Happy Holidays! Riding The Rails

Finally it was time to leave both Brandy and the Big Apple and head back up into Canada again. We'd decided to mix it up a bit and take the train to get there. Johnny had been looking forward to this train journey since Andy had first made him aware of The Adirondack; New York to Montréal in ten hours, undoubtedly passing through stunning forested scenes, frosted with snow. Andy's Amtrak catalogue reinforced the picture of scenic, 1950's golden-era elegance, with glossy pictures of Vista-Dome observation cars, uniformed porters and small pockets of well-heeled retirees enjoying their SKI* funds.

The reality, of course, was very different. Despite its noble history as a unifier of a vast nation, American train travel has unfortunately been relegated to, at-best, a third-class mode of travel behind the automobile and the aeroplane.

The dismal experience began at Penn Station, a subterranean maze of dingy, claustrophobic corridors populated by shambling hordes of drunks, the homeless, and the insane. And the occasional horrified European, accustomed to the airy, clean, businesslike style of modern terminals like St. Pancras or the Gare de l'Est. We had arrived with plenty of time to spare - our train hadn't yet been allocated a platform - so we spent a couple of minutes obtaining bagel and coffee supplies. Unfortunately, during that time, the platform was announced, and a truly epic queue had formed at the escalator leading down to the platform.

After a shambolic documentation-check (America still struggles with international formalities, despite sharing the world's longest peaceful border with Canada) we boarded the train, and quickly forgot any notions we'd had about Vista-Dome, Electro-Glide style. The train was clearly insufficiently long for the number of passengers, and the carriage's internal styling was a mixture of the forced intimacy of a Greyhound bus and the porthole windows of an aircraft, reminding all passengers of their exact position in the American travel pecking-order.

Seats on board were in short supply and none could be reserved in advance, resulting in jockeying for position which as unassertive non-Americans, we had no chance of competing with. So the two of us ended up sitting in line-astern, hoping that one of our neighbours would get off at the next stop - they never did.

As an aside which illustrates the blackness of Johnny's mood, here's an excerpt from his original set of blog notes written during the journey:

Hypothetical time: You have a gun with one bullet; which fellow traveller do you shoot, the snoring old lady next door or the eye-wateringly smelly guy in the seat in front?
I'd take the snoring old bat - it'd shut her up, and if the stinky guy was dead he'd only start getting smellier. Hypothetically of course...

The train clattered on through some pretty nice scenery, it must be admitted, but none of our photos really turned out because the windows of the train were so dirty. Pretty symbolic of the whole experience really. America's railways could be, and should be, great. Instead they have been allowed to rot away - what a horrendous waste.

*Spending Kids' Inheritance

Happy Holidays! A New York Christmas

We've all seen the movies. There's no doubt about it. New York City does Christmas very well. Everywhere you look there are decorations, lights, dazzling Christmas trees, busy ice skating rinks and people wishing you "Happy Holidays!" And snow! Yes, we finally experienced our first white Christmas. Okay, so it didn't actually snow on Christmas Day... but there was still an abundance of the white stuff in the streets and particularly in Central Park. Talk about a Winter Wonderland:

We met up with Brandy and took in some sights. Having already visited New York before, we were content mainly to wander and absorb the festive spirit. Here's the spectacular tree overlooking skaters at the Rockefeller Center; Bec and Brandy outside the restaurant where we gorged ourselves splendidly on Christmas Day; and an adorable Christmas market in Bryant Square.


One experience we did have our hearts set on was ice skating in Central Park. Despite the inevitable crowds on a clear afternoon, on Christmas Day itself no less and with carols playing in the background, it could not have been more perfect.

New York, New York

Wow! How to summarise New York and not fill up the Internet with words? Better use bullet points. All at once, New York is:

• Hectic (Times Square, Downtown)
• Serene (Central Park)
• Reflective (Ellis Island Immigration Museum, Ground Zero)
• Manic (Everywhere else)
• Glossy (5th Avenue, Broadway shows); yet
• Grotty (Bronx, Harlem, Queens)

We expected it to be big, we just didn't realise just how MASSIVE it would be. Luckily Bec had booked the superbly-located Hotel Mayfair, just off Broadway in Midtown Manhattan which allowed us to use all of the extensive subway network as well as milk the Hop-On Hop-Off (or HoHo as Johnny called them) tour buses leaving from Times Square.

Again, we did far too much to write about, so here are some highlights in pictures:

Johnny gets dazzled by Times Square's neon explosion:


Mangling Chopsticks Tom Hanks-style on the Big Piano at FAO Schwartz:


Obedient sea-lions put on a show at Central Park Zoo:


Bec makes a little friend at Central Park while listening to some Street Jazz with all the power-Moms:


Bec gets taken out to the ball game - Yankees beat Seattle 12-3!


Johnny at the US Open tennis:


The magnificent (and busy!) Grand Central station:


Central Park - how's the serenity?


Gotta do a Broadway show. We saw Curtains starring David Hyde Pierce, aka Niles from Frasier:


The crumpled remains of the globe that used to sit outside the World Trade Center, now forms the focal point of the memorial park:


With Lady Liberty:


A slightly hazy view from the Empire State over the Chrysler Building:


In New York, even the street signs have attitude: