hoping to catch New England in its autumnal glory. Are we still a little early? Greta assures us it will all be OK when we get to Maine. Not the full picture perhaps, but it should offer a good taste of it. 

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In honor of Rhode Island, which will be missed – literally, by Vicky – here's the state in the words of one very thorough commenter who values liberty, tolerance and seafood above all else:

There is one tiny little apparently forgotten state being traversed on this itinerary that merits a pause of a day or two, as it can lay claim to being the true birthplace of the rebellion against Crown rule, the tradition of religious tolerance, and the separation of church and state that was eventually enshrined in the US constitution.

And, equally important, the home of the best seafood anywhere en route, including what are indisputably the world's best oysters.

So: get off 95 right after crossing into Rhode Island from Connecticut, veer south on the Boston Post Road (Route 1) and stop for a good, long waterfront lunch at the Matunuck Oyster Bar on Succotash Road. Then continue on 1 until the turnoff to the Jamestown and Pell bridges to Newport, where you will visit America's first synagogue and the unforgettable Cliff Walk past the front lawns of the Robber Baron palaces a few miles away.

Then head north through Providence (you can stop there next time) and stop at Pawtucket's Slater Mill, a monument to intellectual property theft that kicked off the second North American phase of the industrial revolution. But don't leave Providence without at least one great Italian meal - the choices are many.

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We're all disappointed to miss Rhode Island though. We really fancied that ferry trip from Providence.

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Time seems to have run away for us a bit, with our detour into New Haven (although it was well worth it). We're taken advice from below the line to take the quickest route to Boston. That's inland through Connecticut. Any tips to break up the final legs of the journey?

On the road again

We're back the car. Boston is finally appearing on the road signs. We're gradually closing in. Just passed Glastonbury, the other Glastonbury in Connecticut.

Below the line, aeausa has led the commenters in providing what might be the comprehensive guide to Boston and its environs. There will be future thankful mentions as Vicky approaches the bay – along with shout outs to ebby33Alwick and others – but for now, we'll just honor your continued excellence as commenters with aeausa's request for James Taylor. 

Keep sending tips for the the road, Beantown itself and the road trip tunes you'd like to hear!

Beinecke 101

The team is exploring Yale's Beinecke Library, which, with its massive collection and bizarre architecture, looks like a bibliophile's happy fever dream.

The climate-controlled, modernist-styled hall holds six stories of books, and counts James Joyce, Hemingway, Dickens, Walt Whitman and the Gutenberg Bible among its stacks. They've even got alchemy in European pop culture and the enigmatic Voynich manuscript, which was recently written about in the New Yorker for being completely baffling:

The oddest thing about this book is that no one has ever read it. … Called the Voynich manuscript after the rare-book dealer who stumbled upon it a century ago – [it's] written in an unknown script, with an alphabet that appears nowhere other than in its pages. The writing system is oddly beautiful, full of looping and fluid curves. … What these glyphs signify – whether they represent phonetic information or numeric values or something else – is anyone’s guess.

Not the Voynich. Just yet another cool book.

And that Forbes Smiley story mentioned a moment ago? It's behind the New Yorker's paywallthe Times, on the other hand, tells us that Smiley, an antiquities dealer, used an X-Acto knife blade to steal a maps worth almost $1m. He didn't get very far: police found a map worth $150,000 in his pocket and the others in his briefcase. In 2006, Smiley pled guilty to 97 thefts over the years and landed in prison facing possible $1.6m fines.

So it goes in the tweedy underbelly of academia.

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Security is high here. We've left out bags in lockers.

"There are cameras over every table," says Steve. Was anything ever stolen?

"There have been a few cases," he says. "The most famous was Forbes Smiley. The New Yorker did a big piece on it in 2005."

We're intrigued. 

Head of department Steve is giving us a little tour.

 He shows us one of their most prized objects: a Lewis and Clark map from 1810. They hand drew it as they travelled on the first expedition across the American west.

We ask Steve what its value is. "Huge," he says.

"We don't know exactly, because we'd never sell it." He estimates it's in the 10s of millions, but says that is a stab in the dark.

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

We're at the Beinecke rare books library. Amid all the old university buildings, it certainly stands out. Built in early 1960s out of marble from Vermont, it's a giant cube with a geometric grid pattern on the front. 

Connecticut has something of a habit for claiming intellectual property rights – sometimes spuriously. New Haven-ites and others have demanded credit for a lot more than the hamburger. Wiki gives us the rundown (with editor's notes appended in brackets).

1776: Yale student David Bushnell invents the first American submarine. [Which failed to sink a British warship in the revolution.]

1787: John Fitch builds the first steamboat. [Which he built in Philadelphia.]

1793: Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin. [Yes, Industrial Revolution Eli, of history textbook infamy.]

