Day 182 to 192 Cape Cod, Jaws and the Big Apple

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We head out of Pennsylvania into New Jersey towards Cape Cod for 6 nights of rest and recuperation, before hitting New York, our last stop before going home. I had hoped to avoid the city on our drive to this coastal region, but the route took me on the fringes, we could see the NY skyline from the New Jersey turnpike from our car. With the satnav working overtime, ‘……take the left lane, then keep right for the New Jersey Turnpike then keep left, keep left, then right lane over the George Washington Bridge…..’ fortunately, Alison was eagerly being a second pair of eyes on the satnav so as not to be going down the wrong highway or interstate.

After a long drive we arrive at Cape Cod, a popular holiday and second home destination on a peninsular that resembles someone flexing their arm. It has attracted film stars and Presidents to holiday here, with its white beaches, charming weather-boarded houses as well as some of the best seafood around.

We spend the next few days exploring the area, the lovely towns like Chatham, Provincetown, Sandwich. One of the beaches we visited was used by Marconi to send the first Trans-Atlantic radio message to Cornwall, and is named after him. The sea was very cold, but the weather glorious. We did swim but were warned not to swim near seals as they are common prey to the Great White Sharks that frequent the area, but nobody told the seals they weren’t to swim near us! One frustration with the area was the exclusive nature of access to the beaches much of the coastline has been sold off to private ownership, and the residents have their own beaches. Luckily the top end of Cape Cod is National Park so we were able to use our pass and get to the beautiful beaches there.

One excursion we made was to Martha’s Vineyard an exclusive island whose main claim to fame was that it was used as location for the Jaws film. As I stated, there are sharks around here, they even closed a couple of beaches while we were there because of sightings. At Martha’s Vineyard we took a bus tour, which would have been great if it wasn’t for the monotone narration of the tour guide. Still it gave us a good look at island and houses. The island has only 2500 permanent residents, but with the holiday homes can expand to 17000 in the summer. I’m a big fan of James Taylor, the musician, and he has his home here. The ferry ride was also welcome, good to get a different view of the coast.

One of the things on our tick list was to visit a drive-in movie. We thought we’d missed the opportunity as we were nearing the end of our trip, but in the village of Wellfleet is an original 1958 one, still with speakers you attach to the car (a modern twist is you can tune your FM radio to a local signal and have full stereo). You can load up with food and popcorn to take back to your car. It even shows old adverts for refreshments and announcements to give that 50’s drive-in vibe. We watched 2 of the latest movies back to back for 10 dollars-a bargain!

We head off to Plymouth, where some of the earliest English settled. They were meant to arrive further south in New York but arranged a compact so they could settle here. We went aboard a replica of the Mayflower the ship that brought these original passengers, not sure if it was worth the admission but it was good to see where the early travellers settled.

Cape Cod speciality food is the lobster roll, we did try this although it was extremely expensive (we are on a budget you know!), we also found McDonalds did a version, which was very good.

We leave Cape Cod and travel towards New York. Whaling was a predominant industry along this stretch of coastline. Blubber and whale oil, were extracted and used to keep the US, and the worlds machinery turning. We stopped off at Mystic Seaport, one of the best open air museums in the USA. Apart from many historic houses re-erected here, schools, chapels, grocers, chandlers, etc. They also have various working boats including one of the last whaling ships the Charles Morgan. We were fortunate to have a live demonstration to see how whales were caught. Fortunately, there were no whales at hand to make it realistic, but were told of the Nantucket sleigh ride, where the whale after being harpooned would pull the boat for miles before tiring. The crew would then row back to the mother ship, whale in tow, up to 5 miles! It was a brief but fascinating visit to Mystic Seaport but we needed to drop the hired car to Newark Airport, so we pressed on.

