South of Reading, US-222 runs along the western edge of the Amish- and Mennonite-influenced Pennsylvania Dutch Country. The heart of this region is due east of Lancaster, but the area north of Lancaster also holds a number of related sites often missed by visitors. The most appealing of these is the Ephrata Cloister (daily; $7), at 632 W. Main Street just west of the town of Ephrata. Founded in 1732 by a communal society of religiously celibate German Pietists, the Ephrata Cloister consists of a half-dozen well-preserved 250-year-old wooden buildings, which housed dormitories, bakeries, and a printing shop where the commune produced some of the finest illustrated books of the colonial era. Across Main Street from the entrance, the Cloister Restaurant (717/733-2361) serves very good home-style food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in an overgrown 1940s diner.
If you happen, or can manage, to be in Ephrata on a Friday, there’s no more “Authentic Amish” experience than the once-a-week Green Dragon Farmers Market (717/738-1117), a chaotic complex of some 400 different fresh fruit and vegetable sellers, sausage and hotdog stands, pizza places and bakery outlets, covering 30 acres in 7 buildings, just over a mile north of town at 955 N. State Street. Many people here are truly Amish, so obey the 2nd commandment and resist the urge to take their photo.
West of Ephrata, eight miles north of Lancaster via Hwy-501, the delightful though tiny town of Lititz (pop. 8,280) is dominated by the huge Wilbur Chocolate candy factory at 48 N. Broad Street, which liberally perfumes the air with the smell of hot chocolate. Lititz, which is packed full of stone buildings and carefully tended gardens, also holds the nation’s oldest operating pretzel factory, the Sturgis Pretzel House at 219 E. Main Street, where you can twist your own.
