Day 2

Sunday, 8th June

Off to New York City!

I hadn't slept very well - probably because the room was so stuffy! Nobody fancied breakfast, but were glad to get outside for some fresh air! The Marriott had put aside a little area for smokers. I must say, it was a very worthy effort, with a canopy and table and chairs - much nicer than the usual ashtray around the corner, with nowhere to sit! I'm not sure whether smokers should get this kind of comfy treatment, which might only serve to encourage them in their dirty habit - but I was grateful for it! Anyway, we couldn't wait to get our things packed up and get out of that room! We sat outside with our luggage, in the lovely sunshine, before ordering our taxi for the airport.

Terminal 5 was rather nice; better than I had expected! It was very new (no!) and airy - but it was certainly absolutely MASSIVE! We dropped our bags off ("Fast Bag Drop" - not quite, but nearly) and went outside for a while, watching the planes landing.

We went through security at around 12:30 pm. Shoes off. Terry had chosen to wear his 'sunshine' socks and he was mercilessly mocked, "those your holiday socks, then?", but there wasn't too much bother in getting through! Nobody had warned us, but there was a HUGE walk to our gate (B32), which involved a HUGE, HIGH (eeek!) escalator or two and one of those whizzer trains with a disembodied voice. "Train is arriving" "doors are closing". We a little sorry that we had spent so much time loitering outside, as we really had not realised how far away from our plane we were - Terminal 5 is HUGE, but quite impressive, that has to be said.

Not long after, we boarded our plane (HUGE jumbo) and took out seats (CRAMPED cattle class). Our 13:40 take-off was slightly delayed, due to traffic (our pilot was very friendly!), but, otherwise, the flight was smooth, with only a very few bumps.

Lunch was pretty good; chicken tarragon + a trifle and other bits.

But I couldn't eat it. I had a problem. Terrible pains ripped through my chest and upper stomach! I managed to get out to the toilet, where I stretched myself and, mercifully, it shifted - I had really feared that I was having a heart attack at 38,000 feet - very scary!!

We flew mostly over the Atlantic Ocean, although we did fly over parts of Ireland, close to Greenland and over Nova Scotia, Canada. On approach, we flew over Boston and we landed at JFK airport at about 16:10.

offshore from Boston

JFK is not as nice as I had expected it to be; certainly Terminal 7 isn't. It was rather scruffy. We had to line up for about an hour to go through security. This is always a bummer after a long flight, when you just want to get outside and get on with your holiday. I wish they would give you somewhere to sit down and a cup of tea or something! But, once through security (more mug shots and fingerprinting), we were allowed into the country and we didn't have to wait long to pick up our luggage, quickly through customs and outside for a smoke! It sure was hot!! Today, in New York City, was around 93 degrees F, a lot warmer than we'd been used to!

It was exciting to be in New York City! We had decided to take a taxi to Manhattan, but there was a long queue and not a taxi in sight! However, we took our place in line and it wasn't long before dozens of taxis appeared at once and we joyfully hopped in one!

Wildred (they have their names on a card, at the back of the taxi!) took us to our hotel. We drove through some rough-looking neighbourhoods in Queens (all clap-board houses; mostly looking run down and in need of Ty Pennington!), which might've looked more attractive had the sky not decided to go completely black and bombard us with a fierce thunderstorm! Then we could see the Manhattan skyline from a distance! It was really thrill! Under the East River, via the Queens Midtown Tunnel - and we were in Midtown Manhattan, driving past the Empire State Building, amidst all those other skyscrapers!!

We checked in at the Marriott Residence Inn, Times Square and were delighted with our room, number 1501! There were 3 large windows, each with decent views of the surrounding high buildings, a big comfy king bed, a sofa bed, a desk area, a decent bathroom and a full-sized kitchen. Everything was new and clean and wonderful!

view out of one window

We settled in for a while, watching some 'soccer' (USA v Argentina; a friendly, I suppose) on TV and then we decided to walk up to Times Square (also, here and webcams), which was, indeed, just up the road and around the corner. And it was amazing! So many lights, so many people, so much BUZZ! We bought T-shirts in the Hard Rock Cafe and we also ventured into Planet Hollywood, where Terry had a little spar with Sly Stallone! We enjoyed the sights for a while, before we returned to our hotel for a good night's sleep!

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[ Introduction ] [ Day 1 ] [ Day 2 ] [ Day 3 ] [ Day 4 ] [ Day 5 ] [ Day 6 ] [ Day 7 ] [ Day 8 ] [ Day 9 ]
[ Day 10 ] [ Day 11 ] [ Day 12 ] [ Day 13 ] [ Day 14 ] [ Day 15 ] [ Day 16 ] [ Day 17 ]
[ Day 18 ] [ Day 19 ] [ Day 20 ] [ Day 21 ] [ Day 22 ] [ Day 23 ] [ Day 24 ] [ Day 25 ] [ Day 26 ]

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