1836: Samuel Colt invents the automatic revolver in Whitney's factory. 

1860: Philios P Blake patents the first corkscrew. [Though it's probably an English invention, implied to have existed back in John Worlidge's 1861 Treatise on Cider.]

1878–1880: The District Telephone Company of New Haven creates the world's first telephone exchange and the first telephone directory and installs the first public phone. [Most of the first actual inventing and experimenting took place in Boston.]

1892: Local confectioner George C Smith of the Bradley Smith Candy Co invents the first lollipops. [Though people have been eating sugar-on-a-stick since the middle ages, and the word first appeared a century earlier.]

1911: The Erector Set, the popular and culturally important construction toy, is invented in New Haven by AC Gilbert. [Were Erector Sets to New Haven kids what Lego is to the world?]

1920: The Frisbee is said to have originated on the Yale campus, based on the tin pans of the Frisbie Pie Company which were tossed around by students on the New Haven Green. [This should probably not be a point of pride.]

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We notice that all the signs in Louis Lunch are spelt wrong. It's deliberate – an in-joke because of the proximity to Yale.

"Everyone is just so educated round here," says Jeff. Speaking of which, we are heading there now. We've got a tip to check out the Beinecke Library

Right, we've carved our names in the table. (Jeff gave us that screwdriver, by the way.) It's time to go. 

Jeff, great grandson of the owner, swears by their claim on the oldest burger title, as they have been operating in the same area since 1885. They flame grill the burgers in their original 1898 cast-iron stoves. 

The rules: strictly no ketchup. 

"We look down on condiments," says Jeff. "A lot of places put ketchup all over it because it is an inferior product, but we work to bring people the very best. We cut and grind out own meat onsite every day."

Louis Lunch

We're making up for our Burger King faux pas in New Jersey (it was an emergency, people, not a choice). I've never been to a burger joint like this one. A short, squat, brick building with heavy wood furniture. The counter is more like the bar in an old English pub.

We've got a tip to visit Louis' Lunch in New Haven, the oldest burger joint in the US, so they say. I'm sure others lay claim to that title too, but we're off to find out the full story.

Their line is that one day in 1900, a man dashed in and asked for something to eat on the run. The owner quickly stuffed a broiled beef patty between two slices of bread and the hamburger was born. 

The company is Austrian, but has had its US HQ here since 1973. "How's the company doing?" I ask, thinking surely the heyday is over.

"Bigger and better than ever," says the manager dryly, looking a bit offended that I should ask. The visitors centre opened 1.5 years ago and received 100,000 visitors in its first year. 

Not Oompa-Loompas.

There's a visitors' centre with a glass wall on to the factory. You can make your own dispenser or buy a bucket of the stuff. 

This is all a bit Willy Wonka. 

Revenge of Pez

Ok, America, this is getting weird. we've already mentioned our blast-from-the-past reminder of Pez dispensers, thanks to the display at the American Visionary Arts Musuem in Baltimore and the again at the second display at Paper Moon Diner. Now as we drive through Connecticut, we see the Pez Museum in Orange. We are going to have to swing by. 

New England Tuneage Part I

Zach Nugent, arts producer for New Hampshire Public Radio (and Greta's boyfriend) has generously supplied us with a playlist to welcome the team into New England … and enough east-coast-related songs to last them quite a distance. We'll keep posting his picks as the journey continues, but your musical wishes are our command. Tell us what we missed!

We're far from you now, New Jersey, but an apology is in order. You have no idea how good those diners sound to us, but the brillant tips from @walkprinceton came just a little too late for us. (Someone please go on our behalf.)

Next stop: New Haven.

We are going to need a place a drink after this massive journey. Tips on Boston bars? We like the sound of this one.

New Haven 101

Most famous for: Yale University - the town's biggest earner and employer. The University's assets include an endowment valued at $19.4 billion. Founded 1701 - third oldest academic institution in the US (after Harvard and the College of William and Mary in Virginia)

Who's been to Yale? Who hasn't. Five US Presidents, inc Gerald Ford, George H W Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W Bush; authors Sinclair Lewis, and Tom Wolfe; actors, directors and producers Paul Newman, Vincent Price, Meryl Streep, Jodie Foster, Angela Bassett, Frances McDormand; composers Charles Ives and Cole Porter; child psychologist Benjamin Spock.

And then there's: The first time a rock star was arrested at a concert. Jim Morrison 1967, New Haven. "While backstage with a girl, a police officer, not realizing it was Jim, told the couple to leave. Jim resisted and was maced by the cop. During the performance, Jim began to recount the story about 'the little blue man, in the little blue cap'. The police finally had enough, stopped the concert and arrested Morrison." Cue near riot.

