It was an early start for us today, I think we didn't really get any sleep last night. The taxi arrived to pick us up at about 2:30 am to take us to Heathrow airport & we arrived there about 3:45 with more than enough time to spare. Check-in was about 5:30 for an 8:30 flight to Newark airport. It seems like a really long time when you’re just sat around waiting, it's not like you can get any sleep while you’re waiting. At least the plane left bang on time at 8:30 for an 8-hour flight and on the plus side it got in about 45 minutes early, add that to the time difference of 5 hours & it's still only midday. We had plenty of tea, coffee & the food wasn't too bad either. We got through Newark airport fairly quick & we were soon stood outside in the good old U.S of A by 12:45 pm on a lovely sunny day even though it was a bit cold but it normally is in November. It was just nice to be out in the fresh air & have a smoke, I needed that. With the smoking break over it was time to make a move & get on our way to the Amsterdam Court hotel on 50th street & 7th Avenue in the Big Apple. So it's back into the airport to catch the Air train to Newark airport railroad station. The Air train is a strange sort of monorail that drives itself & goes all the way around all the terminals every 3 minutes or so & it's free. There are about 12 or so pods that make up the train but they only hold about 6 to 12 people with their entire luggage, we had a pod to ourselves. We arrived at the main rail station in about 10 minutes and bought the tickets for the train to Penn station, at only $12 dollars (£7) each it was a bargain when you consider it's about 20 miles or 50-minute journey. It was a bit clapped out & knackered the train but it got us there, passing through the outskirts of New Jersey is an eye opener, and a bit of a dump, and it looked like mainly industrial round there. We got off the train about an hour later at Penn station which reminded me of Birmingham New Street, buried in the earth, dark & gloomy but we made our way through the crowds & up to street level on 34th street. It was good to get out of the station & away from the crowds down there even though the number of people on the street wasn't much better. We decided to walk from there to the hotel which probably wasn't the best idea because it was a bit further than I thought up to 50th street & took about another hour but we did get to see the insane traffic in 8th Avenue.
We found the Amsterdam Court hotel without any problems, checked-in & flopped on the bed to recover for a bit. The room wasn't very big but it was clean, warm & had a super comfy bed that I needed for an afternoon nap. So we ventured out a couple of hours later for our first walk around, we
wasn't planning on doing much that evening, just get our bearings, something to eat & some beer of course.
Time Square was only a 5-minute walk or so from the hotel & has to be seen to be believed. There are just so many flashing lights everywhere & the noise is incredible. We had a mooch round in the shops & went to the M&M store which has 3 floors of all things made of chocolate then climbed up the TKTS steps to take some photos. We had something to eat but I can't for the life of me remember what it was now. Nipped back in the shop at the end of the road on the way back to the hotel to top up on some tins beer, got to get your priorities right. We finally got back to the hotel room at about 1 am in the morning (don’t know where the time went) totally knackered but we had packed a full day into just a few hours. I still didn’t go to bed straight away so I sat up for a bit to drink beer & listen to the local radio. Tomorrow would be a long day but I had it all planned out, still, I really should have gone to bed a bit sooner, but what the heck who knows how long it would be before we got here again, so sat there planning & sipping beers until about 3 am.
