Day 22 and 23 - New York to Durham

Day 22 – New York to London to Durham

Today has been a loooooong day.

Smiti had to do some work at 9am, so we got up about 8 o’clock.

Honestly, we were shattered from such a long action packed day yesterday. We took our time to get ready and we’d started to put everything together to go back into our suitcases.

Bags packed, how will we get through the airport with these?!?

Taxi to Airport, went through Brooklyn. Quite intersting but traffic was really bad. Went passed new stadium.

The last photo of the holiday!

Security took a little while to get through.

Flight was delayed.

Busy for take off.

Night flight was very boring. Stayed up for whole flight.

Arrived in London, cold frosty morning.

Bags arrived amazingly ok, went through customs and immigration ok.

Arrived at about 8am, went to Pret A Manger to kill time.

Got tube to Kings Cross. crowded in central london but ok.

Killed more time in Kings Cross first class lounge, about another 2 horus until our train left at 13:30.

First class travel was ok.

Arrived in Durham and Eddie picked us up.

Day 21 - New York

Day 20 - Washington DC to New York

We got up and headed for the Paul bakery which was just around the corner to pick up breakfast. We tried to use the subway to get the to station but after asking a really unhelpful attendant we just went back to the street and hailed a cab.

The train was on time, and it was still really grey and wet.

From top left, clockwise, boardining train and Union Station, breakfast on train, inside carriage and view from window

We got back and went back to the apartment.

ghkghu

Day 19 - Washington DC

Day 19 – Washington

Predictably we had another slow start to the day. We were both quite tired after doing so much yesterday.

The weather was had turned terrible after being totally amazing the day before. It was wet and cold today. It was promising to clear later in the day so I had booked us onto a tour for the evening. In the intervening team we decided to look at a few of the museums in the afternoon, then take an early dinner before going on the tour.

Washington DC street

We went down to the American History Museum which was the closests. We actually spent quite a long time here and were quite interested to look at the exhibits detailing the modern history of American culture, but also some of the exhibits on the fight for independence and civil war. It was quite a new museum and was actually one of the better ones I thought that we have been to. The exhibits were nicely written with sufficient details, and there was plenty to look at in terms of displays, models, diagrams and articles.

One of the Smithsonian museums

By the time we had gone round most of the museum, oncluded the star spankgled banner, we went back to the hotel to have a quick rest and then go out for dinner.

The lady we had met the previous evening had recommended a restaurant around the corner called the Old Ebbitt Grill. It was on the next block, so took about a minute to walk to! We were seated immediately in a booth by the window. I was struck by home busy the place was for 4pm in the evening, with most tables full and a bustling type of atmosphere.

 

Old Ebbitt Grill

The menu had a lot of variety and was reasonably priced so we decided to go for three courses. I had a chilli with melted cheese to start. We shared a chocolate cake for dessert. We were so stuffed we had a quick lie down before hauling ourselves back out to goto the tour bus which was about 5 blocks away.

Unfortunately it was still raining by the time we needed to leave for the tour, but not too heavy, although Kathryn got wet feet fairly quickly! We found the little white bus sitting where it should have been and boarded. There was about 8 people in total. We met our tour guide Dwayne for the evening and he was really enthusiastic and friendly.

Inside of tour bus!

After a brief introduction from everyone in the group about where they were from and what we wanted to see, we set off for the Capitol building straight away. Dwayne said he had arranged for the rain, the alternative was snow which was not good for the bus wheels, and he said that it would mean there wouldn’t be anyone else around. I suppose he was right about that. The first stop we got to go out of the bus and get a quick photo of the Capitol building.

Capital building with scaffolding

We then went round the various monuments and I had a lot of practice at night photography! Thankfully my little camera wasn't too bad. We learnt quite a bit as Dwayne was really knowledgeable. Unfortunately in the latter stages Kathryn's feet (as were mine) were totally soaked so she didn't get out at the last couple of stops. On the positive side, we had the monuments totally to ourselves, and they did look spectacular at night so it was a real treat for us.

Above are all shots of the World War 2 memorial

 Above are all of the Lincoln memorial

Final shot of the wet streets

Day 18 New York to Washington DC

Distance travelled: 226 miles by train, subway 5 miles, taxi 2 miles, 3 miles by foot 

Just a pre-warning, this post is extremely photo heavy, but I definately took some of the best photos of the holiday so I hope you enjoy looking at them!

We had another early start today to get the train to DC.

Thankfully Smiti was on hand to wake us up at 7:00am. I’ve been finding since we’ve been a way for so long, we don’t really have any routine to keep us going to sleep and waking up at the same time and eating at different times. I think this has caused me to get quite fatigued and getting up has been quite difficult. We packed the backpack again, although this time there was hardly anything at all in it.

We left about 8am, stopped by the deli to get some bagels for lunch. We rode the subway to Penn station. This time we knew exactly where to go so we were quite quick. We sat in the waiting area this time. The train was late by about 20 minutes. It was really hot (and a bit smelly) as the weather had turned much warmer (I’ll expand on that later!).

