Last weekend, we took a brief excursion to Philadelphia.  We wanted to do something greener than our usual hop on a plane vacation, so we took our bikes to Philadelphia on the train.  Amtrak doesn’t make it as easy as it should to take your bike.  You have to be departing and arriving at a station and in a train that has baggage service, and you have to put them in boxes.  The boxes cost $15, and it’s another $5 to check them as baggage.  The boxes couldn’t be easier, however.  You turn the handlebars (or remove them), remove the pedals, and roll it into the box.  The train ride was enjoyable without having to remove one’s shoes or suffer other indignities.  Here I am in Philly loading up my bike for the return trip (sorry about the flash on the reflectors):

We arrived Friday evening and road all day Saturday and Sunday, leaving on Monday.  We rode 20 miles on Saturday and 30 on Sunday.  There are great bike paths along both sides of the river, as well as the gorgeous and wild Fairmount Park.  Philadelphia is another town that claims E. A. Poe as their own.  We haunted him while we were there, visiting a house he lived in when he was writing “The Black Cat.”  There is indeed a perfect place to wall up a corpse (and a cat).  We haunted his poster:

What’s to see from a Philadelphia bicycle trail?  Mostly, I was having too much fun to take many photos, but here’s one lovely view: