Friday
Apr072006
Day 1 Continued - Getting to New York
Friday, April 7, 2006 at 9:22PM
We now take up with our story where we last left off. Rob and I were recovering from a nasty mocha while mooching round the duty free section in Heathrow........
Eventually we got a gate number and had to begin the hike to get to the departure gate. I am not exaggerating about the hike but either. There are gates in Heathrow that can take you 30 - 40 minutes to walk to from the departure bit where you have to wait. We were not too bad - it only took us about 15 minutes to get to ours. Check in was fast - just the usual questions, and they confirmed that they had our bags on board - another happy dance - and before you knew it we were boarding and still on schedule!
When we first stepped onto the plane I was really excited - there were individual seats with what looked like loads of leg room (just like the advert with James Gandolphini). Turns out that was first class and we were in cattle class further back with somewhat less room. Our Captain came on and told us all about the trip and that lunch would be served by the crew when we reached our cruising altitude of about 39,000 feet. Huzzar more food! By now we had been up for almost 7 hours and breakfast was wearing off.
When we got going the flight crew brought round the complimentary drinks, and followed them up shortly with lunch (Chicken with creamy sauce and coleslaw - I am still not sure what inspired the coleslaw as a side dish). The food was pretty good and there was pudding which was some sort of custard tart. I was most impressed with the mini bottle of water that we got. It was in a stubby wee bottle just like you see on the telly at the fights. That had taken up at least an hour so now I had to find a way to occupy my time until we got there (only 7 hours left). I spent some time watching the movies on the small screen that was in the back of the chair in front. We had a choice between watermelon and the weatherman - they sucked - though the experience may well have been jaundiced by the fact that the passenger in front of me had decided to put her chair back as far as it could go from the minute we had gotten onto the plane. The flight was on the whole uneventful and we landed 45 minutes ahead of schedule - which has to be a good thing.
Oh and I almost forgot - before we landed they brought around 'snack packs' which made the whole thing a bit like a long school trip. To be honest by this stage it was alla bit surreal - I had managed to doze for about an hour when we landed at 2pm (New York Time) which is the equivalent of about 7pm uk time. Sleep was calling but it was being outweighed by the fact that we were excited.
Challenge 2 - Get through immigration and collect the bags
I had been worried from the start that our bags would not make it to New York with us. You always hear about people luggage being lost and I had convinced myself that this would be the case for us as well. Before we would even think of getting out bags we had to make it through immigration. The people on the plane did not have copies of the forms that we would need to fill out so we had to go and do that when we landed. They were fairly simple so that worked out ok. Next came the queuing. The shouty lady got us to stand in a queue where there was no server and then when we asked if we should still stand there she moved us to another queue (after checking we were sure that she had told us that. Anyway after a while we got our photos taken, fingers scanned and we were off to collect the luggage!
When we got down to baggage reclaim there was no sign of the bags or any of the other people that had been on the flight so we wondered around looking for the case. It is not easy to miss - being bright red. Eventually we found it dumped in an area away from the belts where they leave unclaimed bags. Challenge 2 successfully completed - time to head to the Hotel
Heading to the hotel
We had pre-booked a shuttle bus thing that would drop us at the hotel so this was just a case of check in with the people and wait. 5 minutes later the mad man that would drive us to the hotel turned up and off we went. The bus trip was our first look at New York. My first impression - who knew you could do that much with concrete, If there was a thing that could be covered with it, or made out of it, then that is what they used. Now I know that it is a city and you expect some concrete, but this place was mad. I think we saw 1 bit of green in the whole 1 hour trip.
Our hotel was on West 51st Street which us just off of Broadway and a max of 5 minutes from Time Square on foot, The area- much to my amusement - is a part of Hells Kitchen. For those that know about my love of comics may well see why this made me smile. Come to New York and stay in a room that looks like it comes from an old Comic book and maybe you will see Daredevil (yes I know its not real - but it was fun).
The hotel was - well basic. The room was very small, as was the bathroom. It was a bit grubby but not too bad. The ground floor was very swish but the rooms were not so much. The staff were are really friendly, especially Ariel who carried our bags up to the room for us and offered to recommend places if we were interested.
We have ventured out to see Time Square and to get some dinner. Man this place is just mental. I know it is a Saturday night, but there are rickshaws, limo's, hummers, horse and carts, cabs and hundreds of people everywhere.  Man this place is just unbelievable. What is even more astounding is the sheer number of LCD colour screens - they are everywhere. You are continually surrounded by adverts and it is so bright - you would think it was the middle of tbe day
We had dinner at Maxies - a Jewish New York Deli. The food was great but the sheer size of the portion was gob smacking. We both had burgers and did not manage to finish them, let alone everything that came with them. I was kinda bummed as the cheese cake looked top but I was too full to even think about it.
So far we have not really planned for tomorrow. At the minute everything is just a bit odd and I am feeling a bit unsettled - I guess we will play it by ear and see what we feel like. As I scrawled this out it was 9pm - which made it 2am uk time. That means I have been up for about 22 hours and I am starting to wilt - sleep calls and I think it is time to answer.
