A Very British Trip Report - August 2007 - Day 1

[meandtheguys2]

Your trip reports are a delight! Looking forward to the intallments!

 

[lovealldisney]

Ok I'm hooked! You had me at Krusty the Clown! We absolutly love the Simpsons! Can't wait for the rest of the TR!
We just came back from our Disney trip and I must say I was surprised at all the foreign travelers! I have to say though that all the British families we talked were soooo nice! I can't say that for the rest of them though Americans included!
Anywho can't wait to hear the rest!!

 

[Kevin Stringer]

DAY 2 SATURDAY 4Tth AUGUST

Who’s goin’:

Me: Kev, 49. I think I’ll be permanently 49 from now on.
Wifey: Tam, 43. I guess that means she can be permanently 43.
Daughter 1: India, 16.
Daughter 2: Georgia, 13.
There will be a few interlopers along the way as well.

If you want to know more about us, look at www.kevinstringer.co.uk

It’s the usual restless night in an airport hotel. The room is very nice and the bed is comfy, but the efficient air conditioning is a little noisy. To be fair, even if it were whisper quiet, it probably wouldn’t make any difference to the way I sleep.

At 6.00am we are all awake. Due to this being an exciting day, I decide The Old Grey Mare should be performed and launch into an enthusiastic rendition. Other than derisory laughter there is little response from my audience. Even the finale, where I dive from the top of the wardrobe into a glass of water while juggling pomegranates, receives nothing but polite applause. These people no nothing about fine art.

Around 7.00am we catch the shuttle bus to the airport. There is a lot of improvement work going on at Heathrow and parts of the airport, particularly around the Virgin check-in desks, are a real mess.
Despite this there is a very short queue for baggage drop off and we are done and dusted very quickly.
Security for entry into the departure lounge is not too bad and we are through by 8.00am.

We all have bagels for breakfast, except Georgia who has a pastry thing with raisins in .
Some (thankfully) light shopping follows where I buy a book (Peter Kay’s Sound of Laughter) and Ind buys make up. It’s all going very smoothly as we board the VS003 to New York at 9.00am. It’s an Airbus with a 2-4-2 seat configuration and we have two rows of two behind each other. Georgia and I are sat together and there is a discussion over who gets the window seat. Unfortunately there are a few tears until Georgia agrees to let me have the window seat for takeoff. Woohoo!

We pull back from the gate on time at 9.30am, but then sit on the tarmac for 30 minutes due to, and stop me if I get too technical for you here, lots of aeroplanes taking off and landing.
We taxi to the runway and sit there for a while before the plane turns around and heads back to the terminal. I’m just in the process of telling Tam this doesn’t look good when an announcement over the tannoy tells us that there is a computer fault and we are returning to the gate for an engineer to take a look. I told them not to upgrade to Vista!

The engineers clamber on board and start fiddling. (With the computer, they’re not playing the violin). I swear I can hear faint mutterings of ‘I hate bleedin’ computers’ and ‘Have you tried pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del?’
System re-booted, problem solved we’re off and running.

Problem solved? I think not. As we taxi towards the runway another announcement tells us the computer is playing up again and we are returning to the stand. This ain’t fun anymore.

Time passes. The offending piece of software has now been ‘locked out’ whatever that means. Let’s hope it isn’t the ‘deploy landing gear’ software. We’ve been sat on the plane for 4 ½ hours when we push back from the gate again.
And at the third time of asking, we’re off! Tam suggests I do The Old Grey Mare in celebration. She says I can wear a sock to protect my modesty. I’ll leave you to guess where that is, suffice to say it would need to be a big sock.

I choose to watch Shrek 3 and Spiderman 3. I think this quite appropriate given that it took us 3 tries to get airborne.
Of the two I prefer Spiderman. It’s all action and we get a couple of new villains. I think the Shrek franchise may be reaching the end of the line. Not that it’s a particularly bad film, just that it’s getting a bit old now.

