The Shopping Can Wait Until We Get to New York

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It was an early evening flight, so most of today was the usual routine of commuting and work, albeit leaving early to get home, load the car and get to the airport. I'll spare a detailed account of the trip as it wasn't very eventful, which is obviously a good thing, just the usual:


• No problems on the M25, so we arrived excessively early and the bag-drop wasn't even open. Better safe than sorry as that motorway has come close to ruining more than one holliday.
• A quick moan about bag-drop as it takes as long as check-in, so why bother with then online check-in? (Oh, and British Airways, your iPhone app does not work by the way!!)
• A quick moan about the shops are Terminal 5 as not everyone is travelling first class and looking for Gucci clothes and Rolex watches to buy, and Champaign and caviar to drink and eat.
• After some pie and chips, washed down with a pint, our flight left on time.
• Got through three movies.
• The plane spent so long taxiing in New York that we were starting to wonder if it had gone to the wrong airport and was completing the journey by land.


As per usual, the queue at US immigration was long, but, unusually, it seemed to move quite quickly, so we hadn't lost the will to live by the time we got through.

We got a taxi to our hotel. As there were four of us, I sat in the front of the taxi with the driver. Despite what you expect from a New York taxi driver he was the least talkative taxi driver I had come across, which suited me as it was the equivalent of 2.00am and I wasn't up for making conversation either.

The drive through Queens was extremely fast, but as soon as we went through the tunnel into Manhattan, it was gridlock.

We got the hotel and were badly in need of some fresh air, so we went for a short walk round the block. The block actually included Times Square, which was all very happening at this time on a Friday night.

Our hotel room was supposed to be non-smoking, but going by the smell, it clearly wasn't. Thankfully there was another room available for us to move to. It was on the second floor however (or what would be the first floor in the UK), so all night we could hear the police sirens, car horns and fire trucks, who clearly do not let the fact that it is 3.00am stop them letting everyone know they are there.

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Photos

Times Square
Times Square at night.