Welcome to the 2018
Stephen and Kathryn holiday blog, back for it’s third iteration in just about
as many years. Previous version can be found here:
We haven’t had much of
a run in this time, the weekend was spent just getting ready. I squeezed in a
hockey game on Saturday morning, we did some cleaning and a small mountain of
washing. Sunday we treated ourselves to a brunch at the dog café in Otley, and
in the afternoon drove up to Durham to drop Izzy off at Jan and Eddie’s.
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| View from our front window |
Today so far has gone as planned. I think you’ll find this holiday to be a pretty much word for word repeat of our 2017 holiday. We got very lucky with the weather and were greeted with a cold and sunny start in Wharfedale this morning. The same as last time, I drove up to the station, dropped Kathryn off and parked the car back at the house. I then walked back up and we easily got the 08:24am train to Leeds.
We had about an hour
until the train to Manchester so we got breakfast at a coffee shop called
Laynes which is just a 2 minute walk from the station. So far we have just been
eating a little and often during our travels. The train to the airport was
smooth sailing too. The only notable part was going through Manchester, which
seems to have changed considerably since we moved away about 18 months ago. The
Ordsall Cord has now been completed, so the train looped around the city
centre; via Victoria, Oxford Road and Picadilly, before going out to the
airport.
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| Laynes coffee shop in Leeds |
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| Leeds train station |
We checked in and made
our way quickly through security. This year we opted not to stay in the premium
lounge and instead just had a small lunch at a Frankie and Bennies which pretty
much used up the 2 hours we had to wait (that and some duty free shopping!).
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| Arriving at Manchester Airport |
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| Our airplane |
We are about 4 hours
into the flight now. Despite a brief period of indigestion, it’s been pretty
uninteresting which is very good from the perspective of a nervous flier. Kathryn
pre-booked the exit aisle so we have plenty of legroom. We are in a 3 seat rom
however, and I suppose I knew we would be rolling the dice a bit but the guy
sitting next to me is a bit of an idiot.
The remaining part of
the flight went smoothly, the landing was fine, and apart from sitting for 20
minutes on the tarmac for the available gate, it was ok. Kathryn had done her
research and we were sitting on the top deck of the plane that meant we
disembarked first.
We quickly made our way to the immigration hall. It would have been really quick as we were returning ESTA (US tourist visa thingy), however, on the automated machines I forgot to take my glasses off when taking my photo, and so got diverted into the regular screening queue. Kathryn managed to get through in about 5 minutes.
Once I had got
through, she had already collected our bags from the baggage courselle.
I had done some
reading about transfers to Manhattan, plus the experience form last time meant
we could forgoe the $80 cab fare and use the Long Island Rail Road to get to
Penn Station for about $15 each. However we did have a mix up when I forgot
what day it was (I thought it was a Sunday) and accidentally bought off-peak
tickets.
The LIRR train was
really quick though and once we found our way, we were into Penn Station in
about 15-20 minutes. The sun was setting as the train approach Manhattan and I
took this quick photo of the skyline from the window.
When the train arrived
we were ushered onto a small platform and then up some stairs to the main
concourse. Despite the weather in the UK becoming a bit cold on the past few
weeks, the temperature was still mid to high twenties and it was quite a hot
walk to the hotel. It was about 3 blocks from the station which took as about
15 minutes to walk with the amount of people on the pavements. It was also
about 6pm by now and there was a lot of commuters passing by to get back into
the station.
The hotel was tucked
away in the middle of the block, we were greeted by a blast of icy air which
was very refreshing as we entered the front door. Our room was located on the
10th floor that was great as it meant the room was actually very
quiet. The room was small but very well presented.
Tired and fatigued
from travelling, we had a quick rest, I had a quick shower to refresh and we
headed back out again. We had planned to go to the top of the Rockefellar
Center at 8pm, to help keep s awake whilst we acclimatised to Eastern Standard
Time. We also we meeting Smiti who is Kathryn’s family friend who lives in
Downtown.
We walked back towards
Penn Station to catch a subway train a couple stops North. We had a slight
issue with not being able to top up our metrocards and so we couldn’t get in.
We went to another entrance and got blockaded by a street protest, before
finally finding another entrance with a working machine.
We made it to the
Rockefellar Center for about 8pm and managed to find Smiti after a couple of
minutes of walking around aimlessly.
There was a short
elevator ride up to the top. It was the first time I had been up there and the
views were very good. With it being dark, all the buildings are lit up,
although it is a little overwhelming to comprehend how tall everything is as it
is all relative to itself.
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