New York

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Saturday 17^th December

It got better! Because the flight from San Diego to LA was delayed they had to change our flight from LA to New York to a later flight.......and guess what....we were upgraded to Business Class! Not quite as good as the beds we had on our first flight but a lot of room to spread out, free glass of wine etc. It was only a 5hr flight and we needed sleep so missed out on the food!

Arrived in New York 7.30am ish......and bad news! Chris’ case was missing! It turned out that it had been left behind in LA and should be in NY by 4.30pm..... Its 8.00pm now and suitcase is still missing although we understand it is now in NY waiting to be delivered to our hotel ( Hotel St James, 45^th St)

Anyway, after taking the shuttle bus to our hotel and checking in, we had brunch and a stroll around Times Square – just up a block – and joined a queue to get ½ price tickets for the matinee of Chicago!

Wandered up, with thousands of other tourists to Rockefeller Centre to see the xmas decorations and the huge xmas tree and ice-rink before making our way back to the Ambassador Theatre for the show which was excellent! An easy to follow musical with some good songs, an easy story and a few laughs as well as some wonderful dancing and choreography! It seemed a very fitting end to our Round the World trip which seems to be coming rapidly to its end now!

It was about 5.00pm by now so braved the hoards of people to have a look at the Rockefeller Centre at night. The police had tried to control the crowds by fencing off the tree but people were spilling all over the streets and mixing with the traffic by now – a bit too crowded for my liking, so we made our way, slowly, back to Times Square and the Hotel and had a brilliant meal in the Irish bar just three doors away!

Back to the hotel for catch up on the blog and an early night (Chris asleep already!)

Sunday 18^th December

Definitely on a bit of a wind-down now and didn’t get up until 9.00am! Walked from hotel down to Penn Station on 34^th St in freezing cold weather and caught the Long Island Rail Train to Huntingdon where Phil and Billie were going to pick us up! Went back to the house in Northport and had lunch before sitting down for the afternoon and catching up with all their news.

Mark arrived at about 4.30pm and we all sat down to a lovely birthday meal (it was Billies 82^nd birthday!!) that Billie had cooked. Really nice evening chatting and drinking (just a little!) and chatting to my sister on Skype before an early night!

Monday 19^th December

Got up fairly early and after doing a few odd jobs for Billie sat down and caught up on the newspapers and chatted with Phil whilst Billie went for her swim aerobics. She said that I could go with her but I was afraid she would show me up!!

We then all went out for lunch in a lovely little cafe in Northport and then drove back to the house. Jonathon was putting up the Christmas tree lights outside and after he had finished, we all stood around chatting in the kitchen whilst Billie cooked another of her delicious meals for dinner. I managed to get Laura on Skype so she was able to join in the conversation and chat to Phil and Billie as well!

Sat down after dinner and showed them the photos of our trip before retiring to bed.

Tuesday 20^th December

Our last day! Decided we needed to stretch our legs before the flight home so walked the couple of miles into Northport Village and along the waterfront! It really is a pretty little village with old wooden buildings with Christmas trees outside and all the old shop windows decorated for Christmas. Couldn’t resist a bit of Xmas shopping, and happily wandered around inside the quaint shops! Walked back to the house and was met by Billie in the car half way along the road! She was coming to look for us, as Phil was worried we might have got too cold or got lost!

Walked around the garden with Billie to collect some greenery for Xmas and got a good armful of ivy and holly with berries that we then used to decorate the mantelpiece. Looked very nice and Christmassy! Had a quick sandwich and then it was time to say our goodbyes and go to the station. Jonathon had kindly offered to drive us back to Huntingdon as he was going to work, so we had company on the train as well and bored him (hopefully not too much!!) with photos of our trip!

Got off at Jamaica Station and then caught the Air Train to JFK Airport where we waited for our 19.30pm to London Heathrow. Boarded on time and after a 6hr flight and a 5hr time difference arrived in UK at 07.00am pretty knackered! Took the tube to Victoria and Megabus back to Bristol............and our travels for this year are now over!!

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