He came pick us up at around 1pm. He told us that he caught one small fish and then released it back into the river.
We decided to visit the landmark of Reading, the Pagoda. I asked the front desk for direction and she gave me a little card detailing each road and each turn.
The direction was fine at first but it got confusing towards the end. We took a wrong turn and ended up at a little home-based shop.
It was a shop selling fresh fruits, veggie and home-made cakes with the harvest from its own orchard.
There were apple trees surrounding the house.
And some beautiful flowers too.
We bought some fresh blueberries and a loaf of home-made zucchini cake, which was simply delicious. We then asked the owner for direction to the Pagoda.
The Pagoda is located on Mount Penn. On our drive up the mountain, we stopped by the William Penn Memorial Fire Tower.
We took a couple of pictures and then continued our journey.
The winding road led us up to the Pagoda.
The Pagoda is a Japanese style architecture overlooking the town of Reading.
It was built in 1908 and celebrated its 100th anniversary last year.
There were 7 storey to the top, with 87 steps.
At the ground floor, there was the reception and a small cafe. At the top floor, there was a bell hanging from the roof. This bell was cast in Japan with inscription that is hardly visible now.
There was also a room detailing the history of the Pagoda and displaying old newspaper clipping of its news.
Standing inside the Pagoda gave us a nice view of the Reading town.
At one of floors, there stood a machine that would mould a penny into a souvenir.
We just had to insert two quarters and a penny into the machine, turn the handle and out came the newly moulded penny with the Pagoda picture on it.
We did not find this Pagoda particularly impressive; it was just a normal architecture that provides a good view of the entire town.
After a brief visit, we asked the staff at the cafe to recommend a place to have lunch. She recommended a local restaurant called Charcoal Chef.
The drive downhill was smooth, but we got lost a bit looking for that restaurant.
It was the typical local American restaurant by the road side that we always saw on the TV.
I ordered a cup of soup and a bowl of salad.
Again, the meal wasn't particularly impressive either.
We asked the waitress if there were any other places of interest in Reading downtown, and she could only name the outlets and a place called GoggleWorks, an arts center. We went looking for this place and wondered into the area where our colleagues had specifically told us not to go by ourselves. We realised that it was the area they mentioned, until we were already in the neighbourhood and sensed it by looking at the people and surrounding.
When we found the place, big boss asked us to stay in the car while he went down to have a look. He came back and told us that it was really nothing much to see, and so we quickly left the area and drove back to the hotel.
And that concludes my first weekend in Reading.
Labels: travel