We finally clamber off the plane at 4.00pm local time, 3 ½ hours late. The queue at immigration is the usual huge snaking line, but we are through and picking up our luggage by 5.00pm. Unfortunately one of the cases has not made it intact. I can’t think why, after all I paid nearly £5 for it in China. The wheels have broken off and I can’t carry the thing all holiday, so we have to buy a set of wheels for it for $30. The only alternatives in the airport luggage shop are suitcases costing $500! No thanks.

We ring Elaine and Michael (who we are staying with for the next 2 nights) to let them know we have just landed and head off to catch the Air Train to Jamaica Station ($5 per person). This is a driverless train you so often find at airports, but it zips along at a fair rate. As I look out of the window I can’t believe what I see, there are a bunch of blokes playing cricket! See, these Yanks are civilised after all.

At Jamaica Station we switch to the Long Island Railroad to Penn Station ($3 per person). At this point we have a bit of bad luck as we’ve just missed the 6.11pm train to Short Hills and have to wait nearly an hour for the next.
At least this gives us the chance to give the girls their first glimpse of Manhattan. You come out of Penn Station by Madison Square Garden (Beyonce is playing tonight) and you can see the Empire State Building. It’s very warm and muggy even at this time of the evening; lord knows what it’s going to feel like in the middle of the day.

The train out to Short Hills takes about 45 minutes and is an interesting mix of industrial areas just outside of Manhattan giving way to prettier small towns and suburbs. It’s certainly been an interesting way of getting from the airport rather than taking a cab.

Michael is there to meet us at the station. Elaine used to go to school with Tam many years ago. I think they used to share a slate. She’s lived and worked in America for many years and married Michael 3 years ago. They now have 2 children, Grace (2years old) and Alex (7 months).
Their house is just a couple of minutes from the station and is lovely. It’s in a quiet street with lots of trees and greenery. They’ve only been there a few months and are slowly doing it up. That’s my kind of decorating, slow.

Michael cooks hot dogs on the BBQ for us and it’s lovely to sit out in the garden on a balmy evening listening to the cicad…. shika…. chica…. listening to the crickets, which are incredibly loud.
We chat for a while enabling Tam to fill in Elaine with all the gossip from our hometown. The girls are starting to flag a little now, so we all have quick showers and it’s off to bed by 10.30pm.
I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced such a long day of travelling before, with all the delays and everything, but it’s certainly been interesting.

Kev

 

[Nooshkin]

Great job so far Kev- Very entertaining!
I can't wait to read more!

 

[OhMari]

Welcome Kevin and family, looking forward to the TR.
I am trying to figure out which direction you went after you came to NYC. West and you would be in New Jersey, East-Long Island, North-Upper state NY or Conn. So where are you?

Have to go find day one. You are so old school, not linking your reports. LOL!

 

[tinawv]

What; no pictures?

 

[disneydance]

Great job so far your TR is great!!!

 

[OhMari]

He used to tell me of working on the farm all day before going to the local pub where the men would joke with each other over who had ploughed the most crooked furrow.

Finally found your first post. Let me know when you want to take a less adventurous holiday. I'll trade you houses, and you can visit all my uncles, aunts and cousins who are farmers. They let anyone willing and able to help plough fields, you just have to take a shift to help milk-3 times daily. We don't have any pubs, but bars, where you can get a tapped beer for .50.

We do have a tourist attraction an hour away. It boast the largest waterpark in the U.S. and it did make the Travel Channels top 10 water parks too.

 

[Kevin Stringer]

We don't have any pubs, but bars, where you can get a tapped beer for .50.

Now beer for .50 sounds good to me! Unfortunately everything else sounds like hard work. I'm not one for hard work.

Kev

 

[Kevin Stringer]

Who’s goin’:

Me: Kev, 49. I think I’ll be permanently 49 from now on.
Wifey: Tam, 43. I guess that means she can be permanently 43.
Daughter 1: India, 16.
Daughter 2: Georgia, 13.
There will be a few interlopers along the way as well.

