| We travelled east from Gettysburg and passed through
Lancaster county en route to Philadelphia. Lancaster county was the centre
of the Amish community in Pennsylvania. We left the interstates to drive the
back-roads for a while. I'm not sure we found the real people but we
did find quite a few Welsh Methodists and towns like Lampeter. We also found
the towns of Paradise and Intercourse! |  |
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Not surprisingly, there are a number of tourist shops displaying wares like
this quilt. But most places were closed as we would have expected on a
Sunday. The open
shops were tourist traps and we gave them a miss. |
| The guide books advised that the most famous place in
Intercourse was the Hidden Green Barn. We found it behind another building,
but it being Sunday, it too was closed. It was green, if a bit dark. |  |
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The village lamp standards are cool. The horses are in keeping with the
area and the history. The Amish eschew modern technology and still only use
the horse. |
| As if on cue, a representative of the primary mode of
transport travelled by. Several passed through the town while we were there.
Intercourse must be a boundary town given the mass of tractors in the
dealer's yard across the road. |  |
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This is a serious tractor. I'm not sure who or where this would be used but
it is certainly an impressive piece of technology. |
| Having said that, the local farms were very
substantial and in very good condition (at least from a distance). We did
see similar farms in Indiana in the Amish areas there. And there are quite a
number in this picture... |  |
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Onward towards Philadelphia and our route actually took us across the
Delaware River and into New Jersey. Our map shows this as a toll bridge but
in fact it isn't. The New Jersey Turnpike is a toll road but we took a more
minor road to the campsite. |
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