Back to New York, into the maze of roads and intersections that skirt New York including the Jersey Turnpike, and to a motel that we had chosen, just 5 minutes from Newark, the car hire drop off. It was only a little way off the highway and didn’t feel comfortable in the area but we quickly spotted our hotel. It was the first motel/hotel/Inn we ‘d seen on our travels with a security glass at reception. Our concerns quickly turned to laughter, when on entering the generous sized room, we were met with the sight of a huge red heart shaped Jacuzzi for two, surrounded with mirrors! We must have had the bridal suite, Alison said it was hideous.

Next morning dropping off the car was a painless affair, good job we had mileage included, we had knocked up 2800 miles.

A quick train transfer and we were right into New York centre. We had a small but well-appointed apartment close to Central Park. We ticked off all the must see places, first stop Central Park, then Times Square with all its dazzling electronic billboard splendour.

We jumped on the ferry to Liberty island, we didn’t get tickets right to the top, but visited the statues plinth with its accompanying museum that show the history and construction of this copper green statue. We also stopped at Ellis Island and learnt of the experiences of some of the immigrants in the early 1900s. Back on the mainland, walking up towards where the twin towers stood, are two sunken water sculptures in place where the towers once stood, with the names of everyone who died in the 9/11 attacks, a very moving tribute to those people.

Onto Broadway. Similar to London’s Leicester Square there is a TKTS agency where a range of discounted tickets are available. As we had just left Newark in New Jersey what better than to see the Jersey Boys, the rags to riches story of Franki Valli and the Four Seasons. A great musical and no wonder it has been one of the bestselling shows of the last few years.

There is a lot of walking to be done in New York even allowing for their good, if old tube system.

We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, then around the trendy Greenwich Village area. Passing the Café Wha where Bob Dylan, Richard Prior first found fame. Past the buildings used by the tv shows ‘Sex and the City’ and ‘Friends’. Then walked one of New Yorks newest attractions, a couple of miles of disused elevated railway that has been turned into an aerial walkway.

After all this walking, a drink was desperately needed. Twice on our travels, in Singapore, and Shanghai. Instead of going to one of the expensive observation posts, you might find a bar with an equivalent view. Here in New York is the official Rockefeller observation deck costs 37 dollars each, instead five floors below two glasses of wine cost $24, a snip, and you can get a nice chair and take in the sunset!

Before our late 11pm flight out of JFK I did the Big Pancake thing again (didn’t finish it), Alison did the ham and over easy eggs (better option) before exploring Bloomingdales, and running the gauntlet of the over eager perfume assistants. Don’t they realise looking at our attire we just need sun tan lotion and Deet! Then once more around Central Park before putting our nose in the Metropolitan Museum of Art before they kicked us out at closing time.

We had allowed ourselves good time to get to the airport. Most airports have quick links, like Shanghai’s 300kph MAGLEV train. The NY subway to get to the airport took ages and our proposed relaxed meal once in the airport disappeared, as there were few places to eat apart from some kiosks and nowhere to sit, with panini costing £9, no thanks. Fortunately, although we were on a no frills (meaning no eats,) thanks to STA , our agency who booked our worldwide flights, we were one of the few on board with an hot in-flight meal, happy days.

We head back across the Atlantic almost completing our circumnavigation with a mixture of feelings, on one hand wanting to stop and see friends and family. On the other hand, there’s still places left to see. (Canada would have made a good next destination).

These last 6 months have been a blast, not always easy. Apart from two errors of judgement, the 22hr bus from Hoi An to Saigon, and wasting money by not pre-booking car hire and train in good time on our second month in the USA. We have been pleasantly surprised how smoothly things have gone, and is exactly how we envisaged the journey. We did think we would have more downtime though. We even had a Ukulele and Harmonica to master on our way round, but alas it wasn’t to be. Would we do it again? Like a shot, but there are other places to go. It’s time to lay down a few roots, and reflect on this trip, and perhaps, just perhaps, look at that spinning globe again….

Ali & Kim

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Photos

Cap Cod Lighthouse and Coastguard boat
One of many lighthouses

Marconi Beach
sight of first transatlantic radio transmission

Beach Notice
notice the message at bottom of sign

Shark exhibit
don't worry its not a real shark