If you want to know more about us, look at www.kevinstringer.co.uk

Tam and I both wake up at 3.00am. 4 ½ hours sleep is quite good really compared to our usual first nights sleep after flying a long way. We do manage to doze until 5.00am when we turn on the light and I write up my trip report while Tam reads.

By 6.00am the girls are up, thanks mostly to a few well aimed kicks. We try to get ready as quietly as possible so as not to wake Michael and Elaine and are out of the door and walking to Short Hills station to catch the 6.46am to Penn Station.

It’s a beautiful morning and we really enjoy the stroll past some lovely houses to the station.
44 minutes later (I know this because it tells me so on the timetable) we arrive at Penn Station.

Our first objective is breakfast and Tam’s heart is set on the Cheyenne Diner (411 9th Avenue) as she’s read good reviews about it. We walk past a couple of nice looking diners trying to find the place and there are mutterings of mutiny from the ranks as tummies are starting to rumble.
We eventually find the place and, to be fair to Tam, it’s certainly very good. It’s just what you expect a New York diner to look like with the booths and art deco interior.

The food is great and we variously try ham and cheese 3 egg omelette with potato, French toast and bacon and the lumberjack special for Tam. I think she ordered this thinking she would get a well-muscled male stripper (The Old Grey Mare is not enough for you?) but ends up with a large plateful of pancakes and syrup along with another plate of 2 eggs and bacon. Along with plentiful supplies of coffee, the bill comes to $35, really good value.

Suitably fortified we venture forth and walk towards Times Square. There is a half marathon going on and all the traffic is stopped. This just makes it better as we stroll up Broadway on a beautiful sunny day in relative peace.

We keep walking until we reach Central Park. We wander around the park taking in all the sights including Strawberry Fields ( an area dedicated to the memory of John Lennon) where there are a few tour groups.

One guy is talking loudly in French to a group of French tourists. At least I assume they are French. Perhaps they are Brazilian, that would certainly explain the puzzled faces. Anyway, I catch a few words here and there and from what I can piece together it was Lauren Bacall that shot John Lennon in a fit of pique over who had the best apartment in the Dakota Building. Don’t take this for gospel though; I never did get my French O level.

We stroll on through the park and come across several softball games in progress. After yesterday I was hoping a game of cricket might be taking place. I could have strolled to the wicket, Taken my guard (middle and off leg please umpire), surveyed the field taking careful note of the strategically placed silly mid-off, fixed the bowler with my steely gaze and promptly lost my middle stump first ball.

We all really enjoy Central Park. It’s an oasis in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the city and there are many people out strolling, jogging and generally enjoying the pleasant surroundings. There are even people jogging while pushing a child in a buggy. That’s cool. If they sat me in a buggy and gave me a beer, I’d go jogging with them.

We head to the Guggenheim Museum next. Unfortunately the outside of this wonderful Frank Lloyd Wright building is covered in scaffolding, but the inside is amazing.

Now, I can hardly be called a lover of modern art, but some of the things we see here are excellent. There is one area called My Himalayas Sister’s room where the artist has set up different styles of room (living room, bedroom etc.) and then has video projected at various places. It might not sound like much, but the lighting and positioning of the video makes it very interesting and really quite beautiful. I never would have thought that a video being screened on a stack of books could have captured our attention, but the way it fragments against the spines of the books is very eye catching.

Don’t get me wrong; I still think there is a lot of pretentious rubbish here too. There is one large plain brown canvas with 4 knife slashes in it. Hang it in the Guggenheim, it’s art, put it anywhere else and it’s vandalism.

Culturally refreshed it’s time for refreshment of a different kind, so we walk to the Boathouse in Central Park to grab a beer and watch the people on the boating lake make fools of themselves.