Eventually we got a gate number and had to begin the hike to get to the departure gate. I am not exaggerating about the hike but either. There are gates in Heathrow that can take you 30 - 40 minutes to walk to from the departure bit where you have to wait. We were not too bad - it only took us about 15 minutes to get to ours. Check in was fast - just the usual questions, and they confirmed that they had our bags on board - another happy dance - and before you knew it we were boarding and still on schedule!
When we first stepped onto the plane I was really excited - there were individual seats with what looked like loads of leg room (just like the advert with James Gandolphini). Turns out that was first class and we were in cattle class further back with somewhat less room. Our Captain came on and told us all about the trip and that lunch would be served by the crew when we reached our cruising altitude of about 39,000 feet. Huzzar more food! By now we had been up for almost 7 hours and breakfast was wearing off.
When we got going the flight crew brought round the complimentary drinks, and followed them up shortly with lunch (Chicken with creamy sauce and coleslaw - I am still not sure what inspired the coleslaw as a side dish). The food was pretty good and there was pudding which was some sort of custard tart. I was most impressed with the mini bottle of water that we got. It was in a stubby wee bottle just like you see on the telly at the fights. That had taken up at least an hour so now I had to find a way to occupy my time until we got there (only 7 hours left). I spent some time watching the movies on the small screen that was in the back of the chair in front. We had a choice between watermelon and the weatherman - they sucked - though the experience may well have been jaundiced by the fact that the passenger in front of me had decided to put her chair back as far as it could go from the minute we had gotten onto the plane. The flight was on the whole uneventful and we landed 45 minutes ahead of schedule - which has to be a good thing.
Oh and I almost forgot - before we landed they brought around 'snack packs' which made the whole thing a bit like a long school trip. To be honest by this stage it was alla bit surreal - I had managed to doze for about an hour when we landed at 2pm (New York Time) which is the equivalent of about 7pm uk time. Sleep was calling but it was being outweighed by the fact that we were excited.
Challenge 2 - Get through immigration and collect the bags
I had been worried from the start that our bags would not make it to New York with us. You always hear about people luggage being lost and I had convinced myself that this would be the case for us as well. Before we would even think of getting out bags we had to make it through immigration. The people on the plane did not have copies of the forms that we would need to fill out so we had to go and do that when we landed. They were fairly simple so that worked out ok. Next came the queuing. The shouty lady got us to stand in a queue where there was no server and then when we asked if we should still stand there she moved us to another queue (after checking we were sure that she had told us that. Anyway after a while we got our photos taken, fingers scanned and we were off to collect the luggage!
When we got down to baggage reclaim there was no sign of the bags or any of the other people that had been on the flight so we wondered around looking for the case. It is not easy to miss - being bright red. Eventually we found it dumped in an area away from the belts where they leave unclaimed bags. Challenge 2 successfully completed - time to head to the Hotel
Heading to the hotel
We had pre-booked a shuttle bus thing that would drop us at the hotel so this was just a case of check in with the people and wait. 5 minutes later the mad man that would drive us to the hotel turned up and off we went. The bus trip was our first look at New York. My first impression - who knew you could do that much with concrete, If there was a thing that could be covered with it, or made out of it, then that is what they used. Now I know that it is a city and you expect some concrete, but this place was mad. I think we saw 1 bit of green in the whole 1 hour trip.
Our hotel was on West 51st Street which us just off of Broadway and a max of 5 minutes from Time Square on foot, The area- much to my amusement - is a part of Hells Kitchen. For those that know about my love of comics may well see why this made me smile. Come to New York and stay in a room that looks like it comes from an old Comic book and maybe you will see Daredevil (yes I know its not real - but it was fun).
The hotel was - well basic. The room was very small, as was the bathroom. It was a bit grubby but not too bad. The ground floor was very swish but the rooms were not so much. The staff were are really friendly, especially Ariel who carried our bags up to the room for us and offered to recommend places if we were interested.
We have ventured out to see Time Square and to get some dinner. Man this place is just mental. I know it is a Saturday night, but there are rickshaws, limo's, hummers, horse and carts, cabs and hundreds of people everywhere.  Man this place is just unbelievable. What is even more astounding is the sheer number of LCD colour screens - they are everywhere. You are continually surrounded by adverts and it is so bright - you would think it was the middle of tbe day
We had dinner at Maxies - a Jewish New York Deli. The food was great but the sheer size of the portion was gob smacking. We both had burgers and did not manage to finish them, let alone everything that came with them. I was kinda bummed as the cheese cake looked top but I was too full to even think about it.
So far we have not really planned for tomorrow. At the minute everything is just a bit odd and I am feeling a bit unsettled - I guess we will play it by ear and see what we feel like. As I scrawled this out it was 9pm - which made it 2am uk time. That means I have been up for about 22 hours and I am starting to wilt - sleep calls and I think it is time to answer.
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