Day Nine

Just a fyi if anyone is making comments on the post, we are not getting them, so we are not snobbing you, we just don’t know that you’ve said anything. 

Train trip from Washington to New York.

We had a re-pack last night to consolidate the luggage, having the car for a couple of days had caused a blow out in terms of not being too worried about fitting everything back into the bags.  But Amtrak rules say you are limited to 2 bags each and it is strictly enforced.  Of course it isn’t strictly enforced, they just like to mess with you.  We schlepped our two bags each from the Hotel to Union Station with plenty of time to spare, and had breakfast at Pret a Manger, an old haunt from our time in the UK.  When will we learn to order a small coffee, not a medium ?  We downed a bacon and egg baguette and our gallon of coffee, and then went to queue up at the boarding gate.  Huge queue of people that snaked right around the waiting area and out into the concourse.  I guess this is a popular trip.  Eventually we were let through the gate and onto the train.  The great thing is that you take you luggage on with you, no faffing to pick your bags up from baggage claim later, but the bad thing is you have to heft it above head height into the luggage compartments above the seats !  Blowed if I know how little old ladies manage, I guess they just have to travel light.  It’s good to keep the luggage compartment in mind as we spend a week in New York, whatever we buy has to be lifted into that overhead compartment.  Sigh.

We left on time and it was a very pleasant trip, more of the Fall trees we’d seen in Pennsylvania, and a limited number of stops.  Very efficient.  I’ve read train travel described as “America with it’s pants down”  but it actually wasn’t too bad.  Around Philadelphia it was quite dirty, lots of old abandoned warehouse buildings, and quite a few homes that obviously hurled their rubbish over their back fence onto the area adjoining the train tracks, but for the most part it was pretty trees.

We arrived into New York about 20 minutes late, and then had the job of schlepping our two bags each to our new digs for the next week.  Emerging from Penn Station onto 7^th Avenue was stepping into chaos.  Horns tooting, traffic snarled, thousands of people pushing and shoving.  It required a steely determination to walk the seven blocks to our motel, which is on 40th Street near Times Square.  Love the street numbering system, makes it super easy to figure out where you are and how much further you have to struggle on.  Found the place with no issues, thankfully we’d sussed it out while we were on the train, and seven blocks is not nearly as bad as it sounds, they are small blocks.  Room not ready yet so we stored our luggage and went out for a wander.  We are staying in the Fashion District, oh dear how sad that I was in charge of booking the accommodation J Walked up Avenue of the America’s (also known as 6^th Avenue) as far as Central Park, and then wandered back again via 7^th Avenue.  Initial impressions are that it’s a crazy busy place, with a huge amount of construction or repair work going on.  Sidewalks blocked or barriered off and pedestrians diverted, quite a few intersections with lights out and NYPD’s finest directing traffic.  Pedestrians seem to ignore all crossing signals (except us novices!) and people take some crazy risks stepping out into traffic.  Drivers seem very polite and do actually try to not run people over.  So after a couple of hours of having our senses awakened by the cacophony, we returned to our hotel to check in.  Nice room on the 15^th floor.  Not much of a view but at least the room and bed is a decent size, not like the postage stamp we had to sleep on in Washington the night before.  All very clean and new, a great place to stay.  And of course on the doorstep is both the Fashion district, times Square and 5^th Avenue is less than two blocks away.  It started raining while we were unpacking and getting settled in, so we wimped with dinner and only went as far as the Mexican place across the road.  It was very nice, good food, cheap and cheerful.  Joe ordered a burrito that turned out to be as large as a two-man submarine. It was delish though, and washed down with two bourbon’s.

See how high those luggage compartments are ??

First teaser glimpse of New York from the train