The train eventually boarded about 11:30. There was a big scrum of people going down the escalator to the platform. We walked a fair bit down the platform before getting on the train. Amazngly, despite the train being fully booked, we walked a bit down the carriage and found a double seat that was free, and also on the left side as Smiti had advised us to get the best views on the train.

For the first time in a few days the sun was actually out! We passed out of Manhattan underground, but got to see a bit of skyline from New Jersey. It wasn’t as good as the Boston trip.

Views from the train; New York (top left), New Jersey shore (top right), Philadelphia skyline (bottom left) and breakfast (bottom right)

Kathryn slept for most of the journey, we were both pretty tired. I caught up with some of my blog posts. The wi-fi wasn’t really working due to the amount of people on the train. The most interesting thing was probably going through Baltimore due to being big fans of The Wire.

Passing through Baltimore (left) and interior of Washington DC Union Station (right)

Wreath hanging from main arch of Union Station

We pulled up into DC about 1pm. The station was probably the most noteworthy of our travels on Amtrak. We walked outside and were able to get a taxi relatively quickly. Our first impressions were really affected by how good the weather was. The forecast was not good, but somehow the weather was still good as we drove down to the hotel.

Washington immediately seemed the nicest city we have visited, although a lot of it seemed very new still. I suppose the fact it was about mid-teens Celsius and sunny. The avenues are very wide, usually 6 lanes, and there was lots of trees (without any leaves though).

Street view of front of the W Hotel that we were staying at

The taxi pulled up and the doorman helped us into the lobby. The woman at the check-in desk was  very friendly and helpful. Unfortunately for us she said there was no larger rooms available to upgrade to. She did give us a voucher for some cocktails (I’ll ome back to this later too!). As the weather was much better than expected, we just elft our bags and headed out straight away.

Lobby of hotel (spot the Christmas tree!)

I was impressed with the hotel Kathryn had chose because the location was excellent. It was just one block away from the White House, so immediately we walked over there to look at that. They were preparing lots of scaffolding and gantries for the Christmas Light switch on which was due to happen on Thursday. As you would predict, the White House is quite small and unassuming.

View from the White House from the south across the south lawn

We looked at that and then headed over to the Washington monument. It was quite a walk, probably about 20 minutes. We were walking slowly as it was so warm, I even took my jumper off!

The monument looked very impressive up close. We were so lucky the weather was so nice as it definitely made things look better. We then turned and went over to the World War II Memorial followed by the Lincoln memorial.

Washington Monument (left) and William Tecumseh Sherman Monument (right)

Washington Monument (obviously)

View of White House from behind Constitution Avenue

Kathryn sitting on wall in front of Washington Monument (left) and the Monument up close (right)

Warm sunshine in December!

Kathryn in front of World War 2 Memorial

Views of World War 2 Memorial

View of Lincoln Memorial (top left), ducks swimming on the reflecting pond (top right) and view of Washington Memorial in reflecting pond (underneath)

I've purposely omitted the photos from inside the Lincoln Memorial as I'll post the photos on the post for tomorrow. We stopped for a quick drink at a souvenier shop.  I was thinking how great a refreshing a nice cup of tea would be, forgetting that the tea is terrible, and really I should have known that and brought my own tea bags. I’ll know for next time.

Steps leading up to Lincoln Memorial (left) and tourists along the National Mall (right)

We wondered back to the hotel and as it looked like a nice evening, we headed up to the rooftop bar to have our cocktails. I must admit, we were definitely blown away by the rooftop bar. We had tried to judge from our walk around where the bar was and what it might overlook. Only being one block from The White House, and taller than the treasury building in between, you can figure out that the view was spectactular. Definitely one of the highlights of the honeymoon for me.

Welcome present in our room

The cocktail I had, a mixtures of rum, brandy and ginger was quiet firy and refreshing too! It’s a shame the photos didn’t quite come out that well. We didn’t actually see the sun setting on the horizon, but the sky was filled with spectacular colours that provided a unique backdrop to the famous skyline. It's a shame I didn't get a photo of the bar, but there was a bench along the outer edge allowing you to sit on some tall bar stools and look out onto the city.

View of the White House from rooftop bar at The W Hotel

Same view with cocktails!

Canopy over rooftop bar and restaurant 

View of monument from rooftop

We got chatting to a lady siting beside us who was visiting from Arizona. Unfortunately just as the sun was setting a huge rain shower came in and pretty much ended our rooftop experience. They had to to bring down the canopy to keep the water out.

We decided to go to dinner at a mexican restaurant around the corner. We had an amazing time and possibly the best service on the whole honeymoon. Our lovely waiter gave us so much attention and we got two lots of free champagne, the first from the restaurant, and the second from an anonymous employee from the hotel who had come in for a drink after work and spotted us.

The food was exceptional and we had extra of everything!

Me enjoying my free champagne and paella dish

After dinner we were so stuffed that we just went back to our room and watched a film on Netflix (it was Home Alone 2).