We have a new winner in airport lounges and
airlines for this trip. The Swiss Air
lounge in Zurich was great, once we found it.
We spent about an hour walking around aimlessly (but at least I was
walking) and eventually after going to two other Swiss Air lounges we found
it. Each time we asked at the other
lounges they said you don’t want this lounge, yours is much better. They were right. It was in the middle of the airport with
runways either side. The lounge had an
outdoor viewing area with binoculars provided, and the temperature was around
20C (68F - I realised I have readers who work in Fahrenheit). On the skyline you could see the Swiss
Alps. The food selection didn’t look
much until I discovered you had a menu to select from and a chef to cook
it. I chose fresh fruit as I knew we
would be fed on the plane, plus we had lunch only a few hours earlier.
The flight on Swiss Air was great, and we
were met with Champagne, orange juice or water (I chose water). For the first part of the flight over Europe the
sky was a little hazy (and so was the person on champagne), but I got a great
view of the Alps and the countryside.
England was cloudy (see it wasn’t me) and going over Ireland I got to
see the area South of Killarney where we had driven round. Coming in to Newark it was just on sunset and
we came in from the NE over the Boston area.
I was surprised at how many lakes there were below us.
The food on the plane was restaurant quality. When they handed out the menu for the flight
the hostess said it contained dinner and breakfast, but I indicated that I
hoped we weren’t on the flight for breakfast as we were due in at 20:30. The menu was for two x three course meals in the
9 hour flight. I had the first meal with
another French Red, followed by a Port from Portugal, but there was no way I
could eat a second meal so passed on that.
Big news.
I think I had a sleep on this flight as I seemed to wake myself a few times
with snoring.
The first night was in an airport hotel at
Newark which although our first impressions were not great, turned out to be a
pleasant night. The next morning, we caught
several trains to get to New York where we were staying for the week. We used AirBNB, which apparently is not legal
in NY, but we had a room and we shared the shower and kitchen with the host who
was never there when we were. The accommodation was fine but we both found it weird as
there was second girl at the flat but she almost refused to speak to us. Maybe she was a spy or a very quiet girl or
just plain odd. The accommodation
was 500mtrs from Lisa, a woman I have known (but had never met) since we were
penfriends at around age 16. She became
our tour guide and on the first day Denise and Lisa both decided I needed a
little Kulcha (Culture), so we went into the Met
(Metropolitan Museum of Art) for a few hours followed by Time Square in the
daytime and orientation of how to get around and settling in. Yes, trying to get
Peter cultured would be a miracle in the real world but that will never happen
as there is no physical challenge. We
now have US phone numbers with data (that will work in Canada and Mexico –
Mexico is not currently on our plans, but who knows…) and public transport cards.
Even though we
have Met Cards Peter is very keen to drag me all over the country side on foot.
It is very lovely walking around but
lets walk 20 blocks. He would never say
that and so, he is miffed if I want to know how much further.
The girls were looking at going to the
ballet so I asked Lisa if she had any friends who wanted to go to a sports
event with me. Unfortunately (or
luckily), nothing came of that plan. Lisa and I could have been at the theatre all week with lots
of plays that I would have loved to have seen. Just a FYI, Lisa here in New York, is who Baby
Barnett is named after.
On one of our orientation walks we stopped
at one stage and right across the road was Google. I was waiting for the office staff to come
streaming out to welcome Denise, their new Streetview team member, but unfortunately,
they must have had an important meeting or launch as nothing happened. So much for big brother tracking us. I should just go and buy Denise a backpack
with one of those Google cameras sticking out of it so we don’t have to stop
every 5mtrs to take a photo. What do you
think?