A further walk down 5th Avenue brings us to the Disney store, who would have thought it? It’s quite a place, stretching over 4 floors and we enjoy (by ‘we’ I mean me and the girls, Tam tolerates it) looking at some cool Disney stuff. Once again I find my dream Jessica Rabbit and once again my dreams are dashed by the callousness of my heartless wife. So what if we would struggle to get Jessica home? I could cuddle up to her on the plane!

More walking as we continue on to Grand Central Station. What an amazing place this is, all polished marble and chandeliers. At one point Georgia asks me if there is a nicer station anywhere in the world. There may be child, but I haven’t seen it yet.

Back to Penn Station via the Empire State Building. We don’t go in, but the girls get to see it. It’s a highly impressive structure, but not as striking as the Chrysler Building.

We catch the 3.11pm train and are back in Short Hills by 4.00pm. Here we meet baby Alex for the first time, as he was asleep when we arrived last night. Elaine asks if anybody wants to feed him and India volunteers. All goes well until Alex finishes his food and requires burping. A look of slight panic crosses India’s face and she hands Alex back to Michael who is slightly more skilled in these matters. I can’t blame her, I’ve seen the sort of thing that erupts from babies at times and it ain’t pretty.

We all shower and are off to Charlie Brown’s Steakhouse (a 15 minute walk) where we are treating Michael, Elaine and the family to a meal to say thank you for allowing us to stay with them.

Michael attempts to collapse the double stroller, which is the size of a small golf cart. There is much scratching of heads and banging and crashing with spanners and hammers, but it is eventually accomplished.

The meal is pretty good and I try the special, which is prime rib with shrimp.
Grace chats away happily and Michael tries to teach her a tongue twister. ‘Irish wrist watch’. Grace launches into it with gusto. ‘Rish rish wash’. ‘Rish rish wash’.

It’s Michael’s birthday tomorrow and a pie the size of Staten Island is brought out with a candle in it. We all sing ‘Happy Birthday’ enthusiastically.
After the meal we stroll back to the house where the ladies are getting tired and disappear off to bed. Michael, top man that he is, enjoys English football and he has taped the Community Shield match between Manchester United and Chelsea from earlier today, so he and I settle down to watch it. What a guy – the perfect host and a football fan to boot.
The final score is 1-1 and the game goes to penalties. Chelsea miss their first two and then the recording runs out. Doh!
Off to bed at 11.00pm.

Kev

 

[Kevin Stringer]

So where are you?

Have to go find day one. You are so old school, not linking your reports. LOL!

Hi Mari

We were in New Jersey.

Not linking the reports? You know me, I have an almost legendary laziness.

Kev

 

[OhMari]

So your in NJ.
I am really enjoying your trip of NYC. Never been there, you are quite the picture taker and tourguide.

I hope you stuck yourself in some pictures.

 

[Kevin Stringer]

I hope you stuck yourself in some pictures.

Be careful what you wish for Mari! It's not a pretty sight.

Kev

 

[Busymom85]

Great review so far. Beautiful family. My husbands stuck at 49 too. Can't wait for more.

 

[Kevin Stringer]

Who’s goin’:

Me: Kev, 49. I think I’ll be permanently 49 from now on.
Wifey: Tam, 43. I guess that means she can be permanently 43.
Daughter 1: India, 16.
Daughter 2: Georgia, 13.
There will be a few interlopers along the way as well.

If you want to know more about us, look at www.kevinstringer.co.uk

Tam and I are awake by 5.00am. Not bad considering this is only the second day of our holiday.

Michael is up and about, as the poor chap has to go to work today, on his birthday as well. We say cheerio to him and then start to pack. Georgia has a carrier bag inside one of the suitcases, which contains her clean underwear. She says to me ‘Remember that golf film The Legend of Bagger Vance?’ I say yes. ‘Well, we could make one called The Legend of Bag of Pants’. The child is a comic genius. Tam and I argue over which one of us her sense of humour comes from.