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We've had some great views of the Manhattan skyline on our way through. Just exited the Bronx. Bye, NYC. See you next time. Got a date with Boston.

"Welcome to the New York Thruway: New England section," says the sign. We like the sound of this.

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New Jersey Turnpike? Got to be done. Corny but classic. And Paul Simon is from New Jersey.

This is from the Simon and Garfunkel free benefit concert in Central Park in 1981, in front of more than 500,000 people. Proceeds went to the redevelopment and maintenance of the run-down green space in the middle of Manhattan. Bonus shout out to the unsung heroes selling loose joints and donating half the proceeds to the city.

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@WalkPrinceton - Got those awesome diner tips on Twitter a bit too late. We could try the one in Edison though, maybe. Just seeing if it would slow us down.

Oh no, actually have passed Edison.

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We pulled off the New Jersey Turnpike and into a truckers' rest stop. It's standard fare on offer: fast food. Burgers and fries it is, then. The usual tourist/server exchange ensues.

"I asked for small. Oh, that is small? Oh. Ok."

We're going to feel great after this. For about 10 minutes.

We know how he feels.

Below the line, Menardo has quite rightly taken me (me is Andy in the London office) to task for describing his response to our proposed route as "apoplectic". Sorry, I panicked. Maps makes me nervous. Friends? Anyway, he's suggesting another way, through the Berkshires and then taking in the Mohawk Trail "which still has vestiges of early driving culture in America".

Pazuzu plumps for the interior route over the coastal drive, taking in the Hudson Valley and the Catskills "which has wonderful little towns like Rosendale and Phoenicia".

And Mark Baglin agress with KFC that the team should head to Provincetown and, from there, catch the ferry over to Boston - "fun with great views of the Harbor Islands, and you may, if you're lucky, catch sight of a whale or two".

But wait, ohno...Alwick tells us that this is not a car ferry. Zut!

So many choices, so little time. And breathe.

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Nathan's hotdogs booth! It caught our eye from the road. And it does Philly cheesesteaks, too! Probably not the best in Pennsylvania, but we're starving.
But, wait, is that a closed sign? Nooo. Will we ever eat again?

It's a big day on the road today. Kylie is in the driving seat and Greta is snapping pics through the window (not that the landscape is wildly exciting at the moment, lot of road works). I'm trying to look busy, checking tips on Twitter, in the hope that Kylie won't suggest a game of 20 questions. Last time we played that on a road trip, she got annoyed with me for squandering my questions.

"Is it a fruit?"

"Yes."

"Is it a pineapple!?!"

"Dammit Vicky, come on, play properly. Narrow it down first."

She plays 20 questions tactically. They're competitive these Aussies, aren't they? Although, it was a pineapple, incidentally.

So the team are on the road to Boston - or by the side of a road consulting a map. Either way, it's time to cue up the first playlist of the day. There's nothing clever, scientific or insider cool about this one, I'm afraid. The loose idea is that all the bands have some connect with the states that Vicky, Greta and Kylie will be passing through today: PA, NJ, NY, CT and MA. That's it. We're sure you will have much better suggestions, so do sling them our way, and we'll be more than happy to stick them on play: @VickyBaker, @GuardianTravel, #TwiTrips, or in the comments below. We thank you.

On the way into the US on Sunday, Kylie, our driver, arriving via Mexico, got a full grilling from US immigration.

"So tell me again, what is it you are doing? Where are you going? Why?"

Kylie was worried for a moment. Then the woman reached for a pen.

"Wait a moment. What's that Twitter address again? I'll write it down and tweet you some tips."

Philly immigration lady, if one of those tips yesterday came from you, speak now.

Interesting Philly footnote in the comments below from Pigtown, who's been serving us prime cuts all week:

Kevin Bacon's father was the city planner responsible for much of Philadelphia's look today, mixing the modern with the historic.

Edmund Norwood Bacon (1910-2005), urban planner and architect, is sometimes described as "The Father of Modern Philadelphia." His ideas that shaped modern Philly include: Penn Center, Market East, Penn's Landing, Society Hill, Independence Mall, and the Far Northeast. He also unsuccessfully opposed the development of skyscrapers in Center City Philadelphia taller than Philadelphia City Hall. (cf Wiki)

We have consensus on the route to Boston, heeding Menardo's apoplectic response (and having consulted a map). The team are now following KentuckyFriedColonel's advice (sorry MisterMeaner), and heading East then North via New Haven, Mystic, Newport RI, Plymouth and up to Boston.

Mystic Pizza, right? Of course we were lying about looking at a map...we just liked the names on this route better. Does that make us shallow? A little Respect, please...

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Road trip fail: Silk City Diner is closed.

