{"id":2973,"date":"2019-12-17T13:52:20","date_gmt":"2019-12-17T13:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/?p=2973"},"modified":"2021-06-17T21:31:41","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T20:31:41","slug":"planes-trains-automobiles-pt-1-new-york-detroit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/?p=2973","title":{"rendered":"Planes, Trains & Automobiles – Pt 1 New York & Detroit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In October, Samson was put into storage in Spain, together with our friends Mike and Brenda’s motorhome. Anything attractive to ants (the bane of our life along with mozzies) has been double wrapped and packed away or dumped! Samson was to be cared for by a Dutch family, surrounded by several large Alsations and Doberman(s) in a 10 foot walled and fenced enclosure, wedged between caravans and boats, safe as houses!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those who didn\u2019t know how this trip evolved, we made friends with Mike and Brenda in Portugal, about 18 months ago. They mentioned a trip to Detroit to a 5 day Motown musical event, in about a year’s time and asked if we wanted to join them, we said that sounds great! Last autumn, they added in a wedding event after Mike proposed!  It was booked for Friday during the Motown A Go Go, so we became part of the wedding party! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

David and I decided to continue our stay in America after Detroit and do a short trip on Route 66 and down to Kentucky for David to experience the genuine Bourbon trail, being a bourbon fan!\u00a0 Mike and Brenda asked to join us on this part, we said sounds great! Cheapest flights were with Norwegian Air from Barcelona to New York so a 5 day stay in the Big Apple came first. **We can highly recommend Norwegian Air, Dreamliner planes, and option to bid to upgrade from economy to Premium class and superb service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our flight left Barcelona airport on time on the 16th October 2019 and flew through the afternoon, arriving in New York at 9pm, to a blustery and wet evening! We finally returned on the 12th November, heavier, wiser, happier, more knowledgeable and much much lighter in pocket!! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This blog is mainly pictures with a short write up about each stop during our trip, we experienced so much that it would take months to write about! We hope you enjoy the pictures, as much as we enjoyed taking them!! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our route over October and November 2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

New York, New York – so good they named it twice!!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We arrived in New York’s Newark airport on a wet windy evening and got into a taxi to our Hotel in Newark just a few miles away.  Newark is opposite the island of New York so we negotiated the numerous transport options each day and made it to Times Square on one day, and \u201cDowntown\u201d another day.  To us Europeans or Brits, Downtown is an area outside the City, in America Downtown is the City! We left Penn Station Newark and arrived at Penn Station NY!  Confused?  Yes, we were too! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Standing\nopposite Macy\u2019s store one day (the store takes up a whole block) Mike and David\nnegotiated a 3 day pass on a tourist bus, a brilliant idea when we realised how\nBIG New York is!!  We thought we would\njust wander up to Central Park, head down to the financial district, sail down\nthe Hudson River or trot over Brooklyn Bridge to Brooklyn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah!!\u00a0 Right!!\u00a0 A block takes several minutes to walk and take into account stopping and turning to check out and watch every ambulance, fire engine and police car crawling past, getting neck ache from looking up at all the immensely tall buildings, and the sights, smells and sounds that invade and overload all the senses, walking just half a mile took well over an hour!! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bus\nride took us one route \u201cUptown\u201d, through the theatre district, up the edge of\nCentral Park, through the posh Washington Heights, through dodgy Harlem, and\nback down Museum Mile, passing the American Guggenheim, Central Park zoo ,\nCarnegie Hall and Times Square! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Route 2 was\n\u201cDowntown\u201d, Times Square, Rockerfeller Centre, Macys, Empire State Building,\nFlatiron Building, Soho, Little Italy, China Town, Canal Street, City Hall,\nGarment District, Meat Packing District, Chelsea and the port of New York. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Route 3 was\na mix of the above plus areas like Upper West Side, the Bronx, East Harlem and\nMidtown.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We crossed\nthe Hudson River one evening just as sun was setting, to tour around the Statue\nof Liberty and saw New Jersey and Brooklyn in the background on the horizon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We visited all the usual tourist buildings \u2013 we had to!\u00a0 We gawped at the size of Macy\u2019s and Bloomingdales (didn\u2019t actually have time to go into them), went up the viewing platform on floor 89 of the Empire State building, paid an emotional visit to the eerily quiet 9\/11 monuments, went to Madison Square Gardens to see if anything was on (it wasn\u2019t) and marveled at Broadway, attending a matinee showing of Phantom of the Opera at the Majestic Theatre. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We saw some\nvery strange things – hot dog stalls on every street corner and steam vents in\nthe roads (as you see in the films), a group of about 150 stake boarders\nsnaking down a road on a Sunday morning, and every nationality you could ever\nimagine wearing all sorts of different types and styles of clothes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how would I describe New York?  Its clean, friendly, noisy, unruffled, happy, busy, easy going, beautiful, eerie, fashionable, structured, and amazing!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n