After breakfast it’s time to say goodbye to Elaine and Grace, Alex is still in bed. Many, many thanks for looking after us so well, it’s been lovely to see them again and we can hopefully return the favour the next time they are in the UK.

We trundle the luggage up to the station to catch the 7.27am to Penn Station. It’s a packed commuter train and there is no platform at this station. This means 3 large steps into the train with 3 heavy suitcases and assorted paraphernalia. All the people getting on the train are dressed ready for the office, but a couple of different gentlemen help us with the luggage, even carrying it down the train to an area we can safely store it for the journey. A big thank you to those guys, they have restored my faith in good manners and courtesy.

From Penn Station we get a cab to the Waldorf Astoria, which works out to be surprisingly cheap at $8.50 plus tip.

We check-in at 9.00am and they have a room ready for us. Now that’s what I call service. The room is very nice, it is obviously an old hotel that’s packed with history, so it isn’t the biggest hotel room we’ve ever stayed in and the double beds are certainly small by American standards, but it’s nicely appointed and very comfortable.

We unpack (even though we’re only here for two days!) and then go exploring. It’s a fascinating place to wander round with displays showing the people that have stayed here in the past ranging from Winston Churchill to Bruce Springsteen.

We take a look at the Starlight Room on the 17th floor. This is a function room decorated in an art deco style which used to have a retractable roof that pulled back to reveal the heavens, hence the name. It’s bare at the moment, but it must be fantastic when it’s full of tables and lit for the evening. You can just imagine Cole Porter playing the piano as the ladies in full satin dresses dance with their evening suited partners.

Out into the streets of New York we go and look inside St Bartholomew’s church, which is next door to the Waldorf. Crikey, what a depressing place. It could be wonderful, but it’s very dark and dingy. You can barely see the domed ceiling above the altar in the gloom. I half expect some mad priest to run up to warn me about the coming of the son of the devil. There are two homeless people sitting in the pews, one of whom is snoring very loudly. We don’t stay long.

Outside it’s overcast, but quite hot and muggy. We had planned to do the Circle Line boat tour today, but decide to put this off until tomorrow when the weather is supposed to be much sunnier. Instead we go to the tube station and get one day Metro cards, excellent value at $7 a card.

We take the tube to Wall Street where Tam and I see a lot of changes from the last time we were here. There are some streets closed to traffic and bollards protect the front of certain buildings. A sad indictment of the times we live in.

Next we walk down to Battery Park and then through the World Financial Centre to the site of the old World Trade Centre. This is quite sad as Tam and I recall the last time we were here in 2000 when we spent a happy evening in the bar at the top of one of the towers watching night fall over New York. We’re amazed at how some of the adjacent buildings escaped with relatively little damage.

Back to the tube to West 4th Street where we exit and walk through Washington Square and then into West Greenwich Village. We all quite enjoy this area, it’s quite bohemian as long as you ignore the one or two adult shops around.
We have a Dorling Kindersley guide book (excellent by the way) which advises trying a cheap Turkish restaurant in Bedford Street called Moustache. It’s a fun place and I have the chicken kebab sandwich, Tam and Georgia have the leg of lamb sandwich and India tries the pitza, a sort of pita bread pizza. Tam and I also have a couple of beers each., Efes for me and Brooklyn Brown for Tam. It’s baklava all round for dessert. The food is excellent as is the service, the only thing that spoils it slightly is when the bill ($85) is delivered and they have hand written over the price to add 20% gratuity. It’s a small grumble I suppose, but I wish people wouldn’t do that.

Everyone is flagging now as we’ve walked a good few miles in the last couple of days, so we get the tube back to the Rockefeller Center where we book our tickets to go to the Top of the Rock tomorrow evening.

Back at the Waldorf, Tam and Georgia have a little snooze while Ind reads and I enjoy a beer and write up my trip report.
We all have showers and get ready to go out. The older the girls get, the longer this process takes. Have you ever sat waiting for 3 women to prepare themselves? Even Mr Patient of Patient town, winner of the world patient award for the last 5 years, would end up shouting ‘Will you women get a flippin’ move on!’ There’s all sorts of washing, conditioning, shaving, plucking, drying, straightening and oxy-acetylene welding to be done before they are presentable enough to leave the room. We are finally ready just after 7.00pm.