It only does breakfast at weekends. Gutted. This place looks awesome. Old-school diner, with that Airstream caravan look, plus a very cute and colourful garden, encased in stucco walls and wrought-iron gates. Oh well, will have to pick something up on the road now. Onward to Boston...

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Route ruck:

It's already kicking off in the comments. Menardo says

No one goes through Pennsylvania and Upstate New York to get to Boston, unless you're looking to add seven or eight hours of driving to your trip.

Oops.

KentuckyFriedColonel takes a gentler, more paternal approach, by suggesting the team go "Go North, then East" via Albany, Lenox, Amherst, Concord and Lexington.

Get to see a lot of lovely scenery and experience a nice variety of picture-postcard / significant New England/NY towns and cities.

Or: "Go East, then North" via New Haven, Mystic and visiting Newport RI ("one of my very favourite places") then east to Plymouth and up to Boston.

We like the sound of those. Any other thoughts?

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More driveby tourism... Love Park, with the "Love" sculpture, designed by Robert Indiana, and installed in 1976 as part of the United States' Bicentennial celebration.

Driving by City Hall now. Big, gorgeous beast of a building.

Just did some drive-by people watching at Rittenhouse Square, thus (sort of) following a below-the-line tip from yesterday.

go to Rittenhouse Square in the late afternoon and watch the world go by. The primo people watching site in the city, its practically a sociological study. Get a bench near the center. Please comment Thank you Rich

"Oh no! We haven't run up the Rocky steps!" I say, before remembering I haven't even seen Rocky.

It's pretty insane how much American films and TV affect how we experience places. The Rocky steps are at the front of the Philadelphia Musuem of Art. Stallone runs up them in the movie (I've seen that scene at least), and it's almost obligatory for tourists to mimic that run. Two journalists from the Philadelphia Inquirer even wrote a book about it - Rocky Stories: Tales of Love Hope and Happiness at America's Most Famous Steps - after interviewing the countless imitators.

Route manoeuvres

As is the way of these road trips, armchair navigators local experts have been stirred into action and have been plotting team's route for us - for which we are truly grateful, readily admitting that we're rubbish with maps, and don't know our rights from our lefts, our easts from wests etc etc.

Purplearth entreated us to avoid New York and take the scenic Delaware River drive to Somerville by way of Princeton. But they lost us when they said "get your map out now: I-287, and maybe US-6 to I-84. I-95 can be quite crazy and unpredictable". Handbrake to that plan - too many numbers and letters. Confusing!

Alexguy advised: "Route 81 through Pennsylvania and join up with I-88 in New York," taking in the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown. Nice and simple. Cruise control.

But MisterMeaner has probably won the day with this artful piece of navigation: "Route 611 through Cheltenham and then continue on up to the Lehigh Valley." Nice and simple - if a bit of a detour to the right/east left/west. We're not sure how much it will add to the journey, but phrases like "Amish country", "16oz cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon at South Bethlehem's New Street Cafe" and "Stop at Larry Holmes' Ringside Bar and shake hands with The Champ" pretty much had us at the get-go.

What does everyone think? Good plan?

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After breakfast, we're heading off to Boston.

It's going to take some time, so we need your tips for where to stop en route.

Boston, I won't lie, I'm worried for you. Can you top Baltimore and Philly? Are you up to it? It will be another flying visit. We'll be there for this evening and tomorrow morning. How can we make the most of the city and see it at its best? Send us your tips: @VickyBaker, @GuardianTravel, #TwiTrips, via GuardianWitness or in the comments below.

Looking over the tips coming in on Twitter, it seems to be between Silk City Diner versus Honey's Sit 'n' Eat for breakfast.
Oh, and here comes another vote for Silk City. Looks like we are heading that way.

Good morning, Philadelphia!

What a day yesterday was. We arrived in Philly mid-afternoon, after taking the scenic route from Baltimore and calling in on Delaware (thanks brainfrz76 for giving us the background on this little-known state).

We met Kobe Bryant's barber. We checked out a slice of Einstein's brain at the Mutter Museum (I'm still recovering from that place). We got food tips from PhillyCop at Reading Terminal Market. We learnt how to speak, Philly-style ("Wha'djeet? Pass me that jawn.") Then we hit the nightlife around Fishtown.
After signing off, we went on to Barbary (another tip). It was pretty dead in there, so we moved on again to Kung Fu Neck Tie (another tip), where we happened upon a goth birthday party (bodices, leather cowboy hats, lashings of eyeliner). There was a band playing, with a leader singer that looked like a cross between Marilyn Manson and the singer from AFI. Not our usual scene, but they were actually pretty good. We caught two bands last night, which isn't bad going for such a flying visit.

We're now having some pick-me-up juice from the hotel, before going out to look for a breakfast joint. Any tips? We've had a shout for Honey's Sit Neat, from @Jumpphilly - which could be a winner.

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