The next day we went to see the USS Intrepid,
an aircraft carrier on the Hudson River, and not only saw through an aircraft
carrier, but also a submarine and one of the old space shuttles. After several hours looking through the
Intrepid we went to see a place called High Line, an elevated park and green
space that used to be a rail line. The Intrepid was
amazing! We were advised to start at the US submarine Growler it was the last
in commission before the nuclear subs. They ran for 3 months at a time not
making any noises and under water for their deployment. From there we headed to
the Space Shuttle Enterprise, what a massive piece of machinery! There are only
4 shuttles that have sent to museums and the Enterprise was one of them. So
after hours of wondering around the museum we headed out. The High Line by this
stage was having a little bit of rain and it was decided to walk as quickly as
possible so we didn’t get drenched. Still I was taking photos.
More Kulcha was had with a night on Broadway
to see Carousel. Denise and Lisa loved
it and I did my usual people watching.
After the show we walked through Time Square, at this time of night and
I was blown away at all the glowing billboards and people. My first thought was this is crazy, quickly
followed by what a waste of money. There is no time in
this life time when Peter will ever appreciate Culture. Unless it is the
football or some sort of sport my life will be doomed.
Further excursions were done to the Statue
of Liberty, but as the climb to the head was booked out until August we chose to
sail past and just looked at it on the Staten Island Ferry. That is a free ferry and you go over to Staten
Island, get off then get back on and come back.
There is a great view of New York from the ferry. When we got back we went to the 9/11 Memorial
for about 2-3 hours and eventually it starts to get a little repetitive. It is an amazing exhibition, but…
We had a few days where we went into town by
ourselves and stumbled upon things including Grand Central Station which is
huge, and a walk through some of Central Park, and then along the East River
near where we were staying.
Lisa did a wonderful job of tour guide and
saved us a lot of time where we would have had to stop and ask people. The people in NY were friendly and willing to
assist with directions, but their fashion was everything from hippies to high
fashion. It appears that torn jeans are
the thing, but I still don’t get it. It
looks terrible and it appears that you actually buy them pre torn. I would have thought it would be more fun
tearing them yourself, but hey, that’s just me.
It looks like we have brought spring to the
US with the flowers and trees in full bloom.
Denise appears happy. With the
spring we have brought, we are now at the stage where we could ditch our ski
clothes and shave off five to ten kgs in baggage, but if we did that I am sure
it would snow, so we just have to keep lugging everything around with us.
Alex, Magnolia Bakery is not as good as you
thought. I think you make way better
looking and tasting cupcakes. Yes Alex, you certainly do make better cupcakes.
On the Saturday we headed off to Washington (via
Amtrak - it’s a train) to catch up with a friend from the Olympics we met. After that the plans get a little flaky, so
we have to put some thought into what we are doing next and how. Niagara Falls, Toronto, Chicago? before
heading to the West Coast.
The train trip seemed like we were stopping
every 15mins or so, but it had free wifi (very slow) and a power point so
online we went. I even found the journey
on their Amtrak website with speed and time to next station, so that was handy. We happened to get the quite car so there was
only quite talking and no mobiles, although I had to fix a squeak in the
fittings and then somebody’s phone rang.
Coming in to Philadelphia, the train was constantly tooting its horn,
but I have no idea why. The trip itself
was very rocky, and at times extremely rocky.
Nothing like the smooth trains we had in Europe. I think they just threw the rails down as
they went to lay the track.
Denise failed to finish her part of the blog
so here goes with Washington as well.
Union Station in Washington is worth seeing, and that evening we went to
see the National Philharmonic Orchestra (yes, more Kulcha) and I enjoyed most
of it. The following day we did much
walking to see memorials and the highlight was the National Museum of African
American History & Culture. This
place is amazing, but you could spend days if you wanted to see everything in
just that one museum. We managed 1.5
floors of 4 in about 2-3 hours. Other
places included the Library of Congress, US Capitol, National Gallery of Art (I
wandered while Denise looked), Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
(wandered again), and Arlington National Cemetry.
The place we stayed in Washington was
extremely pleasant, to the point where we have promised/threatened to return.
Our journey continues tomorrow when we leave
Washington and drive to Toronto via several other places, so be afraid if you
live in Toronto.
No signoff from Denise as she is too busy watching Startrek/Starwars, or some other garbage. That apparently comes before you, the reader.
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