Day 6 - New York to Boston

Distance travelled today: 250 miles

We got up and again we were repacking our bags, this time for Boston. It was the first time too that we were able to use my new rucksack which is great, although it was incredibly heavy once we got all our stuff in. There is a few gifts for my cousin’s family so it will be lighter on the way back!

We had to make a short trip up to Penn Station to get the train to Boston. The station is a bit different, it is split into several different sections, but we were eventually able to find the regional section. It's a bit like an airport, but Smiti had warned us, that you have to wait by the departures board until the platform is announced. We were getting nervous as it was about 5 minutes beforehand, but at least we knew everyone there was in the same position. When it was announced, it was a short walk and we boarded the train straight away.

Departure board at Penn Station

I was asking Kathryn the other day about where to go for a good view of the skyline of Manhattan, but we were surprised when we got a free one from the window of the train as we left NYC. As you can see, the weather continues to be very good!

Manhattan skyline

On train, it’s quite old but very well presented and clean. There are a few cultural differences to the UK. For instance, you cannot stand in the vestivals, in fact, you can actually see the flor moving through the gaps so I can see why that is. The conductor is really nice and puts a little flag above your seat to say hes checked your ticket. Then comes around reminding people when it is their stop next. Also, all the seating is faced in the direction of travel.

Not such a great photo, I'll try and take a better one on the way back

Once we arrived, we headed straight to the Skywalk at the Prudential Centre that I had visited last time I was in Boston 10 years ago. It was quite an easy walk from the station, and was mainly indoors so we avoided the cold. The sun was setting so we had some really nice views of the city.

Views from the Skywalk observation deck at the Prudential Centre.

We had to wait a little while to collect the car from the airport. So we headed to dinner at a pizza restaurant. We headed over to the Airport at about 7pm. We got the local subway which was fairly quick, and then there was a little shuttle bus that connects the various building at the airport which took us straight to the car rental centre. The rental centre was basically a large multi-story car park with a concourse where the desks where for each company.

We went up to the Dollar desk who I had booked the car with through an English website (www.usrentacar.co.uk). I had read that if you book it through an English website then it includes all the relevant insurances that you need. I was pleased that I had done some research as the guy tried to sell us some additional things that it turned out we didn't need. He said that we needed an electronic tag for the windscreen to go through the toll booths or we might get funded. In fact, later we found all toll booths had cash lanes, if you were just careful that you went in the right lane. There was a foreign guy next to us at the desk who they were selling all sorts of stuff too!

Everything checked out ok and we made our way to collect the car. There was a lady who informed us that all the cars have keys, so we could just take whichever one we wanted from the "Compact" area. We decided on this little red number (something bright so people wouldn't crash into me!). It was actually fairly generous compared to the rental car we had from Exeter for my brothers wedding.

An American "compact", our Chevrolet Sonic LT!

Once I started the car, it was pretty easy to drive. I pulled carefully up to the booth where a guy scanned a barcode on the car and raised the barrier that allowed us to leave.

I don’t want to dwell on it too much, but the drive from the airport to Jo and Mike’s house was one of the worst experiences of my life. Hardly something you want to say on your honeymoon! We had hired a sat-nav which was in honesty quite helpful, but it was more a lack of understanding of the road system that caused the issues. Basically, whilst I was trying to keep to the inside and out of trouble, it turns out that in the interstate roads (sort of like a motorway), the inside line frequently becomes the off-ramp/slip road and leaves the carriageway. Although the drive from the airport to Jo and Mike's should have been very straight forward, down the motorway and then a few smaller roads, about 30 miles in all, because we left the interstate a couple of times, we had to negotiate the Boston city centre as well as trying to get back on the interstate, whilst going through tolls, etc. which turned out to be a pretty horrible experience. Kathryn also had a terrible cluster headache, but she did really well to help direct me and get the money ready for the tolls!

Thankfully, eventually we made it out of the city, and the sat-nav directed us straight to Jo and Mike's, we eventually pulled up unharmed about 8pm. Jo and Mike we very welcoming, we had a lovely guest room to stay in with en-suite, and a very comfortable bed, so this immediately help us relax from the ordeal!