The plan, at the start of the week commencing Tuesday, 14th August, was to find some time to sit down at a computer and tidy up all of the maps, all the stats, all of the data and to have the blog of the final week all ready for publication on 21 August 2012, right before we jumped on the plane back to the UK. Quite obviously, that didn’t happen.
New York was in the way of any such hopes. Seven days did not do it justice, nor did our 5 hours in Washington DC allow us any more than a fleeting glimpse of that marvellous city and its monuments and museums. Thirty minutes in Philadelphia was plenty of time to answer the Philly cheese steak question (Pat’s is better, and still not worth the detour).
We arrived on the overnight bus from Boston and after freshening up over breakfast in a café we head to West 26th Street to meet up with Dan at his work. Bless him he bore it well as we arrived in his office, heavy laden with our packs and looking as respectable as one can when all your worldly possessions are strapped to your back.
What followed was a week of amazing hospitality from Dan and his girlfriend Kendra, as they put us up in his place, took us out on the town, fed us a constant stream of itinerary ideas, introduced us to the Yankees and generally took the opportunity to overwhelm us with the wonders of New York and the warmth of its people. It was as though we were already home, even more so as we were joined by Jeff who came over from London to spend our last week with us!
I have given a run down of the highlights below. We were so lucky to have an amazing week with Jeff and Dan and Kendra. A huge thanks to Dan and Kendra for having Kiz and me to stay for the week and for all your help and love (recommendations for baked goods - yum!). We really really appreciated it. Thank you so much and remember, there will always be somewhere for you to stay in Melbourne, Australia - my mum and dad are really welcoming!
The highlights
Jeff and I went to see the New York Giants play the New York Jets at their shared home stadium, somewhat inexplicably in New Jersey.
Proper New York Bagels with locks and cream cheese.
Jeff and Kizzy and I all went to see the Yankees beat the Red Sox in the most picturesque of sporting contexts.
We took a walk on the Highline, an old and now disused railway line elevated above the city streets of the lower east side, which has been redeveloped into a beautiful garden walk.
Oysters and Lobster at the Oyster Bar under the arches in Grand Central Station.
Running from Central Park to MOMA in the pouring rain to make it to the free Friday evening entry, with brief respite from the worst of the downpour in the surprisingly welcoming haven of the Gucci store.
Visiting Brooklyn and DUMBO before walking back over the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan.
Walking around the 9/11 memorial.
Road trip to Washington DC, returning via Baltimore (unintended), Philadelphia (unwisely intended) and a full circuit of the ring road around Philadelphia (no-one in the car knows how that happened).
Actually, that last one needs just a little explanation. We picked up our car on the Thursday morning at 8:00am, planning to drive to and From Washington DC and return the car at 7:30am the following morning. Possibly returning via Philadelphia for a cheesesteak midnight snack. Without a satnav. Or a proper map of Philadelphia, or Washington DC, or any of the interconnecting roads (it turns out the guidebook map offers little in the way of detail or context for navigating into and around a big city).
We had envisaged four and a half hours there, four and a half back, with maybe an hour’s detour in and out of Philly. That is not what happened. We left at 8:30am, we returned at 6am. My memory is pretty hazy but from what I can remember, in roughly chronological order …
- We (Jeff) had one altercation with diplomatic security (no idea whose)
- We drove for a total of 16 hours and paid $61 in toll charges
- We passed through five states and a federal district
- We visited one White House, one Capitol building, five monuments and no museums
- We had one sit down meal and one really lovely sunset
- We passed one apocalyptic traffic incident with an overturned timber lorry reduced to an inferno and twisted metal
- We made at least 9 and possibly as many as 27 wrong turns (including a still unexplained detour in Philadelphia where unknowingly we went in a complete circle, as well as three separate attempts to make our way into the Lincoln Tunnel)
- We had two Philly Cheesesteaks, Pat’s was better than Geno’s. Neither is worth the visit.
- We made it home in the end!
