Mrs. 500 Words and I are just back from a visit to Pittsburgh. It was our first trip there and we had a great time.
We arrived around 5:30 on a Monday afternoon, expecting to be caught up in rush hour traffic, but no: we drove directly to our hotel, the Residence Inn by Marriott, on the North Shore, directly across from the home plate entrance to PNC Ballpark.
And we noticed the same thing all week: traffic was very light and drivers were courteous. The only time we heard a horn was when a taxi driver tooted his to thank another driver for allowing him to make a U-turn. Several times drivers stopped to let us cross the street.
We parked our car in the hotel's lot and left it there for four days. The rest of the time we walked or took public transit. One time we took the hotel shuttle. Travel on Pittsburgh's subway system is free for the six stops in the downtown area and the near North Shore and we hopped on and off frequently. It was never crowded.
One of the sites we did have to pay for was one stop further south, the Monongahela Inclined Railway, which for nearly 200 metres climbs over 35 degrees and 113 metres up the side of Mount Washington. The views of the downtown and north over the three rivers are spectacular. It is operated by the Port Authority of Allegheny County, which runs the city's transit system.
Which brings me to Pittsburgh's nickname, Three Rivers: the Allegany, the Monongahela, and the Ohio Rivers all come together here. Pittsburgh claims to have more bridges than Venice.
Across the street from the base of the inclined railroad is Station Square, a retail and dining area anchored to a Sheraton hotel. We had lunch in the Gandy Dancer bar and saloon and toured the larger, attached Grand Concourse seafood restaurant. This is the restored Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad terminal building, opened in 1901. It features a breathtaking stain glass cathedral ceiling. We intended to go back later for dinner, but ran out of time.
We also toured the Andy Warhol Museum, which has seven floors full of his work including an entire floor of archival material, and the Carnegie Science Center where we took in the planetarium and an IMAX show on the Hubble Space Telescope.
And we had great seats at PNC Park to watch the Pirates defeat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-0 on a gorgeous evening. PNC Park has to be the most beautiful ballpark in the majors and everyone we met treated us royally. We even had the "golden tickets", which entitled us to a pair of T-shirts.
The weather was great and the staff at the hotel courteous. And at a second hotel, the Holiday Inn Express in Meadville, where we stayed on our way home, after some outlet shopping in Grove City, PA, we were treated even better. There's much more we'd still like to see and do here, but all and all, a fun five days.