We’ve seen a restaurant called A.J.Maxwells advertised on the TV and decide to try this, as it’s quite close.
It’s slightly more expensive than a lot of the restaurants, but it’s pretty good. Tam has veal marsala, India has short ribs, Georgia has lemon chicken and I have a sort of mixed grill with filet mignon, 2 lamb cutlets, chicken and spicy sausage. Along with a couple of glasses of wine the bill comes to $189, not including tip. It’s a decent enough meal, a cut above the average, but not enough to make it outstanding.

After eating we walk down to Times Square. It’s pretty hot, 82° at 9.00pm. The square is much livelier and brighter at night with crowds of people and neon everywhere. It’s certainly something worth seeing, if only once.

Tam wants to look in the Virgin Mega Store and she buys a small fan for $4.99 that you can programme to display a message when it’s used. I’m going to get hold of it later. She’ll be surprised when it flashes ‘buttocks’ when she uses it for the first time tomorrow. I guess I’d be a tad confused if buttocks flashed in front of my face too.

Back along 7th Avenue we pass The Hawaiian Tropic Restaurant where girls in bikinis wait on the tables. Why the hell didn’t we eat here? It only takes them 10 minutes to peel me off the window.

Back at the Waldorf we get ready for bed and India finishes reading 1984 by George Orwell. She has had to read it for her college course and is not impressed. ‘God, what a depressing book’. I point out to her that’s exactly what it’s supposed to be, a warning of a dark and sinister future that could come true if we don’t defend the freedoms we have. For example, it would be a sad world if it were illegal to programme ‘buttocks’ into your wife’s fan. I would be found guilty under the ‘Profanity on a rotating object’ law of 2023 and sentenced to watch continuous back episodes of Neighbours until I go insane. I’ll be lucky to make it through the titles.

Bed at 11.00pm.

Kev

 

[luvmyboys]

Yay! I've been waiting so long for another report from you! This one is off to a brilliant start-- can't wait for more!

 

[AshClan]

Wow, Kev. That was quite a day of travel!! Don't envy you there. But I'm happy you all reached destination #1 safely!!

 

[AshClan]

Best installment yet! You are a very funny and entertaining guy!! I am ashamed to say that I live in Boston and have only been to NYC once. And I didn't even do the whole "tourist" thing while we were there. You are motivating me to consider a weekend visit!!

Looking forward to more!!

 

[Marion]

Loving the report! I've been a stalke.... errrr fan of your reports for years!

 

[tinawv]

Tam wants to look in the Virgin Mega Store and she buys a small fan for $4.99 that you can programme to display a message when it’s used. I’m going to get hold of it later. She’ll be surprised when it flashes ‘buttocks’ when she uses it for the first time tomorrow. I guess I’d be a tad confused if buttocks flashed in front of my face too.

Back along 7th Avenue we pass The Hawaiian Tropic Restaurant where girls in bikinis wait on the tables. Why the hell didn’t we eat here? It only takes them 10 minutes to peel me off the window.

Back at the Waldorf we get ready for bed and India finishes reading 1984 by George Orwell. She has had to read it for her college course and is not impressed. ‘God, what a depressing book’. I point out to her that’s exactly what it’s supposed to be, a warning of a dark and sinister future that could come true if we don’t defend the freedoms we have. For example, it would be a sad world if it were illegal to programme ‘buttocks’ into your wife’s fan. I would be found guilty under the ‘Profanity on a rotating object’ law of 2023 and sentenced to watch continuous back episodes of Neighbours until I go insane. I’ll be lucky to make it through the titles.

Bed at 11.00pm.

Kev

I think I know where Georgia gets her sense of humor.